Chip 1997 July

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S H A R E W A R E J E W E L S Shareware software has been mentioned throughout this book. For recommended modem shareware software, see the section on modem software. This section on "Shareware Jewels" will mention some of the better programs that can really help modem users. Shareware, or user-supported software, is a way of marketing software for the program's author. The manual for shareware is usually found on the disk, often in the form of a text file. Shareware software is copyrighted. The authors encourage you to copy their software and share it with friends. You can obtain shareware programs from shareware vendors, usually for just a few dollars per disk. This distribution charge does not cover the cost of the program. If you continue to use the software, you must send in the "registration fee." You can download shareware software from BBSs, online services, and the Internet for little or no cost. You can find out how to register a shareware program by reading the manual. If you try it and don't wish to continue using the software, you owe the author nothing. This lets the user try the program first. When you register shareware software, you often get additional benefits. Depending on the author, you may get: free updates of the latest version, telephone support, a bound manual, customization, and other goodies. Where else can you "TRY BEFORE YOU BUY"? Shareware software is becoming more popular all the time due to the geometric increase of excellent programs. In almost any computer magazine you will find advertisements for shareware software. Public domain software is another type of software. Public domain software is not copyrighted and can be freely distributed without restrictions. With public domain software the author wants nothing in return for his efforts. Freeware is a type of software that is similar to public domain software. A freeware program is copyrighted and has copyright restrictions; however, the author is not requesting a registration fee. Most of these are shareware programs and can be obtained from shareware vendors or downloaded from a BBS or online service. They will enhance the time you spend doing modem work. BBSCAN Terry Huss P.O. Box #75 Winchester, KS 66097-0075 BBSCAN is a wonderful shareware utility to search BBS file lists and generate a sublist. It can hunt for a key word or phrase and can also do boolean searches using AND, OR, and NOT. First you download the ALLFILES list (which most BBSs make available). The ALLFILES list contains a listing of all the downloadable files on a particular BBS. Incidently, on the Internet, the master file list of downloadable files is often called something like "INDEX." Once you have such a master file list, you can scour the list on your own time off-line. You can use BBSCAN to automatically generate a list of the files about which you are interested. Suppose you are a chess player and downloaded an ALLFILES file and unzipped it. ALLFILES lists can be many megabytes in size. You would then use BBSCAN to search the ALLFILES list for the word "CHESS." It would create a list (on your screen) of all the files and their description that contained "CHESS." BBSCAN then gives you the option to create a text file containing the search results. With this personalized list, you can call the BBS again and efficiently download the desired files. BBSCAN is one of a few shareware utilities that can help change a modem weakling to a modem power user. BBSCAN is very easy to use. This one's a winner! COMSET P.O. Box 43214 Baltimore, MD 21236 COMSET is a shareware utility program to setup a communications port with a Hayes compatible smartmodem and gives the option of switching communications port assignments. It will also set COM port baud rates from 300 to 57,600 bps and test CTS/RTS handshaking needed in hardware flow control. INFOPLUS Infoplus BBS 708-537-0247 This is a modem number (14400/9600/2400/1200) Log in as INFOPLUS INFOPLUS is a public domain program that will give you 21 pages of information about your computer. This program will tell you almost anything you might want to know. Plus, it is very easy to use. It can help solve IRQ conflicts with modem installations. You can also use it to print out your CMOS RAM setup information. This program is available on most BBSs. The author runs his own BBS where the latest version is always available. LIST Vernon D. Buerg 139 White Oak Circle Petaluma, CA 94952. LIST is an extraordinary text viewer and more. It is an absolute must if you plan to use a modem. Virtually all power users rely on LIST. LIST is menu driven with "pop- up" help. With LIST, you can view text files and page up and page down to browse through files. LIST is very fast and can handle huge text files. BBSs often have big text files. For example, many have a file by the name of ALLFILES.ZIP (the extension sometimes varies) which contains the complete listing of all the downloadable files that are on the BBS. These are often huge (5 megabytes or more). You download the ALLFILES file and then use LIST to search for the desired files off-line on your own time. Press F (for find) and LIST will search for a key word or phrase. LIST has scores of other unique features. Copy LIST to a subdirectory in your computer's path, and then it will be available from any drive or directory. LOOKFOR David L. Trafton 6309 Stoneham Road Bethesda, MD 20817 LOOKFOR is an incredibly fast shareware search program that is used to scrutinize text files. Boolean search operators can be used (AND/OR) to find keywords or phrases. When a search is complete, you will be informed of the quantity of "hits." A "hit" is a successful search for a keyword or phrase. When "hits" are found the text can be scrolled or paged through. You can move to the next "hit" by just pressing the space bar. Any desired text may then be saved to a file or printed. A range of 100, 300, or 1000 characters can be specified for using the "AND" operator in a search query. This small program is menu driven with online help--which makes it easy to use. This is a marvelous program for any level user. MODEM DOCTOR P.O. Box 43214 Baltimore, MD 21236 MODEM DOCTOR is a shareware program by Hank Volpe that can diagnose modem problems. It checks out your serial ports, IRQ settings, and identifies and tests for a UART chip. The Modem Doctor tells you if your modem is working properly and can offer suggestions that may help you fix communication problems. I highly recommend the Modem Doctor. OZCIS Ozarks West Software 14150 Gleneagle Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80921 OZCIS is "front-end software" that automates access to CompuServe. OZCIS has excellent online help and mouse support. The e-mail features are particularly good. You compose your messages off-line. It can even do broadcast e-mail (where you send the same message to a bunch of people). After composing your messages, press a key or click your mouse. Then OZCIS will automatically call CompuServe, retrieve any waiting mail, and then send the outgoing mail. OZCIS then logs off. It does not waste time. It gets you on and gets you off as quickly as possible. Because OZCIS is so efficient, it saves you money. This program is free for personal use. PICK-UP Mark P. Harrison 6676 Robinson School Road New Athens, IL 62264 PICK-UP is a shareware file manager and upload helper for TELIX communications software. It is actually an accessory script for TELIX that automates the task of uploading messages and files. First, you write messages and save them as text files off-line. Then, when you are online with TELIX, pop-up PICK-UP to pick out from a list of files the one you want (please excuse the alliteration). Then press <ALT> S to automatically send the message. PICK-UP makes e-mail easy and saves you money. It also makes regular uploading of files easier. If you use TELIX, you will want to try PICK-UP. PKZ204G Pkware, Inc. 9025 North Deerwood Drive Brown Deer, WI 53223. PKZ204G is a self-extracting program that contains PKZIP, PKUNZIP, and other supporting files. PKZIP is a program for compressing files. PKUNZIP uncompresses ZIPped files. Zipped files can be recognized by their .ZIP extension. This new version can ZIP a directory and include the subdirectories. It also allows your ZIPped file to span multiple diskettes! If you intend to use a modem, you will find that most BBSs and many commercial online services store their files in ZIPped format. This means you will need to use PKUNZIP to unzip files. PRO-MASTER Gateway Software Inc. 1230 Market Street #402 San Francisco, CA 94102 This shareware program is ram-resident. It gives you a pop-up menu to get more control over Prodigy with nifty utilities and tools. PSEARCH Patri-Soft 5225 Canyon Crest Drive Suite 71-358 Riverside, CA 92507. PSEARCH will search multiple files for keywords or phrases. It will search an entire hard drive, or you can tell it to just search certain directories. Of course, wildcards can be used in the searches. PSEARCH then provides you with a list of documents that fit the search parameters, and they can be viewed one at a time. PSEARCH will view both text files and WordPerfect documents. It can also be used to find lost files. SHEZ California Software Design James Derr P.O. Box 15248 Santa Rosa, CA 95402 SHEZ is a shareware program for dealing with archive files. It is a shell that makes it easier to work with .ZIP, .LHA, .ZOO, .ARC, .ARJ, .SQZ, and .PAK files. Shez will run from DOS or Windows and can work with virus- killing software like VIRUSCAN (from McAffee Associates). If used in conjunction with VIRUSCAN (called SCAN for short), it can check an archived file for viruses and disinfect files that are in the archive. SHEZ gets rave reviews everywhere. SLEARN Paul Roub P.O. Box 141583 Coral Gables, FL 33114-1583 SLEARN is a program for Telix telecommunications software that will automatically write scripts. A script is a series of commands, instructions, or text that can be executed automatically by your telecommunications program. SLEARN makes it easy to make automatic logons to BBSs and online services. STEREO SHELL M.R.E. Software 150 Jones Street West Point, MS 39773. STEREO SHELL is a wonderful shell for running your hard drive. You can view two directories at once, which is where it got the name. Copying software to and from your hard drive and between directories is made simple. It can also use your favorite viewing utility (LIST) and your favorite editor. Stereo Shell is very fast and provides an easy-to-use interface to compress and uncompress files using all the popular archive formats. For example, it will automatically unzip a zipped file. If you don't want to use Stereo Shell, two other shareware programs that make it easy to deal with compressed files are SHEZ and WINZIP (for Windows). TAPCIS Support Group Inc. Lake Technology Park McHenry, MD 31541 TAPCIS is another front-end program for CompuServe, automating some of the tasks and making CompuServe easier to use. VIRUSCAN McAffee Associates 3350 Scott Boulevard Building 14 Santa Clara, CA 95054-3107 VIRUSCAN is considered by many around the world to be the industry standard in virus protection. This program has a list of over 2,000 viruses that it guards against. McAffee Associates make a collection of virus protection programs. In addition to VIRUSCAN they also have other products. These programs are updated often to keep up with the loathsome viruses that are generated by warped individuals. WINZIP Nico Mak P.O. Box 919 Bristol, CT 06011-0919 WINZIP is a Windows shareware program for viewing, running, extracting, adding, and deleting archived files such as .ZIP, .LHA, and .ARC. WINZIP has won many awards for its ease of use. WIZLINK WIZ-TEC Computing Technologies Inc. P.O. Box 80010 55 Castleridge Boulevard N.E. Calgary, AB Canada T3J 3L6 WIZLINK is a program that will let you control another computer from a remote computer. This shareware program can replace expensive commercial programs like pcAnywhere, Carbon Copy, etc. WIZLINK remote control software performs as if you were at the keyboard of the distant computer. It works over a modem or using a direct connection (null modem cable). WIZLINK will also work on a LAN (Local Area Network). WIZLINK uses only 7K of memory and runs in the background as a TSR on the host computer. It offers high speed file transfer, data compression, and password protection. One of the most desired features of WIZLINK is to allow the user to send and receive files. It is also great for technical support and customer service. Portable computer owners will find many uses for WIZLINK. WIZLINK is remarkably easy to set-up and the newest version has an e-mail feature called WIZMAIL. WIZLINK is for DOS-based remote control. If you need one to work with Windows, you will want to take a look at pcAnywhere or Filex, which are commercial software programs. THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET Suarez Associates P.O. Box 764 Miamisburg, Ohio 45343 This is a beginner's guide to the Internet. It is a computer-based tutorial with step-by-step instructions, covering the most important aspects of the Internet. The Beginner's Guide To The Internet is a shareware product. ======================================================= This section is finished. Copyright (c) 1995 by Steven Woas. All rights reserved. Registered users of Modem Workshop receive "Steve's Essential Internet Tips" as a bonus. See OTHER PRODUCTS at the main menu for a description and pricing on these exciting products: Detective Databases, 1995 edition Online Medical! Learning DOS for the Complete Novice, 2nd edition The Superhighwayman =======================================================