The World of Computer Software

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The World of Computer Software / World_Of_Computer_Software-02-387-Vol-3of3.iso / c / comv31.zip / INSTALL.EXE / INTRO.TXT < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-03-13 | 33KB | 694 lines

C O M C A L L V E R 3 . 1 INTRODUCTION FOR AN INITIAL OVERVIEW OF THE COMCALL PACKAGE - READ THE FILE *** README.1ST *** CONTENTS LICENCE REGISTRATION\SUPPORT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS HISTORY FILES USAGE ************************************************************************** 1. COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE. COPYRIGHT (C) 1991-1993 Clive Jones (address)xxxx ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COMCALL is distributed under the SHAREWARE principles. The Author reserves all COPYRIGHTS (C) to the programs and associated documentation. In using this program you agree to the terms that NO LIABILITY OF ANY KIND EITHER THROUGH DIRECT USAGE OR INDIRECT USAGE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PACKAGE OR FAILURE IN THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE AS DESCRIBED WILL BE PAYABLE OR DUE BY THE AUTHOR. You are granted a limited licence to use this program for a limited period of 30 days for evaluation purposes only. If you intend to use this program beyond the trial period you are requested to register your copy. Registered copies will receive postal\Email support (telephone support provided where possible) and upgrade options as and when available. Failure to register your copy may result in further development into this and other packages not being under taken by the author as a result of financial restraints. Don't be a contributory factor to the demise of SHAREWARE. Assist the authors who have spent considerable time and effort by registering your SHAREWARE packages. Reverse engineering and/or modification to the Comcall code or documentation is prohibited. **************************************************************************** 2. REGISTRATION CONTACT POINTS:- If you find this package to be of some use and would like to continue to use it beyond the evaluation period of 30 days then remit your payment and details directly to the authors mail collection point at the following address. All cheques/PO etc should be made payable to C Jones. Do not forget to forward details as to your return address and your preferred disk size/format. AUTHOR. UK - 24 Pounds Sterling or 39 US Dollars :- (UK/US Cheques/Postal Orders Only - sorry on charge cards) POSTAL COMCALL 111 Deer Park Gardens Mitcham Surrey ENGLAND CR4 4DX (Sorry, no personal callers) EMAIL Compuserve : 100014,3141 CIX : cgjones@cix.compulink.co.uk Fido Netmail: The Author regularly logs into ARKHAM BBS as a FIDONET point. Fido Netmail Messages Should be Addressed to 2/252/151.3 Arkham BBS is available on 44-71-738-5596 NOTE : Compuserve members may now register directly on line and make direct payment. Simply access COMPUSERVE and GO SWREG. Comcall is registered as COMV31.EXE and may be found in IBMSYS Lib 7 (Desktop Utils). AGENTS. Alternatively, Comcall may be registered via one of International Agents at the following points:- USA - 39 US Dollars G. M. Debus 2021 Tiffany Lane Jonesboro Ga 30236 USA EMAIL Compuserve: 70733,3466 USA - 39 US Dollars Steve Sisson West Virginia MicroSystems 8127, Sissonville Dr Sissonville WV 25320 USA EMAIL Compuserve: 76420,143 France\Belgium - 195 Francs Ian Culpin Strider Tech BP 46 B-1332 Rixensart Belgium EMAIL Compuserve: 100037,357 Registrations may also be accepted via one of the Shareware Houses that we are currently registered with, most of whom accept credit cards. Registration entitles you to continue to use the Comcall package beyond the trial period together with support of the package (postal/electronic mail plus telephone where possible). As a registered user you will also be advised of upgrades as and when they become available. Two types of registrations are possible and are now described. The current registrational contribution is 24 UK Pounds Sterling or 39.00 US Dollars. This entitles you to a continuation in a single licence beyond the 30 day trial period and package support together with automatic registration for the next available version as and when this becomes available. (Don't forget to state your disk size/format and forwarding address). Registration also provides you with the option to purchase the various hardware options as outlined within the Comcall manual on a cost only basis (zero profit). We regret that we are unable to support versions beyond that of the current and immediately proceeding versions. There are numerous methods of payment as shown above. For example we can directly accept cheques, postal orders or cash in UK pounds Sterling, US dollars or French Francs (sorry as of yet we cannot accept Mastercard/Visa directly). If you wish to pay be charge card then you can use either Compuserve or one of the Shareware registration agencies who have the Comcall package on their books. COMCALL.EXE source code and rights are available for sale. - Contact the author for further details. International distribution/support agents required. Want to help us to distribute and support the Comcall package? then contact the author. Agents receive a percentage of all registrations received via their contact point. ENHANCEMENTS. Upon proof of sufficient interest in the program (e.g. registrations/enquiries) then the author pledges to provide further releases of Comcall. Your registration contributions will ensure that such improvements see the light of day. Such later releases may only be available to currently registered users. SUPPORT CONTACTS Support is currently via messaging (postal/electronic). Telephonic support may be provided where possible and where the cost of such is not bourn by Comcall Inc. Contact may be established in a number of ways at one of the address or points listed above. Please attempt to clearly state any problems or difficulties that you may be experiencing in any correspondence. ****************************************************************************** 3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to all the currently registered users for your financial support in helping to keep the Comcall package alive. My appreciation also goes out to all of you who have written in with ideas suggestions and tips. Your letters have helped me revitalise my enthusiasm in times when this may have been failing. My personal gratitude goes out to those who aid in the distribution of the Comcall package. We acknowledge all current and future trademarks that might be used within this documentation. ****************************************************************************** 4. HISTORY Dec 1989. Initial Development Started. Aug 1990. B 0.1 Released. Feb 1991. B 0.2 Released. Aug 1991. B 0.3 Released. Dec 1991. Version 1 Released. April 1992. Version 2 Released. Modem Initialisation Modification. Pulse Dialling bug fix - thanks to Kevin Black Log file format modification - thanks to Dave Woolcock User definable delays/modem initialisation added. Key entry screen modified to delayed entry for auto recall Thanks to Dave Hickman (CA, USA). General minor changes. Configuration options added. Browse log option added. Delay tone toggle added. Delay time from real time and not machine specific. August 1992. Version 3. Moved from command line to prompted initialisation. Dual Trigger Conditions Added. Time display. Colour Options Warning Tone on/off Options Ringback string definition. Auto Delay Entry modification. Batch file option added. Browse manual option added. Busy tone retries level option added. Reboot option (TSR) September 1992. B.3.1 betta. Bug fix to T advise call option (Thanks Larry for your Canadian patience). Reboot utilities added to aid batch control. Multiple recall function added to EXECITAT and COMBOOT. Improved interface. Online manual option added. Jump to config option added. Remote electrical switching options added. Partial Windows Multi-Tasking Environment Support Added. X Trigger option mods. March 1993. Version 3.1 Released. Planned/Under Investigation:- Remote Remote Option. To remotely control a remote control device (e.g. VCR/TV/Radio/Garage Doors etc) using your PC and Modem or telephone and answerphone. We will describe later how we have already managed to partially achieve this in another section. Improved Multi-Tasking environment interface (Mouse/Windows). Some enquiries have been received as to whether it is possible to move Comcall to a background mode of operation. With the current evolution of Windows and the growing numbers of 386 based machines around, the ability to use Comcall from within Windows would appear the best suited way for this to be realised. Comcall already appears to function reasonably well as a background task within Windows. We will endeavour to improve the interface of Comcall within such an environment over future releases. Additional Functionality for terminal. Host mode option to improve electrical device switching from remote locations. Comments and suggestions from those of you who might utilise the latest P/S/C Switches would be appreciated. Additional options for Tone Switching electrical devices (described later in another section). ---------------------- CURRENT VERSION ---------------------- Comcall is continuously under further development. We appreciate comments and views with regard to possible improvements to the package. If you do find any errors or have any constructive ideas then drop us a line. The author has put in considerable effort and time in developing Comcall. Its nice to know whether his endeavours are being appreciated. ------------------------------------ U N D E R D E V E L O P M E N T ------------------------------------ Unless you register for the current version of COMCALL, you may miss out on future developments. Currently Comcall is entering an exciting phase. Soon we hope to be bringing you a package that will be unique in its field. A package that will offer new meaning to the term 'remote control'. Operating over a single telephone line that may be shared with normal voice and answer phone set ups, you will be able to remotely control your video, stereo, TV, curtains, lights, garage doors etc, even to turn your PC and Modem on/off. If you are registered with Comcall, then you will be automatically advised of when such options become available. All this in addition to Comcalls existing functionality. The next release of Comcall, may be released via Commercial methods (buy before you use) or via Shareware distribution. However, for all users registered under the current upgradable version, the next release will be offered as per the current terms. ******************************************************************************* 5. FILES The Comcall package contains the following files:- INSTALL.EXE COMCALL.EXE COMDO.COM EXECITAT.EXE CHKBOOT.EXE COMBOOT.EXE STOPBOOT.EXE AT_SET.TXT INTRO.TXT INSTALL.TXT RUNNING.TXT ADDS.TXT COMMAN.EXE READMAN.EXE WINDOW.TXT README.1ST They are distributed within a single self extracting archive file. If you received any additional files within the package then we suggest that you do not use that version (we'd appreciate any advise as to where you might have obtained such a version). Once Comcall has been installed and ran at least once, then three additional files will be automatically created:- CALLRING.DTL - a log file containing ring/action details COMCC.DTL - a Comcall configuration file. COMVALS.DTL - holds default values for the comcall session The Comcalls manual may be directly viewed from within Comcall. The Manual is indexed into a number of text files for ease of reference. If you wish to obtain a hard copy version or parts of all of the manual then this may be achieved by printing the relevant .TXT file to your local printer. For cross reference, the .TXT file names for each of the manuals sections are as follows:- Introduction INTRO.TXT Installation INSTALL.TXT Running RUNNING.TXT Utilities ADDS.TXT Comcall and Windows WINDOW.TXT The online manual reader uses the following control keys :- Up-Arrow - Line Up Down-Arrow - Line Down Page-Up - Scroll Page up one page Page-Down - Scroll Page down one page HOME - Jump to top of section END - Jump to end of section. ESC - QUIT ***************************************************************************** 6. USAGE If you have a telephone, a Hayes command set modem and an IBM or compatible with 512 Kbytes of memory that is running under DOS 3.0 or higher, then COMCALL may be of use. COMCALL is a package that contains a number of utilities. It is designed to monitor your phone line in your absence. It will either call you at ANY other phone location that may be directly dialled to advise you when a pre-defined trigger is met, or execute a command to start some alternative action. Alternatively Comcall will simply monitor and log any incoming calls such as when you are using an answerphone with no call time logger. Comcall is constantly under further development. The next version is intended to add even greater flexibility in Comcalls usage. The latest version now includes additional options that will enable you to control electrical devices from a remote location. Comcall Version 3.1 is distributed as a fully functioning version. Version 3.1 introduced the additional Switching options. Such as the ability to switch electrical devices from a remote location, with the telephone line used to perform such switch request monitoring being shared with normal voice/answerphone calls. Alternatively you may simply switch electrical devices locally using simple commands. Additional hardware is required to be added to your home based system (or the system where you wish the electrical switching to occur). Currently, three separate hardware options have been added to perform such switching. We call these the P/S/C Switches and their usage is outlined within the Additionals and Installation sections of the Comcall manual. Due to COMCALLs flexibility, the setting up and running of a COMCALL session may, in the first instance, appear a little daunting. Don't worry. Persist in reading the manual and checking the set-up. After a little while you'll come to grasp just how simple it can be to set up powerful actions and commands. The Comcall package basically consists of a number of separate commands\utilities that may be linked together in such a way in order to offer truly powerful and flexible options. Start with the main Comcall utility and learn its set up and functionality well before progressing on to include the other utilities. Once you have a firm grasp of COMCALL then start to add in the other utilities to your skill base. In no time at all you'll find your able to set up actions to suite most needs if you follow this simple method of learning the COMCALL package. Some limited knowledge of DOS and BATCH files is assumed throughout this manual and is it also assumed that you have a modem and one form on comms package or another up and running so that you can communicate with other systems. If you are totally unfamiliar with modems, comms, DOS and batch files then may we suggest that you do become a little more proficient in setting up and using these prior to attempting to utilise Comcall. Comcall will work with many telecommunications hardware devices such as existing phones, extensions, answerphones etc. No special hardware is required at the recipient end of the triggered call if a telephone advice action is selected. Any phone that may be DIRECTLY dialled is sufficient. You can even set Comcall to advise you via a tone pager service. For the physical switching options (and future remote/remote control option) some additional hardware is required at the target end. The circuitry involved for the physical switching is relatively basic and the units can be obtained directly from the Comcall author on a zero profit basis. Supply is organised on a strict first come first served basis. (We regret that supply is limited to registered Comcall users only). -------------------------- A C T I O N S For the action options, the trigger condition for COMCALL is a range of counts of incoming rings to your telephone. You define this upon starting COMCALL and is totally variable. Such as one (and only one) ring being received (eg like a RINGBACK set up) or maybe between 2 and 4 rings (your answer phone would have received a message), or maybe all rings eg 1 - 999 (999 being the COMCALL limit). This enables you to trigger actions or commands from a remote location simply by making a suitable telephone call to your base system and hanging up the phone at the required triggering point. Only consecutive rings from one call are counted. If the trigger condition is not met then the ring count will be reset and Comcall will wait for subsequent calls. All incoming rings are logged to a file called CALLRING.DTL for later inspection if required. Useful if you've been out and would like to see how many calls you missed. Comcall may be individually configured to suit your own particular needs and now incorporates a dual trigger condition, so that two ranges of trigger options may be defined in order to perform two separate operations according to which trigger condition was encountered. EXAMPLE USAGES OF COMCALL: 1. You have an answerphone but it does not have a time/date stamp option. You go away for the weekend only to return to a number of messages. When were these messages taken? Providing you had invoked Comcall, then you will be able to see exactly when the messages were left (day and time). You will even be able to see how many calls resulted in messages not being left and when these occurred. 2. A family member may be ill in hospital or your wife may have been taken into maternity as your babies due date nears. You have an answer phone and you have to go out on some urgent business. You are fearful that you may receive that all important call whilst you are out. The answer phone will take the message but you won't know of this until you next return home or until you phone up and interrogate your answer phone next (assuming you have a remote access answer phone). Provided you either have a radio pager or know the telephone number of the person whom you are visiting worry no further. Simply invoke COMCALL to monitor your line, giving it the number of the person whom you are visiting (or the radio pager number). Go on out about your business and if a message comes in, then you will be automatically advised. 3. You are in the office late on a Friday evening. You still haven't met that all important deadline for your project and you really should come in over the weekend to finish that draft overview. But your office is over 30 miles away. For security reasons, you may not be permitted to take floppy disks out of the office and possibly no inward external network access exist into your offices PC system. Your office PC does however have a modem for outgoing data transfer and you have a PC, modem and communications software at home. Simply invoke your copy of COMCALL to trigger after say just one (and only one) ring of your office telephone. When this trigger is met you want it to start your comms package, via a suitable bat file, that has been set to autodial your home phone number. You can then go home in the knowledge that you do not have to drive all the way in to work tomorrow and can work from home. All that is required the next day is for you to call your office phone, hang up after just one ring, set your home PC, Modem and Comms package to autoanswer data mode and then wait for the return call from your office PC. You should be confident that no one else will ring your office phone just once and then hang up. Even if then did it would be of little consequence as you would simple receive a call from your works PC which you could then just hang up on. Provided you have set up the triggering system correctly, your works PC would then resume waiting for another single ring. 4. Away on vacation, you want to be able to control your lights at home remotely. Take your portable PC and modem, and leave your home system set up in Comcall with the relevant lights (or other electrical devices) plugged into the S-Switch device (described later) and you can then call in at will to turn the lights on/off. The same principle could be used in order to turn on your slow cooker from work if so desired. Leaving you to arrive home to a freshly cooked, hot dinner. Alternatively, the C-Switch can be used to perform a similar function to this without the need to have any hardware at the signalling end (e.g. if you don't own a portable PC/Modem). 5. BBS sysops running a single or multiple line system could utilising one of their older slow speed modems and the S-Switch to have a set up whereby they could use their normal voice line to be able to call in and perform a physical power off-on reset of the main BBS's modem from a remote location. This would be ideal for cases when the BBS systems might be hung (in-accessible). Assuming that the BBS was running under a multi-tasker such as DESQVIEW or Windows, a small partition could be allocated in order to have a ring-back set-up similar to that described in 3 above, except that the set up could be made to place a comms program into host mode on the normal voice line so as to enable a subsequent via this line to access via data mode. The 'set data mode' call would be free of charge as no actual connection would be made for this (just a few 'rings'). Ideally, only a small comms package is required for this so as to minimise memory requirements. The system could be set so that you could access the S-Switch via this small comms program upon the return data call, thereby allowing you to request a physical power-off, power-on reset of the main BBS's modems power supply. Usage of the timed reboot programs, EXECITAT or COMBOOT could be utilised between the set-data trigger call and the return data mode call in order to enure that, if a return data call did not occur within a specified time, then the line would be reset back to voice mode. Notice that such a set up would only cost you the price of the one data mode call in order to reset the BBS modem (which could be made from practically anywhere in the world) as the initial trigger (set data mode call) would not actually require a connect (ring range only). Alternatively, you could simply use the Comcall and the S-Switch to monitor for a specific number of rings, that you have defined, to your voice telephone line, with the trigger action being to reset your BBS modem via a power off/on reset. This is however, slightly less secure than the first method described as a normal voice call could come in with the same number of rings as the trigger condition. Or what about using the C-Switch to switch your modem and PC both on and off from a remote location, without the need for any hardware/software at the request initiation end. This would appear more appropriate for sysops of single line BBS systems that were running under a single DOS environment. My set up :- I use Comcall for a number of purpose. Firstly I am on occasions telephoned in the middle of the night with messages that have to be dealt with promptly. My answerphone will take these messages, but, being a sound sleeper, I am seldom awoken by the few rings prior to the answerphone starting. I set Comcall to a ring range count of 1 - 10 (eg any calls prior to the answer-phone answering) and an action of E REM. Additionally I set the delay time to 360 and delay tone on so as to raise an alarm. Any calls that come in during the night therefore raise a PC alarm tone to awaken me. Secondly, as my office is over 15 miles away, I set Comcall to call me with advise of any pending messages that may be left on my home answerphone throughout the day. I utilise my answerphones remote interrogation option to then respond to any important matters. I have on a number of occasions used the power-switching options in order to control a wide range of electrical devices. Ranging from triggering a modem power off power on, remotely in order to reset its switches, to making a remote call in order to record a TV program on my Video recorder. For the later, I used a modified remote controller that was switched using a P-Switch, with its outputs arranged in such a fashion so as to be able to select up to 16 combinations of remote controller keypad values (4 by 4 array using the 8 outputs from the P-Switch). Finally, I use Comcall to allow me to call into my home PC from my office. I only have the one telephone line sharing both the answerphone and modem. To use my home PC I simply set a trigger range of 1-2 rings and an action of X with an error level of 2. This error level is then picked up from within my modified autoexec.bat file in order to start my comms package in host mode and await my return data call. I utilise the re-boot option for this to ensure that I re-call within 5 minutes, otherwise the PC reboots and reloads Comcall via the autoexec.bat file and switches the line back to voice mode. I have personally found this to be invaluable in helping to set up the BBS that I am currently preparing, without the need to install a second dedicated telephone line. If combined with a C-Switch, such usage enables me to also power on my office system (modem and PC) prior to requesting data operation mode. Once I have finished with the data link, I can then simply make a remote power off request to switch the PC and modem back off again. Additionally, I use the EXECITAT utility to perform daily tasks such as disk back-ups and to invoke disk utilities etc on an automated basis. My ultimate initial dream of being able to control a remote control controller (for my video recorder) from a remote location has now dawned. A future version of Comcall containing a generally available option to perform such a task is intended to be included within a later release of the package. As you will see from the above I have already managed to personally achieve this for my own personal use, but it does need additional effort before I would be in a position to generally provide this as an integral part of the Comcall package. In the mean time, with limited knowledge of keypad arrays and the P-Switch, you could make your own setup perform this task under the current version.