OS/2 Shareware BBS: 3 Comm

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

/ OS/2 Shareware BBS: 3 Comm / 03-Comm.zip / fax067.zip / frec.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1997-04-21 | 81KB | 1,740 lines

Frec Version x.yyz Reference Manual Created 1992 - 1997 by Dr. Harald Pollack & Bernhard Seidl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DTE . . . . . . . . . . Data Terminal Equipment, your PC DCE . . . . . . . . . . Data Communication Equipment, your MODEM CCITT/ITU T.4 . . . . . International standard for coding fax data. CCITT/ITU T.30 . . . . International standard for transmitting fax over a public switched telephone network. ANSI/EIA/TIA-578-1990 . Asynchronous Facsimile DCE Control Standard Service Class I (the common used class 1). ANSI/TIA/EIA-592-1993 . Asynchronous Facsimile DCE Control Standard Service Class II (the real class 2.0). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARRANTY: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no warranty on this program. You can use it for your own risk. The program should work the best way it can. If you detect some malefunction or bugs, please report it with the correspondent FREC.DEB log file to the autor. Without the log file it is almost inpossible to find and fix a bug. Common bugs will be corrected if they are of vital interrest to the program. Wishes for some extentions (but not printing and viewing) and hints for making things better are welcome. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE CODE OF THE PROGRAM: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was very much work and brain in creating Frec. To much for one person. So, if anybody has senseful interrest in getting the source code (IBM CSet) he could get it. There is only one restriction: do not name your program 'Frec'. You can do anything with the sourcecode, read it, sell it, eat it, use it, but please do not make a clone named Frec. Due to the enhancement to FREC.DLL necessary includes (CLGLOBAL.H and COMCAPI.H) are not supplied. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT FREC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frec is a multi-featured fax receive software usable together with a FidoNet mailer or standalone. All functionality of Frec is in accordance to ITU-T.4, ITU-T.30, EIA-578 and EIA-592. The evidence of existence of a lot of non conformable fax modem and fax receiving software to these standards, makes it more than possible, that faxes, received with Frec, will fail or be corrupted! This often is not a misbehaviour of Frec! But nobody is perfect and you have detected a bug. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPGRADING TO A NEW VERSION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New versions of Frec are always packed in LZH type archives. It is recommended to replace all EXE and DLL files and not to use parts of older version (especially DLL files). New versions of Frec often use new or modified configuration entries and commandline options. Please read all available documentation carefully before using a new version. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CONFIGURATION FILE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The configuration file keeps all information required. FREC.CFG needs to be modified to suit your system. Please have a look at the sample configuration file included in the Frec package. In the following section all keywords and parameters are listed and described. NOLOGONBAD If Frec is used in conjunction with third party environment (e.g. FaxWorks, see also FAXLOG and FAXIDX keywords) and this keyword is used, no log entry will be generated if there occured an error while receiving or no fax session was established. [TASK <n>] Starts a section within the configuration file which only effects the selected task. To end a section you can either use another [TASK <n>] keyword which would start another section or use the keyword [CONNON], described below. [COMMON] All keywords after this statement belong to all tasks. CONFIGEND Frec will stop working off the configuration file and everything following this keyword will be ignored. LOGBINKLEYSTYLE Using this keyword Frec will generate BinkleyTerm like log entries. USROBOTICS Special keyword to indicate that a USRobotics modem is used. Must be set to allow some workarounds for nonstandardized actions! OLDDTR Frec uses the methode of 'DTR-drop' (switching modemline DTR off and on) to reset the modem and to force a on-hook condition. This switching might be done in two ways (different calls to DosDevIOCtl). CLMINIMIZEDNOVIEW If FREC.DLL is called from a minimized CantaLoup/2, FaxView is not started at all. If machine is highly stressed this is recommanded. CHANGEBAUD <n> Some modems on the market must have 19200 bps set in phase C (faxdata reception). To properly switch to 19200 bps, FAXBAUDRATE must be set to 19200 also. Depending on value <n>, the switch is performed at different states of (nonstandardized) Class 2 protocol: 0 . . . nothing happens, is equal to not using this keyword 1 . . . FaxBaudRate is set a startup 2 . . . FaxBaudRate is set, when +FCON is detected 3 . . . FaxBaudRate is set, when OK is detected Note: If CHANGEBAUD is used without parameter <n>, a value of 1 is assumed (for compatibility of older versions of Frec). If using n=2, Frec must be called, when modemresponse FAX is received! Almost all Rockwell chipset modems report 'FAX' before '+FCON'. Unfortunately there is no common rule which says what value of this keyword is required for a specific modem. You have to try it out ... FORCERETRAIN If Frec is used to receive only raw fax data in PAGEnnnn.RAW files, no checking of copyquality is done at all. Enabling this feature will always send RTP (ReTrain Positiv) instead of MCF (MessageConFirmation) to sender of fax. Preferable on known weak or bad phonelines. Attention: Fax transmissions by fax modems and unknown fax software (trashware :-) may fail when receiving this post page message. LOGLEVEL <n> Writing to FAXDEBUG depends on this value (0 to 5). 0 ... do NOT write to FAXDEBUG (is equal to 'FAXDEBUG NUL') 1 ... ERROR only 2 ... ERROR + SEND + RECEIVE only 3 ... ERROR + SEND + RECEIVE + ACTION only 4 ... ERROR + SEND + RECEIVE + ACTION + WAIT FOR only 5 ... ERROR + SEND + RECEIVE + ACTION + WAIT FOR + INFO (default) DEBUG Enables a lot of stuff for debugging. Do not use, because LOG will increase enormous. TIFEXT <extension> Default extension for saved fax files ".TIF" may be overwritten. If commandline switch '-z' is used, this is automatically overwritten by ".FAX". Use this to enable some compatibility to third party software. Attention: If '-z' switch is used, TIFEXT is not used! INBOUND <path to inbound> If DESTNAME and DESTADDR are also defined, a netmail (????????.PKT) is created each time a fax is stored. Is not in affect, if '-x' commandline switch is used! DESTNAME <string> If this, INBOUND and DESTADDR is defined in FREC.CFG, a netmail is created and addressed to. DESTADDR <FidoNet style address> Must be defined to create an announcing netmail. SRCNAME <string> Used to form the 'From:' part of the announcing netmail. Default is: "FREC". SRCADDR <FidoNet style address> Normally this is the address of local system. Defaults to DESTADDR. SUBJECTRECFAX <string or '%'> Used in creation of announcing netmail on incoming fax. If '%' is the first (or only) character, the filename in which the fax is stored will be placed in subject part of netmail. Default is: "Announcement of incoming FAX". RINGCNT <n> Number of rings FREC is skipping till modem goes off-hook. In stand alone mode only. TEXTCOLOR <colorvalue> Select color of characters on Frec status screen: 0 . . . BLACK 1 . . . BLUE 2 . . . GREEN 3 . . . CYAN 4 . . . RED 5 . . . MAGENTA 6 . . . BROWN 7 . . . LIGHTGRAY 8 . . . DARKGRAY 9 . . . LIGHTBLUE 10 . . LIGHTGREEN 11 . . LIGHTCYAN 12 . . LIGHTRED 13 . . LIGHTMAGENTA 14 . . YELLOW 15 . . WHITE TEXTBACKGROUNDCOLOR <colorvalue> Select color of background on Frec status screen. FRAMECOLOR <colorvalue> Select color of the frame on Frec status screen. CLPAGEOK <script or errorlevel or shellno> If FREC.DLL is called from CantaLoup/2, a simple mechanism will allow further actions of the mailer if faxreception was sucessful: - A positiv value forces mailer to exit with this errorlevel. - A negativ value forces mailer to 'shell' to abs(value). - A name of a script forces the mailer to execute it. POLLFILE <filename> [<numerical page indicator>] Name of file which is passed to FSEND if FREC is frontend for a pollserver. Can be defined as often as needed. The filenames are collected and when calling FSEND (DLL or EXE) a temporary file is created where all filenames and pageindicators are stored. FSEND is called with '-o@<temp_file>' to pass filenames. Pollfiles can also be supplied by '-o' and '-o@' commandline switch. Attention: Not used if Frec acts as a fax poll requester ('-g' parameter)! This prevents Frec to call Fsend! May be in further versions both send and receive in one call would be possible! FSENDCFG <configuration file for FSEND> [<commandline parameter>] Is the key for Frec to work also as a frontend for Fsend to satisfy faxpolling. See also POLLFILE. It is no longer supported, to choose between FSEND.EXE and FSEND.DLL! From now on, FREC searches for FSEND.DLL in LIBPATH and if not found, FSEND.EXE is called. After the name of the config file for FSEND, optional commandline parameters for FSEND may be submitted to DLL (or EXE). These parameter are submitted as last, so it will overwrite any choice from FREC itself. Note: If primarly a fax pollservice is offered, use Fsend as the frontend. Fsend is also capable to receive fax if configured right. CHECKCOPYQUALITY <YES or NO> Enables special algorithms to decide if page was of acceptable quality or if a retrain should be performed by sender. If not a single scanline is received correctly, a RTN (ReTrain Negativ) is sent. This means a total page reject and sender normally gives up! Attention: If '-x' commandline switch is in effect (saving raw data) or ECM is selected, copyquality is NOT checked. Note: Frec shows copyquality both in DEBUGFILE and onscreen, like "Page n decompressed <lc,blc,cblc,llc>". lc . . . total decompressed correct scanlines, blc . . total detected bad lines, cblc . . detected maximal consecutive bad scanlines and llc . . lost scanlines if LINEBAD DELETE is selected. This may match modems +FPTS (+FPS) report but if FREC has detected more errors than modem, FRECs decision counts and modems page status parameter is overwritten! PERCENTAGEGOOD <1-100> Gives Frec an upper boundry for deciding to send RTP (ReTrain Positiv) and force a retrain. If the percentual part of correct received scan lines is equal or above this value, a MCF (MessageCoFirmation) is sent. Defaults to 100 (%) but should be set to 95 or 99 if partial page errors could be accepted. CONSECUTIVEBADMAX <1-255> If detected consecutive bad scanlines are above this limit, FREC will send a RTP. Consecutive bad scanlines are normally a good sign for a mismatch in compression (1-D versus 2-D) or bitorder of faxdata (try with '-f1' or '-f2' command line parameter). LOCALID <local faxnumber> Is used to form CSI (Called Subscriber Identification) or CIG (CallInG subscriber identification). CSI is sent to modem as +FLID (+FLI) and CIG is sent as +FCIG (+FPI). Attention: This parameter is mandatory, Frec is stopped if not defined! Note: Only '+', ' ' and '0' - '9' are valid characters! All other characters are invalid and strictly discarded by Frec. String length is limited to 20 characters. STATIONID <your company or elsewhat> This information is only transmitted, if faxmodem is able to handle NSF (NonStandardFacility) frames. Usualy, class 1 modems can do it. LINEBAD <IGNORE or DELETE or PREVIOUS or BLANK> If a bad scanline is detected, Frec could either IGNORE (default) or DELETE or copy the PREVIOUS one or leave it BLANK. Note: Detection of bad scanlines is not a trivial job. On bad phone lines normally single bits change their state and resynchronisation (to next scanline) could be performed. If DCE-DTE connection is distorted (e.g. 14400 bps carrier in class 2 with 19200 bps DCE-DTE), one ore more bytes are lost and resynchronisation may skip one ore more scanlines. Hint: Avoid 14400 bps carrier in class 2! Keep in mind, that time between scanlines effects transmission time more than bitrate. Use class 1 if highspeed is wished. Frec can decide if overall performance is good enough. Even if modem accepts 14400 bps training, DCE-DTE connection may limit the result. Because of DLE-shielding bursts of more than 1920 CPS may occure! A carrier of 14400 bps yields in 14400 / 8 = 1800 CPS. FAXCLASS <1 or 2 or 2.0> Select a fax class, your modem is able to handle. Frec is designed to deal with the standardized methods of class 1 (EIA/TIA-578) or class 2.0 (EIA/TIA-592). ONE version of the manufacturer specific class 2 (publicated either as CLASS_2.TXT from SUPRA or for the 28800 bps V.FC data-pump from ROCKWELL) is relativly compatible to class 2.0 in receive mode. Frec supports (without any warranty) this class 2 also. Although nobody will believe, first choice of fax class should always be class 1. All lowprice modems support this class in an excellent manner. As a rule of thumb: the cheaper the modem the lower the fax class :-) Manufacturer specific fax classes other then the above (like Zyxels class 6 or the AT#.. version of class 2) or not supported! FAXBAUDRATE <DCE-DTE bitrate> Only if fax class 2.0 (two point zero) is used, higher values than 19200 can be defined here. In class 1 or class 2 strictly use 19200 or leave the default of 19200. Some modem on the market allow higher bitrates than 19200 in class 1 and class 2. For 14400 bps carrier, 38400 bps DCE-DTE is highly recommended in this case of modem. DATABAUDRATE <DCE-DTE bitrate> Set to a desirable bitrate or do not use this setting. RESET <modem command> It is recommended to use either ATZ or AT&Fn to bring modem to well defined state. See also flowchart of initialisation. A response of OK must come from modem or FREC will abort. Note: modem_init() is not performed if Frec is called with '-p' command line parameter. Save callers BaudRate Switch BaudRate to DataBaudRate If RESET is defined -> send <modem command> to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec If FaxBaudRate not equal to DataBaudRate -> switch to FaxBaudRate Send AT+FCLASS=n to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec While INIT Send <modem command> to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec If fax class is 2 (or 2.0) -> send AT+FLID (+FLI) to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec Send AT+FCR=1 to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec Aend AT+FDCC (+FDC) to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec If FREC should poll a fax from elsewhere -> Send AT+FSPL=1 (+FSP) to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec Send AT+FCIG (+FPI) to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec else -> If FREC is frontend for FSEND to satisfy poll request -> Send AT+FLPL=1 (+FLP) to modem Wait for OK response If response not equal OK or timeout -> abort Frec ATTENTION! If FREC is called from elsewhere (mailer or other front end) all of the above initialisation and decisions MUST be performed before FREC is called! Changing to FaxBaudRate (if CHANGEBAUD is defined) will occure after receiving OK just before AT+FDR is sent. Keep in mind, that certain modems need 19200 bps just before switching to fax class! INIT <modemcommand> Unlimited number of additional commands to modem which must be acceptable in the appropiate fax class. See also the flow chart which is performed while initializing the modem. A response of OK must come from modem or Frec will abort. CAPABILITIES <vr,br,wd,ln,df,ec,bf,st[,jp]> Default is 1,3,0,2,0,0,0,0,0 which means: high resolution, maximal 9600 bps in V.29 modulation, 8 inches paperwidth, endless paperlength, 1-D Huffman coded data, no ECM, no BFT and 0 ms wait between scanlines. With these values, successful transmission to each receiving station is possible. If the receiver is not capable of any of these values, Fsend will adjust to such values, the receiver can (and must) handle. vr (vertical resolution): 00 . . . normal 204x98 dpi (R8 x 3.85/mm), 01 . . . fine 204x196 dpi (R8 x 7.7/mm), 02 . . . high 204x392 dpi (R8 x 15.4/mm), 04 . . . extra 408x392 dpi (R16 x 15.4/mm), 08 . . . 200x100 dpi, 10 . . . 200x200 dpi, 20 . . . 200x400 dpi, 40 . . . 300x300 dpi, 80 . . . 400x400 dpi (not defined in T.32) All values for 'vr' are in hexadecimal notation! Not all resolutions are supported! br (bit rate): 0 . . . 2400 bps 1 . . . 4800 bps 2 . . . 7200 bps 3 . . . 9600 bps 4 . . . 12000 bps 5 . . . 14400 bps wd (page width): R8 R16 200 300 400 d/mm d/mm dpi dpi dpi 0 . . . 1728 3456 1728 2592 3456 (A4 width) 1 . . . 2048 4096 2048 (B4 width) 2 . . . 2432 4864 2432 (A3 width) 3 . . . 1216 2432 (A5 width) 4 . . . 864 1728 (A6 width) Not all resolutions are supported! ln (page length): 0 . . . A4 length, 297 mm (not supported) 1 . . . B4 length, 364 mm (not supported) 2 . . . Unlimited length df (compression scheme): 0 . . . 1-D Modified Huffman (ITU T.4), 1 . . . 2-D Modified read (ITU T.4), 2 . . . 2-D Uncompressed mode (ITU T.4), (not supported) 3 . . . 2-D Modified modified read (ITU T.6) ec (error correction): 0 . . . do not use ECM 1 . . . Enable Annex A/T.30, ECM (only supported in class 1) 2 . . . Enable Annex C/T.30, half duplex (not supported) 3 . . . Enable Annex C/T.30, full duplex (not supported) bf (binary file): 00 . . Disable file transfer modes, 01 . . Select enable BFT (ITU T.434), (not supported) 02 . . Select document transfer mode, (not supported) 04 . . Select edifact mode, (not supported) 08 . . Select basic transfer mode, (not supported) 10 . . Select character mode Annex D/T.4, (not supported) 20 . . Selcet mixed mode Annex E/T.4, (not supported) 40 . . Select processable mode (ITU T.505) (not supported) All values for 'bf' are in hexadecimal notation !!! st (time/scanline): vr = 0 vr > 0 0 . . . 0 ms 0 ms 1 . . . 5 ms 5 ms 2 . . . 10 ms 5 ms 3 . . . 10 ms 10 ms 4 . . . 20 ms 10 ms 5 . . . 20 ms 20 ms 6 . . . 40 ms 20 ms 7 . . . 40 ms 40 ms jp (JPEG coding): 00 . . Disable JPEG coding, 01 . . Enable JPEG coding (ITU T.81), (not supported) 02 . . Full color mode, (not supported) 04 . . Enable preferred Huffman tables, (not supported) 08 . . 12 bits/pel/component, (not supported) 10 . . No subsampling (1:1:1), (not supported) 20 . . Custom illuminant, (not supported) 40 . . Custom gamut range (not supported) All values for 'jp' are in hexadecimal notation !!! CLEANUP <modem command> Define any modemcommand which will be sent to. No check for any response is done. CLEANUP is performed in hang_up() like: If fax class is 1 -> send ATH0 to modem Drop DTR line for 300 ms If FaxBaudRate not equal to DataBaudRate -> switch to DatabaudRate If actual BaudRate not equal to callers BaudRate -> Switch to callers BaudRate If CLEANUP is defined -> Send <modem command> to modem Trash modem response FAXPATH [SUB [PWD]] <path to where incoming faxes are stored> This entry is MANDATORY! If combined with FAXLOG and FAXIDX, compatibility to third parties programs is given, incoming faxes are stored in <path>\FXnnnnnn.FAX files and entries in FAXLOG is done. FAXIDX is also incremented. If used without FAXLOG and FAXIDX (at least one of both keywords must have OFF in CFG), incoming faxes are stored in <path>\FRECnnnn.TIF, where '.TIF' may be replaced by setting TIFEXT in CFG (look there). Filetemplates are no more supported! Values for SUB and PWD can be supplied. If caller sends a SUB-frame (Subaddressing), incoming faxes are store in the FAXPATH with the defined SUB for it. Optionally, a PWD (password) can be defined. If caller sends SUB and PWD, both must match to select FAXPATH. It is recommanded, to define one FAXPATH without SUB and PWD, to give caller without this a chance. Examples: FaxPath X:\PATH\ALLFAXES FaxPath 123 Y:\LANPATH\USERFAX FaxPath 123 987 Y:\LANPATH\PROTFAX First one is the 'normal' entry and compatible with former versions of FREC. Second one defines a subaddress (123) which yields in routing faxes with subaddress 123 to this path. Third one defines a password (987) protected path for callers, who supply both. FAXPATH is also used, to form fully qualified drive, path and filenames for FAXLOG and FAXIDX, which means, that each 'subaddres' has its own log and index! FAXLOG <file name> | OFF Filename to FAX.LOG and only neccessary, if other than 'FAX.LOG'. Received faxes from FREC will be joined to FAX.LOG. Each well received fax (hangup code 0) is flagged as 'Rcvd'. If fax is received in (partial) error or even no session was established at all, entry in FAXLOG is flagged as 'BadRcv'. See also keyword NOLOGONBAD. FAXIDX <file name> | OFF Filename to FAX.IDX and only neccessary, if other than 'FAX.IDX'. FAXDEBUG <[+]x:\path\frec.log> This is FREC log and debugging file. Nearly all activities are stored in this file. If a '+' precedes the path, append mode is used: one log is chained to the next. Select NUL as filename to disable logging. The logfile contains a lot of informations in case of errors or situations where help is needed. Bugreports to the author are only sensful if this logfile is part of the report. DIAL <dial command> Default, a ATD is used. You can define here ATDP or ATDT, if your modem is not able to distinct between pulse and tone dialing. COMPORT <COM device> This keyword is mandatory. If Frec is called with port handle (from elsewhere) this keyword must exist! The name of the com device is used as a unique identifier for internal use. INITFIFO If a hardware fifo (UART 16550) is detected by COM-device driver, the fifo is initiallized to Rx=8 and Tx=16. BINKLOG <file name> Fully qualified drive, path and filename to your mailers log file. Used either if FREC works only as an converter for PAGEnnnn.FAX to TIF or if FREC is used in two pass mode (filename may be any). Supported is BinkleyTerm 2.50 EE (by Michael Buenter), BinkleyTerm 2.59, 2.60 and 2.60 XE (by Vince Periello and authorized coauthors) and CantLoup/2 (by Michael Buenter). Xenia/2 (by Arjen Lentz) is not (yet) supported, because the raw fax is stored in Zyxels ZFAX format, which is in fact only useable for one single page. Maybe, Arjen will be able to read 'spagetti code' in future and switch to senseful fax formats :-) DEBUGIDLEPRIORITY <value> or DEBUGREGULARPRIORITY <value> These keywords, which are mutual exclusive, define the priority (0-31) for the task (thread) which writes the data to FAXDEBUG file. Default is IDLEPRIORITY 30. Change this setting only, if you are absolutly sure knowing what you do! Lower priority may yield in a endless blocking debug_thread! No data will be written to FAXDEBUG and FREC may become 'uncloseable'. On very slow or high stressed machines, you can try REGULARPRIORITY 0, if IDLEPRIORITY blocks writing to FAXDEBUG. Attention: It was reported by users, that some CPU load meters (like MEMSize or CPUDrive) will TOTALY brake down working of debug_thread. If FREC seems to be blocked, quite after fax reception is finished, and will never be closed (even if 'killed') than omit using of such utilities! SAVEIDLEPRIORITY <value> or SAVEREGULARPRIORITY <value> These keywords, which are mutual exclusive, define the priority (0-31) for the task (thread) which writes fax file to disk. Default is IDLEPRIORITY 31. Lower priority may slow down writing, yielding in incorrect faxreception! SAVEPRIORITY must be higher than DEBUGPRIORITY. On slow or high stressed machines, try REGULARPRIORITY 1. You can disable this priority switching by using the '-fastsave' commandline switch (which is in fact the same as REGULARPRIORITY 0). Additional information: All file and path specifiers in configuration file are checked against %<environment>%. If a valid environment entry is found, %<env>% is replaced by the content of the variable, e.g.: SET LOG=D:\LOGFILES BinkLog %LOG%\BINKLEY%TASK%.LOG FaxDebug %LOG%\FREC%TASK%.LOG A special 'replacement' is done in all file name entries in configuration file when '%TASK%' is detected. %TASK% (must be uppercase) is replaced by the defined task number. If using FREC.DLL with Cantaloup mailer, the task number from mailer is provided to Frec. Nevertheless you can overwrite this task number in 'ExtrnDesc' by using '-TASK<n>' command line parameter. If a debug file is defined and this debug file can not be accessed, than a 'default' in the root of the current drive (\FREC.DEB) is used instead. It is strongly recommended to use a debug file !! In case of misbehaviour 99% of faults can be localized quickly and (from the author :-). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS AND SYNTAX ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The format of the commandline is as follows: FREC <switch> <switch> ... -c<config file> Default Frec assumes the configuration file is named FREC.CFG and located in the current directory. The '-c' command line parameter can be used to define an other path and file name. Configuration file can also be supplied via environment: SET FAX=x:\path\frec.cfg or SET FAXCFG=x:\path\frec.cfg -Task<n> Where <n> specifies the task number to be used. See also [TASK <n>] and [COMMON] keywords in configuration file. If this parameter is not used the common task will be used. -s<WAIT_OK> In accordance to fax standards, Frec uses the +FCO (or +FCON) response from modem to detect a fax call (in fact the HDLC-flags in V.21). If Frec is called from a FidoNet mailer than +FCO (or +FCON) is already received when Frec takes over control (this modem response is used to spwan Frec) and '-sWAIT_OK' parameter must be used to ensure correct functionality. Default is WAIT_FCON that means Frec will wait for +FCO (or +FCON) modem response in class 2.0 (or 2). -x Realtime decompression and creation of Tiff is switched off. Frec will work in a minimal state and will save raw data as it comes out of the modem if '-x' parameter is used. Only inserted DLEs are stripped and received bytes are inverted back to their regular form (MSB first) in class 2.0 (or 2). Note: This parameter also is used to perform the first passage of two passage fax receive mode. A 'BINKLOG' file must be defined to store all session parameters needed for the second passage (convertig raw fax data to Tiff). Also see '-i' parameter. -p<com port handle> If this parameter is used, Frec assumes it is called by a FidoNet mailer or other front end. Note: The port handle is not the same as the port number (e.g. COM1)! The port handel must be put at Frec's proposal by the FidoNet mailer or front end. Only 'FAXBAUDRATE' is set if 'CHANGEBAUD' is selected in configuration file. No modem initialisation is performed. Hang_up() and close_port() are called. While in hang_up() DTR-drop and 'CLEANUP' is performed, close_port() should be without any effect. Note: All initialisation must be done by the FidoNet mailer or other front end. -ForceV33 Signal only V.33 for bitrates higher than 9600 bps (class 1 only). -PollSEP<numerical page indicator> Is used to make a SEP (SElective Polling) frame when polling a fax from somebody. Also see '-o' parameter and 'POLLFILE'. Attention: Only '0' - '9', '#' and '*' are valid characters. All other characters are invalid and strictly discarded by Frec. String length is limited to 20 characters. '-PollSEP' can be used in Class 1 and 2.0 (if supported by the modem) only! -PollPWD<numerical password> Is used to make a PWD (PassWorD) frame when polling a fax from somebody. Also see '-o' parameter and 'POLLFILE'. Attention: Only '0' - '9', '#' and '*' are valid characters. All other characters are invalid and strictly discarded by Frec. String length is limited to 20 characters. '-PollPWD' can be used in Class 1 and 2.0 (if supported by the modem) only! -NoFineSign Some general switched network suppliers demand a special sign on each fax page transmitted in 'fine resolution'. Frec therefore places a small black rectangle in the right bottom corner of each 'fine resolution' page to satisfy that. Using '-NoFineSign' this feature will be deactivated. -FsendExe Overrides 'FRECDLL' keyword in configuration file. This parameter may be used to temporarly use FSEND.EXE as fax sender instead of calling FSEND.DLL to do that. -FastSave Overrides 'SAVE...PRIORTY' keyword in configuration file. The fax file is saved with priority REGULAR 0. This effects only Tiff saving and not saving fax raw data in PAGEnnnn.RAW files. -PollServer If Frec is used as a front end for FSEND to satisfy poll requests, Frec is disabled to receive fax. T.4 transmitter bit in class 1 is not cleared because a lot of fax machines and fax modem will fail if that is done. -DISPoll Normally, if Frec is used to poll a fax form somebody, a DTC (Digital Transmit Command) is sent to indicate your wish to poll for a fax instead of sending a fax. For class 1 alternativly a DIS (Digital Identification Signal) may be sent, mainly to test the fax poll server if capable of this condition. -z Frec will store received fax files in a format defined by ZyXEL. It is recommended, not to use this format or only to use it in conjunction with '-e' parameter to force single page storage. ZFAX format is not able to deal with different resolution and compression in a single multipage fax file. File extension is set to '.FAX' and 'OUTFILLORDER' is set to '2'. -ECMraw If this parameter is used, all received fax data will be stored in 'BLOCKnnn.RAW' files in case of an ECM (Error Correction Mode) connection. The contents of these files is in fact senseless for the user, but from vital interest for Frec if any ECM protocol failure is detected. -ECMError<error count> For testing purposes only! Do not use it! Attention: ECM reception in class 1 is already implemented in Frec. The functionality is not fully tested yet. This parameter says Frec to act as if partial frame errors have been detected which shall force the sender to retransmitted the corrupted data. -g<phone number> Frec calls the phone number to poll for a fax. Keep in mind, that some fax modems (in class 2) are not able to poll for a fax. In that case use class 1 instead if your fax modem supports it. -l<faxclass> This parameter overrides 'FAXCLASS' in configuration file. Only senseful, if Frec is called from FSEND or an other front end. Attention: 'INIT's in configuration file have to match the fax class or must not be used. Fax class 2.0 is internal coded as '3'! -o<poll file> [<numerical page indicator>] Exactly the same as 'POLLFILE' in configuration file. The file name will be added to the list of files which will be sent if an fax poll request from somebody is received. You can send bitmap ('.BMP'), Tiff ('.TIF') or text files (also see 'TEXTEXTENSION'). You can define as much files as the command line can accept. Wildcards (*, ?) are also allowed. A blank separated 'numerical page indicator', following the file name is possible (also see '-o@'). This 'pageindicator' must be one number (only '0' -'9', '#' and '*' and no blanks) and must not have not more than 20 digits. Note: Poll files from '-o' are placed first (before 'POLLFILE' entries) in the file list. -o@<file name> As an enhancement to the '-o' option, you can instead define a pointer file, which contains the file names. Each line must contain only one filename. Wildcards (*, ?) are allowed. In accordance to 'selective poll', a 'numerical page indicator' may also be given. Content of file POLLFILE.LST: X:\PATH\NEWLIST.TXT Y:\OTHERPATH\FILELIST.TXT 1 Z:\NEWPATH\ECHOLIST.TXT 2 Which means, NEWLIST will be sent to all callers whereas FILELIST only will be sent to those callers supplying '1' in SEP frame and ECHOLIST only will be sent to callers supplying '2' in SEP frame. If the caller does not use any SEP frame, than ALL three files will be sent. -a<pipe name> A pipe of the given name will be created to which all screen output will be sent. Note: Frec uses DosCreateNPipe() with open mode NP_ACCESS_OUTBOUND (outbound pipe - server to client) and pipe modes NP_NOWAIT (non blocking mode) and NP_TYPE_MESSAGE (message type pipe) to create the pipe. DosConnectNPipe() is used to connect the pipe, DosWrite() to write to the pipe and DosDisConnectNPipe() and DosClose() to close the pipe at program termination. -k<Tiff compression> Select a compression scheme (default is 3) used for the stored decoded fax files. The following compression schemes are available: <1> . . . uncompressed, <2> . . . 1-D Huffman, without EOL <3> . . . 1-D Huffman, as defined in T.4 <4> . . . 2-D Read, as defined in T.4 <4.1> . . 2-D Read, without EOL, starting from an imaginary white line <32773> . PackBits compression. Note: Compression scheme 5 (LZW) is not supported because of copyright protections in various countries. -i<raw fax data file name> Frec 'conversion only' mode is selected when using this parameter. Any number of '-i' parameters are allowed (the only limit is the maximum length of a single command line). Wildcards (*, ?) are supported. Frec reads in raw fax data (exactly as received from modem) - e.g. as stored by Frec using '-x' parameter or also raw fax data files generated by internal fax routines of some FidoNet mailers like BinkleyTerm or CantaLoup/2. If a mailer log file (see 'BINKLOG') is defined, required fax session information (resolution, coding scheme, ...) will be extracted from it. This performes the second passage of Frec's two passage operating method (also see '-x' parameter). Note: Try with '-f1' or '-f2' if conversion fails because of bitorder mismatch. Also try '-FDCC:vr,br,...' parameter to specify session parameters manually. Attention: ZFAX file format is not subject of this parameter. Single page ZFAX files may be converted, but it is not the originally job of Frec, to do that. -FDCC:<capabilities> This parameter replaces '-1' and '-2' parameters. It can be used to submit a DCC (current session capabilities) value for the raw fax data supplied with '-i' parameter. Only values for compression scheme and resolution are used. -h or -? A short help screen is shown. This printout can be redirected into a file. -v<faxviewer> If FREC is not operating in raw data mode ('-x' parameter), an external fax viewer (please refer FAXVIEW.DOC for more information) can be used to display an incoming fax in realtime on the screen. Note: On slow or highly stressed machines, especially in class 2 or class 2.0 negotiation of session parameters may fail or no fax data is displayed. Also see 'CLMINIMIZEDNOVIEW'. There are TWO possible modes to use: 1) <faxviewer> is the name of a compatible viewer (obviously FAXVIEW.EXE), which will be started (by DosStartSession) and closed by FREC. 2) <faxviewer> is the name of a pipe (eg. '\PIPE\LINE1'). In this case the viewer (FAXVIEW.EXE) must be already loaded (see FAXVIEW.DOC) and is only actived by FREC (by pipe). -BITS or -LARGE or -STANDARD or -PREVIEW Scaling option for optional external fax viewer. Note: Do not use 'scaled' option in FAXVIEW.EXE. -q If the external fax viewer is used in combination with '-i' mode, Frec waits after each page for a keystroke. This option is helpful to watch each single page of a fax. -f<1_or_2> Bitorder in fax raw data. Default is 2, which is the 'normal' order. -e Forces Frec to generate single page Tiff files. Default, all pages are stored together in one multipage Tiff file. But not all programs are able to read all pages stored in a multipage Tiff file. -d If used, input files ('-i') are deleted after conversion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ERROR LEVELS USED BY FREC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <0> . . . . no error, at least one page received <1> . . . . error, no page received <2> . . . . wait for RING aborted <20> . . . DATA received, finish with open port <100> . . . deb_thread not started <101> . . . com_thread not started <102> . . . bink_thread not started <103> . . . decompr_thread not started <104> . . . time_thread not started <251> . . . SIGNAL termination <252> . . . modem init error (timeout or ATV0 is set) <253> . . . COM does not exist or is already in use <253> . . . COM error get/set parameters <253> . . . can not initialize COM <254> . . . error in CFG <255> . . . no commandline parameters <255> . . . incorrect commandline parameter <255> . . . -? or -h in commendline <255> . . . -i<filename> not found Note: If FSEND is called to satisfy a fax poll request, the error level of Fsend is returned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAX SERVICE CLASS COMMAND SET: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a short explanation of the fax service class command set used by Frec. The commands in parantheses are for fax service class 2.0! AT+FCLASS=2 (AT+FCLASS=2.0): Command to set modem to Fax mode. Modem will manage fax session and negotiates (T.30 protocol). AT+FDCC=vr,br,wd,ln,df,ec,bf,st (AT+FIS): With this command you can set the communications parameter of your fax modem. vr (vertical resolution): 0 . . . normal (204x98 dpi) 1 . . . high (204x196 dpi) br (bit rate): 0 . . . 2400 bit/s (V.27ter) 1 . . . 4800 bit/s (V.27ter) 2 . . . 7200 bit/s (V.29 or V.17) 3 . . . 9600 bis/s (V.29 or V.17) 4 . . . 12000 bit/s (V.33 or V.17) 5 . . . 14400 bit/s (V.33 or V.17) wd (page width): has to be 0 for use with Frec (1728 pixels) ln (page length): This has to be 2 (unlimited length) for use with Frec. dt (data compression): 0 . . . 1-D Huffman 1 . . . 2-D Read (also see the '-2' command line parameter) ec (error correction): 0 . . . disable error correction mode 1 . . . enable ECM (only in class 1) bf (binary file) This has to be 0 for use with Frec. st (time per scanline) 0 - 7 . 0 ms - 40 ms AT+FLID="..." (AT+FLI): Command to set local station ID. AT+FCIG="..." (AT+FPI): Command to set local poll ID. Class 2 modems hardly supports this, usefull only in Class 2.0! AT+FLPL=1 (AT+FLP): Command to indicate that the local station can serve a poll request from a remote fax. A valid fax document must be ready for sending (with Fsend). AT+FSPL=1 (AT+FSP): Command to indicate that the local station wants to poll a fax from a remote fax. The remote fax must have a document ready to poll. Frec can be use either as a 'poller' or as a 'pollserver'! If you want to know if your modems supports fax-polling do the following short test: AT+FLPL=? (AT+FLP). If only '0' is reported, than you modem is obviously not able to support poll ('0,1' must be reported). AT+FBOR=n (AT+FBO): This command is often misunderstood and not so easy to explain. Normally, FBOR is zero, meaning databits comming over the line were stored from right to left in a byte (you can see in fax raw data the byte pattern 4D 9A 80 which stands for an empty, white scanline). Some fax modems and software uses the invers byte order, which corresponds to FBOR is one (you see the patter B2 59 01). Binkley's internal fax reception inverses the bytes also and stores them in the B2 59 01 order although Binkley gets them as 4D 9A 80. Frec defaults to Binkley's (inverted) byteordering. AT+FCR=1 (AT+FCR): The fax modem never can receive a fax when +FCR is not set to 1. AT+FDR (AT+FDR): Command to release HDLC-frames in phase B. +FCON (+FCO): The fax modem response to signal that the remote station is a calling fax machine. Initializes phase B. +FTSI (+FTI): The fax modem response to show who is calling. This response is followed by the caller's ID string. +FDTC (+FTC): The fax modem response to show who is polling. This response is followed by the caller's ID string. This is the one and only sign for Frec to decide that a remote fax wants to poll on us! +FDCS (+FCS): The fax modem response to show the current session results. The information is shown in the same manner as +FDIS (+FIS). CONNECT (CONNECT): This message signals the end of frame exchange and start of page data transmission. +FHNG (+FHS), +FPTS (+FPS) and +FET (+FET): Faxmodem responses at the end of pagedata transfer. +FK (+FKS): If there is some timing problem with the conversion, Frec will abort with this command. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FREC AS A CONVERTER OF RAW FAX DATA: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to use Binkley's internal fax facilities you can use Frec only to do the job of converting the raw fax data from binkley, that is saved in PAGExxxx.FAX files, into one multipage TIFF. You have to modify your Binkley batch job as follows: BINK.CMD ... If Exist X:\FAX\PAGE????.FAX Goto FAX Goto NOFAX ... :FAX FREC -iX:\FAX\PAGE????.FAX -cX:\FAX\FREC.CFG -k3 -f2 -d ... :NOFAX If yout want Frec store eache page into a single Tiff file you have to use the following commands instead: BINK.CMD ... If Exist X:\FAX\PAGE????.FAX Goto FAX Goto NOFAX ... :FAX For %i In (X:\FAX\PAGE????.FAX) Do FREC -i%i -cX:\FAX\FREC.CFG -k3 -f2 -e -d ... :NOFAX ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FREC AS A FRONT END CALLED FAX RECEIVER: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BinkleyTerm will make a fax connect, but will not receive the fax itself. Instead of receiving the fax data Binkley spawns the com port to the external program Frec, which will receive the fax data and return back to Binkley Term after reception. As a fact, there exists a so called Binkley-Fax-Carrier-Bug in older Versions of Binkley Term (till the later 2.59 betas)! Binkley checks the presents of a valid carrier and DOES NOT spawn if not activ. And there is obviously NO carrier present (except USR modems) when modem is reporting +FCO(N)! To work around, try AT&C0 to force DCD-line always in active state. You have to modify your ANSWER statement in BINKLEY.CFG file so that your modem answers an incomming call in adaptive answering mode of the fax service class spezified in FREC.CFG file. Binkley 2.50EE: You have to put the following lines into your BINKLEY.CFG file: ModemFax +FCON ExitBaud -1 FCON You have to generate an EXTMAIL.CMD file containing one of the following lines: FREC -p%3 -k3 -cX:\FAX\FREC.CFG -sWAIT_OK to save all pages of the fax session in one multipage TIFF file or ... FREC -p%3 -k3 -cX:\FAX\FREC.CFG -sWAIT_OK -e to save each page of the fax session in a single TIFF file. Binkley 2.59, 2.60 and 2.60 XE: You have to put the following lines into your BINKLEY.CFG file: ModemFax +FCON Extern Spawn ExtrnMail <Errorlevel> +FCON You have to generate an EXTMAIL.CMD file containing one of the following lines: FREC -p%3 -k3 -cX:\Fax\FREC.CFG -sWAIT_OK to save all pages of the fax session in one multipage TIFF file or ... FREC -p%3 -k3 -e -cX:\Fax\FREC.CFG -sWAIT_OK to save each page of the fax session in a single TIFF file. If you selected the generation of a Netmail after fax reception, you should also start mail import after FREC in EXITBAUD.CMD or EXTMAIL.CMD. BinkleyTerm will not recognize the mail itself after returning from spawning!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CANTALOUP/2: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many thanks to Michael Bünter, who was so kind to let me participate in the closed beta test of his famous new mailer CantaLoup. From the first day I got the description of the 'ExternMail-DLL-Interface' in June 1995, I worked hard of reconstructing FREC to FREC.DLL. Well, I have done my homework and FREC.DLL is stil ready. Both EXE and DLL have the same version number and are, in fact, the same product (with little differences, but compiled from identical C source). So, FREC.EXE and FREC.DLL are twins, all documentation for FREC.EXE is still acceptable for FREC.DLL (from now on named 'DLL' if special meaning is signed). Special settings in CL.CFG are needed to invoke FREC.DLL. For class 2 type of faxmodems (all Rockwell chipset modems and Zyxel): Init ATZ| or similar command which resets to FCLASS=0 Answer AT+FAA=1|AT+FCR=1|ATA| ExtrnMail FREC M +FCON ExtrnDesc FREC -cx:\path\frec.cfg -k3 -sWAIT_OK For class 2.0 type of faxmodems (USR V.FC/V.34 and Zyxel): Init ATZ| or similar command which resets to FCLASS=0 Answer AT+FCLASS=2.0|AT+FNR=1,1,1,1|AT+FAA=1|AT+FCR=1|ATA| ExtrnMail FREC M +FCO ExtrnDesc FREC -cx:\path\frec.cfg -k3 -sWAIT_OK For class 1 type of faxmodems Please contact the autor. It will work with a lot of modems, but the 'Answer' part must be constructed carefully for each case. The part in 'ExtrnDesc' is in fact the same as you use to call FREC.EXE, expect the '-p<PortHandle> parameter. The porthandle is internally submitted from CL/2 to the DLL !!! It is also possible to use FAXVIEW by adding '-vFAXVIEW.EXE' and the corresponding screenformat like '-STANDARD' as described elsewhere in this document. Attention: The DLL does not return any errorlevel, look into FREC.LOG and CL.LOG for cause of error. To signal an incoming fax, a new mechanism is invented to the DLL which results, of course, in a new keyword in FREC.CFG: CLPageOK Use this feature to select either an ErrorLevelExit of CL/2 or a predefined Shell or even a Script. For details see the sample CFGs in the paket! Commandline option in 'ExtrnDesc': -c<config_file> This is a absolutely must! The parameter 'ComPort' must also be defined and match the 'port' in CL.CFG. ISDN is not supported (yet :-) -sWAIT_OK Also absolutely required! As far as CL/2 is not able to work with 'ExtrnMail FREC RING' (where -sWAIT_FCON is useful) Frec will be called in the 'traditional' but less useful way when modem is reporting +FCON (in Class 2) or +FCO (in Class 2.0). -k This is not needed, because the default of Tiff format is compression in Huffman 1-D which corresponds to '-k3'. -f This should not be used! Use the AT+FBOR=1 (Class 2) or AT+FBO=1 (in Class 2.0) instead. -z This parameter is possible but not recommanded (Zyxel ZFax format). -x May be used, but in then FREC.DLL will do exactly the same as CLFAX.DLL and PAGEnnnn.RAW is created for each fax page incoming. One exception is, that FREC.DLL cannot create task depended files (PAGEttnn.FAX). -v<PM-driver> PM-realtime fax image is created on screen as described in this document. CAN NOT be used in combination with '-x'! -e Single page Tiff may be used if necessary. -i This parameter must not be used with DLL version of Frec. -d, -g, -pollsep, -q and -h These parameters should not be used with DLL version of Frec. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FREC AS A STAND ALONE FAX RECEIVER: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To use Frec as a stand alone fax receiver simply start the program with the syntax as follows: FREC -cX:\FAX\FREC.CFG -k3 Where 'X:\FAX\FREC.CFG' is the path and file name of your Frec configuration file and '-k3' the selected compression scheme. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FREC AS A STAND ALONE FAX POLL REQUESTER: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To poll for a fax from somebody, the syntax is as follows: FREC -cX:\FAX\FREC.CFG -g123456 -pollsep12 Where 'X:\FAX\FREC.CFG' is the path and file name of your Frec configuration file, '123456' is the phone number of the remote fax machine and '12' is an optional page indicator transmitted via a selective polling (SEP) frame. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FREC AS FAX POLL SERVER: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Configuration is mostly like as Frec as a stand alone fax receiver. In addition one or more documents have to be defined in 'POLLFILE' (via configuration file and/or command line parameter). Also 'FSENDCFG' keyword is required, so that Frec knows the name and location of the Fsend configuration file. If Frec is used in combination with a front end (e.g. FidoNet mailer) the AT+FLPL=1 command must be set in 'ANSWER' or 'INIT' command of the mailer's configuration file! Frec only will work as a poll server if FSEND.EXE (FSEND.DLL) is found in the current path or directory (libpath). Frec 'spawns' (branches) FSEND.EXE (or loads FSEND.DLL) and calls the TxHandler() which will do the 'send work'. You will (if you can :-) see, that Frec uses some 'undocumented' commandline parameters when calling Fsend. Never use these parameters when starting Fsend from command line! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HISTORY OF FREC: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 3.51: Large parts of code (esp threadhandling, memoryallocation, exception- handling and CFG/CMD-handling) was redesigned. All parts of code, which are also in FSEND and ANSW were put to FAXPROC, which is from now on a dynamic link library (FAXPROC.DLL). Linking of C-runtime is never more statically, instead, C-runtime is linked dynamically (at loadtime) for FREC, FAXPROC and IMGPROC. So, the overall amount of codesize was reduced. Some keywords in CFG were also altered: INBOUNDREC --> INBOUND (sorry for twice altering) SUBJECTREC --> SUBJECTRECFAX NEW: InitFifo (see above) Not longer supported: FSENDDLL (see FSENDCFG) Finally, the COM port open methode is now checked in FAXPROC. Only if COM is opend in READWRITE and SHARE_DENYREADWRITE, work is continued! I hope some problems (when called from a mailer, which uses a patched MAXCOMM to open COM in SHARE_DENYNONE mode) are solved now. Also SIO.SYS in 'share mode' should never more work! Maybe some users will disagree, but 'sharing' a communication port is NOT usefull on a multitasking environment! Each application MUST have unique access to its own resources. Version 3.50: Only internal test version and not distributed. Version 3.49: While FREC (and FSEND) grow larger and larger, some system immanent bugs became more and more effectiv. So, some functions, belonging to thread handling, were 'perfectized' to avoid system inkonsistence. Things like DosKillThread() and free() were removed or made more reliable. Priority settings are still an usually 'unknown' mistery. As a result of experience, there is absolutly NO BENEFIT in common priorisation of certain threads! In FREC (and FSEND) parts of code are set internally to LOWER priority, in case other threads (in parallel) need more CPU. If CPU consuming threads are in an idle state, other thread with (temporary) lower priority are set again to REGULAR priority and threads in idle state are 'boosted' to higher priority. This sounds like a paradoxon (idle threads have TIMECRITICAL and heavy busy threads have REGULAR priority) but in fact the result is better than any other approach: If thread is idle (has nothing to do), higher priority does NOT EFFECT other threads, and the idle thread 'comes up' VERY QUICK if anything is to do for it! On the other side, 'power' of CPU is constant and CAN NOT be raised by raising priority. So, if one thread needs (temporarly) more of (the ONE) CPU, an other thread must be limited in 'power consuming' be setting to IDLETIME. Version 3.48: Commandline switches '-RecPWD' and '-RecSUB' are not longer supported and needed. Functionalyty of them is included in 'FaxPath' in CFG. Therefore SUBADDRESSING is fully supported and highly compatible to third parties fax program behavior. FAXLOG and FAXIDX have also changed their meaning! Both have defaults (FAX.LOG and FAX.IDX) and should only be altered, if neccessary. Fully qualified filenames will be constructed from 'FaxPath' and FaxLog/FaxIdx. Version 3.47: Frec shall be capable to receive fax in any resolution (only in class 1), defined in ITU-T.30 (200x400, 300x300 and 400x400 dpi). This new feature is not tested, because there seems to be no fax machine (and no fax modem) which do support that. Some new command line parameters (which partly replaces other ones) added, read documentation for more information. Version 3.46: Frec and Fsend now can use one and the same configuration file. Certain keywords have been updated, like: INBOUND -> INBOUNDSEND and INBOUNDREC SUBJECT -> SUBJECTSEND and SUBJECTREC It is recommanded, to distinguish between Frec and Fsend portions of configuration file by using '[TASK <n>]' keyword. Name of TIFPROC.DLL changed to IMGPROC.DLL. Atention: IMGPROC.DLL is able to create multipage Tiff with a maximum of 100 pages! So fax with more pages (in one single session) are cut off! If you expect to receive more than 100 pages, use single page Tiff files (parameter '-e'). Version 3.44: Some versions 3.44 of FREC have a BUG (a great one :-). In 3.44f revision, this BUG (FREC hangs after Phase E) is eliminated (a function has get a return value, but the setting of '{' and '}' while testing return value was not consistent :-) FREC was tested on WARP 4.0 (Merlin US GA) and it seems, that all works fine. Version 3.44: Minor changes from version 3.42b. TIFPROC.DLL is reduced because LZW (Lempel, Ziv & Welch) compression is under patent regulation in some countries. So TIFPROC.DLL is no longer able to handle Compression=5 (normally known as LZW). TIFPROC.DLL is 'under study' and will be changed/upgraded when LZ-compression will work in unrestricted manner! Version 3.43: This version was rejected! To much problems occured with TIFPROC.DLL! Version 3.43: Version 2.34 is up to date (3.43c) but HUFFMAN.DLL is replaced by TIFPROC.DLL. As in 3.43b a module named TIFPROC.OBJ was included, now this module is combined with HUFFMAN.OBJ to form TIFPROC.DLL. Also the other utilities (Fsend 1.26c and FaxView 0.34b) require TIFPROC.DLL and do not require HUFFMAN.DLL any more! Now Tiff and compression/decompression is performed only in one file (TIFPROC.DLL) and changes influence all EXE and DLL which use this DLL. HUFFMAN.DLL is only valid for older version as mentioned above. No significant changes were made to Frec/Fsend/FaxView (only some details) and are mainly Tiff internas (Fsend will from now on be able to include color Tiff files in all compression schemes). FaxView has mutated to a truely Tiff reader, also BMP are furthermore supported (scaling with BMP will show things not expected :-) TIFPROC is able to read and write compression 1 (uncompressed), 2 (Huffman without EOL), 3 (Huffman with EOL), 4 (2-D Read without EOL), 4.1 (2-D Read with EOL), 5 (LZW, maybe under law of patent) and 32773 (PackBit). TIFPROC does not (yet) support commpression 6 (JPEG as in Tiff 6.0 specification) While copression 2, 3, 4 (4.1) and 32773 are well optimized, compression 5 (LZW) is implemented only to do the job and routines are not optimized and not tested for consistance. As mentioned, compression 4 will give BEST results on BiLevel (black&white) documents construted with a typewrite or similar methodes. A page in A4 dimensions with text in low resolution will need app. 10-15 kb where values under 5 kb are realistic! Version 3.43: is released because in 3.42 there were some things WRONG (linking FAXPROC.OBJ for EXE to DLL and vice versa). Version 3.42: is released now. Main things are EQUAL routines (faxproc.c) in FREC and FSEND. Therefore both applications can be handled in one source. There is a new CFG entry, called LOGBINKLEYSTYLE. Try to use it for third party LOG-analyzers. The idea comes from Th. Waldmann, I hope I had understand right. The problem of generating announcing netmail still exists. If multipage fax is received in error a netmail is generated if ONLY one good page was received with no sign to the bad reception. I hope for future, I will solve this problem. While vers. 3.40 was released in some newer packages, up from 3.41 the SEP frame was 'invented' to make Selective Polling easier. Not fully tested. Version 3.40: has a bug in ECM reception fixed. Nevertheless, ECM is further in a quite 'unprove' state. The implemented methode to receive the HDLC frames is in an unorthodox manner and may or may not work with every modem. This is not a reason of 'not understanding', it is a limitation of class 1 implementation in current modems on the market! If you are a 'brave' fax receiver, than look to '-ECMraw' commandline switch to enable storing raw ECM HDLC blocks and send them to the author, if reception fails. Version 3.39: in conjunction with CantaLoup (WB2 or younger) is able to work in class 1 AND adaptiv autoanswer! Use '-sWAIT_FCON' and set the 'USROBOTICS' keyword in configuration file. Frec will send the "ATO" command to modem if 'DATA' is detected and resulting modem response is transfered to CantaLoup. If well set up, fax receive and pollserver possible. Version 3.37: has some enhancements in calling fax viewer. Class 1 reception with ECM had have some minor bugs which should be fixed now. A test for a 'locked' bitrate of COM port driver is implemented now. In cases where it is not senseful to work with a locked speed, Frec simply gives up. It is a common behaviour of users to 'lock' the COM port (especially SIO.SYS). This is only usefull, if communication software needs bitrates above 57600 bps (e.g. 115200 bps) but can not set this speed by itself! There is absolutly NO SENSE in 'locking' the port (which is in fact a 'shortcutting' of DosDevIOCtl(SETBITRATE)) in case where software can properly set the desired speed. Frec accepts a 'locked' port only, if all of the following conditions are true: FaxBaudRate = DataBaudRate = LockedBaudRate and 'CHANGEBAUD' = 0 (not used). Maybe, this 'lock-detection-facility' will be cancelled in further versions of Frec, but in this case, the author will STOP all further support in cases where failures, based on locked ports, are reported. It is not the intention of the author, to 'teach' people, how to use there communication software, but 95% of error reports of misfunction in fax reception are based on such 'locked' ports. Some major redesign tooks place, starting from version 3.26! Actually, no fax modem on the market satisfies all standards belonging to fax. So, Frec looks like a big patchwork to deal with a lot of fax modems. Well, this was not my indention! I had redesign (in fact rewritten) the complete logic of all parts in Frec. My target was 100% accordance to CCITT-ITU T.4 and T.30 and EIA/TIA-578 and EIA/TIA-592. Because of the nonstandardized class_2, I hope to have realized a good compromise for all fax modems with Rockwell-Chipset. Class 1 should now be as perfect as possible. Also a first try for ECM is implemented in class 1. Checking of T.4 datastream was improved, but, in contrary to real faxmachines, not all errorconditions are treated as an error (if doing so, really ALL fax sending software must be put to trash :-). Oh Lord! Why programmers of fax software could not read the standards? FREC.DLL, which primarly was designed for CantaLoup/2 is now able to work with almost all programs, which are designed for it. Please ask the author for details, a documentation of the calling routine is to hard to write. Version 3.23: should have been the LAST version of FREC in this kind of application. Well it should not happened :-). Since version 3.24 'was' the best Frec I ever released, now 3.25 is stil ready. See also to the end of this document for some bandnew products !!! One problem fixed in 3.22e which had caused misterious SIGSEGV aborts. In case of nonexisting path to FAXIDX, FREC gave up. Also ALL fopen() are checked for error. See also Errorlevel in this document. With WARP there came the problems :-) IDLE-TIME Priority in WARP is handeled different like in 2.1(1) ... While in Frec 3.19 and 3.20 only DebugIdlePriority and SaveIdlePriority were used to 'finetune' Frec, this solution was not satisfying !!! It was reported by MANY users, that their FREC session was still blocked (either between pages or at the end). Different reasons were detected, e.g. one ore more DOS-Session open with 'pollingroutines in it' or native OS/2 sreen savers or (in my case :-) MsgEd! I have NOT fixed the problem yet !!! On my systems (one 486DX2-66 with L2-cache, one 486DX2-66 without L2-cache, a NoteBook, and a 386DX-25) Frec behaves quite normal on OS/2 2.1 and values of 0 (ZERO) for DebugIdlePriority and SaveIdlePriority. When updating both 486DX2-66 with WARP, the PC with L2-cache always blocks when terminating (TIF was not written to disk). As a solution, I had closed all OS/2 and DOS-Session and Frec terminates well. These effects I never see on my NoteBook with WARP. So I recommanded to increase DebugIdlePriority to 30 and SaveIdlePriority to 31 but there are still problems on other users machines. Version 3.21: Now, in Version 3.21 of FREC, I have implimented also DebugRegularPriority and SaveRegularPriority to 'finetune' your machine. You should use only ONE keyword (either ...Idle... or ...Regular...). As a hint: start with 'DebugIdlePriority 30' and 'SaveIdlePriority 31'. If Frec still blocks a thread, than use 'SaveRegularPriority -31' and increase this value to values below 0. Do not increase to 0 or above!!! If you use DebugRegularPriority, do not use Class 1, because frame timing will come out of sync! As a rule: Save...Priority must be larger then Debug...Priority! Many thanks to Thomas Gaul and Juergen Pflanz! Thomas reported a serious BUG in reading BINKLEY.LOG from a Binkleyterm 2.50 EE Beta E3. This version of 2.50 EE (I think it is the best Binkley (n)ever released :-) saves internal received PAGEnnnnn.FAX with a bytelength of X and writes in the LOG-file a bytelength of X-9. FREC never found a match between log and real file! With Binkley 2.59 FREC still works perfect :-) To answer a 'frequently asked question' here: Frec can not be used to convert Xenia/2 *.FAX, because these files are in a 'ZFAX-format' which is multipaged and the SessionInformation in the header of this file is 'crippled' and NOT useable for a correct decompression. Also Frec can not read Xenia/2 logfile at all !!!! The 'crippled' header is NOT caused by Xenia/2 (!!!) it is system immanent of ZFAX fileformat. I hope, the author of Xenia/2 will use (in future) an other file format to store its faxes. Thanks to Christian Voelker, for reporting a serious bug in generating a NetMail after fax reception. This bug may be invented in one of the last versions and was never seen before. The feature 'ChangeBaud' is practically working, but fax reception with some Rockwell-Chipset based modems is not possible in any case. The problem maker is Binkley and the RxBuffer. Binkley collects a lot of bytes AFTER receiving the key +FCO(N), which in fact means, that important information like the +FDCS and +FTSI and the 'vital' OK are in Binkley's RxBuffer with the wrong bitrate and therefor lost for ever. Sorry, if you have such an modem, your compromise is: fax and data at 19200 bps or data-only with higher bitrates! Removing an error in version 3.17b, thanks to Alberto Pasquale. Binkley (especially the EE Beta E3-32 ISDN-IBMC) switches to XON/XOFF transmitting handshake when spawning to ExitBaud.Cmd. FREC now disables all XON/XOFF handshake in either case (standalone or called from Mailer). Obviously, this had no effect with COM.SYS but SIO.SYS makes external fax reception impossible. Maybe this was the great 'SIO-Bug' in Frec! Due to some discussion with Thomas Denecke, the new keyword 'ChangeBaud' was added to the configuration file: Some (older) modems can only transmit their fax data at a fixed rate of 19200 bps. This is quite a slow bps-rate for data transfers. You can from now on use your high data bitrate and when FREC is called from your mailer (after receiving +FCON), DCE-DTE speed is changed to 'FaxBaudRate' (normally 19200). You must define 'FaxBaudRate 19200' and 'ChangeBaud' to use this feature! Frec changes back to callers bitrate before the 'CleanUp' string is sent to the modem. Therefore a 'CleanUp ATZ' (or 'CleanUp AT' if you do not want to change your modem settings) is a MUST, to signal the new bitrate to your modem! Some hints, if reception of faxdata is not as good as you expected: Use the '-x' switch to force the generation of PAGEnnnn.RAW ! You can easyly convert this fax rawdatafile in a second pass with FREC. With '-x' enabled, 95 % of FREC is switched off and FREC works only like 'COPY COMx PAGEnnnn.RAW'. Some mainboards on the market inserts so much waitstates while doing IO, there is not enough time to make the decompression job. This belongs also to 'fast' 486 66 MHz CPU-mainboards !!! FREC is tested with 386SX 20 MHz without any missing byte from COM-port! If your modem (in Class 2) does not support fax polling, do not forget to comment out the 'PollFile' entry in configuration file! A 'quantum leap' to Version 3.00b has taken place: COM-Port handling and decompression is synchronized via EventQueues (oh, what a horror :-). Frec is now a little bit smarter in detecting byte fillorder which is different in Class 2 and Class 2.0. The crazy '-f' commandline switch is now only neccessary if you want to convert special RAW files (e.g. without useable entries in BINKLEY.LOG). In all other cases, you can omit this switch. Many thanks to Claus Matthies, who gave me the hint with sopen() to read BINKLEY.LOG even if Binkley is running! Version 2.21: New in 2.11b, Frec can be used as a Fax-Poll-Server. You define a document which can be requested from a remote fax. For this purpose, Fsend is needed! FSEND.EXE (from the same autors) must be in the same directory as Frec or in the 'PATH'. Some enhancements took place from 2.04 to 2.08, 2.09b adds polling feature to Frec. Class 2.0 is perfectly running on Zyxel (6.13) and USR. The new '-x' switch allows a two-step operation on slower systems like 386SX. First Frec generates PAGEnnnn.RAW in the same way as Binkley's internal faxreception. In a second step, FREC converts the PAGEnnnn.RAW to *.TIF. Because Fsend, the opposit to Frec was finished, it seems a good thing, to combine some functions in one DLL for both. So HUFFMAN.DLL serves for Frec and Fsend. Version 2.03: Bug fix in 2.03b: Thanks to Ferenc Pal, detecting a serious bug in handling the callers phonenumber when using FREC only as a converter for Binkley PAGEnnnn.FAX. This bug should be fixed now. New Features: ZyXEL Fax Files instead of TIF-File may be generated by use the '-z' switch in the commandline. But remember! Frec does not support Zyxel's propriatory FCLASS=6 fax modus! Many thanks to Juergen Roehrbein for solving the problem with the 'Lost Carrier' error in Binkley when spawning to EXITBAUD.CMD. Juergens workaround for Rockwell-Chipset-Modems will use the inactivity-timer S30 to compensate AT&C0: Answer AT&C0S30=nnn|.... Obviously, some modem interprets 'nnn' as tenth of seconds, other as true seconds. so you should try to get an inactivity timeout of aprox. 30 sec. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FINALY: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please also read carefully FREC.CFG and FSEND.CFG. FSEND and FREC are updated either if there is a serious bug or if some new or requested features were added. The documentation is updated, if there is time in the authors 36 hour day :-). Looking backwards, Frec was a 'partial' success. More then 90 % of users only 'misuses' Frec as a converter for Binkley raw faxes (as originally R2T has done). Quite a lot of users (mainly in USA) were 'forced' by me to change from R2T to Frec, but they never try to use Frec as a fax receiver. Frec and its 'debug file' has teached a lot of people how fax reception works and has shrinked the mistery, named FAX :-) <end of doc>