PC Pro 1996 November

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Dunce v. 2.3 (c) 1996 Vector Development ABOUT: Dunce (or Dial-Up Networking Connection Enhancement) allows for much easier dial-up networking than Win95 currently provides. The program will automatically press "connect" for you on the "Connect To" dialog box, redial your Internet Provider indefinitely (even from within another application), and auto-reconnect if you get unexpectedly dropped. Furthermore it can optionally run applications when you are connected and force connections at a given time. 2.0 Also adds MSN Support and support for international versions of Windows. Dunce will also type in your password in the Connect To Dialog. VECTOR DEVELOPMENT: Vector Development is committed to creating shareware solutions for you! We create our products on both the Macintosh and Windows/DOS Platforms. Please, send any comments to the addresses below. LICENSE: You may use Dunce freely on your computer system. You may distribute Dunce freely on Online Services. You may NOT sell copies of Dunce (i.e. disk vendors) without express permission from Vector Development (terms normally include a copy of the distribution disk/cd). You may NOT decompile, reverse engineer, or modify Dunce or its resources. You may NOT modify the dunce2.3.zip (sometimes dunce2_3.zip) file or its contents. WARRANTY: USE OF THIS PROGRAM IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU AGREE BY USING THIS PROGRAM TO HOLD HARMLESS VECTOR DEVELOPMENT AGAINST DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM. EVEN IF VECTOR DEVELOPMENT WAS NOTIFIED IN ADVANCE THAT SUCH DAMAGES MIGHT OCCUR. DONATIONS: Some users have asked how to make Donations to the developer of this utility. If you would like to make a donation you can send it to. Vector Development 3735 SW Sena Dr. Topeka, KS 66604-1754 PLEASE MAKE ALL CHECKS PAYABLE TO: Benjamin F. Reser INSTALLATION: * Before you do anything if you've been using a previous copy of Dunce delete the shortcut in the StartUp Items, just trust me on this one okay. Also make sure that you Quit out of the old version of Dunce, you can do this by Right Clicking on the small icon next to the clock in your taskbar and then clicking on the Quit button. * Now expand Dunce into a directory of its own, probably c:\dunce, with whatever program you use to extract zip files. * Now all you have to do is run the dunce.exe file. * Dunce will prompt you if you want it to install it as a StartUp Item. Please say Yes to this prompt. Dunce will only work if it is loaded. You can load it manually whenever you want it if you want but it is so small that there is little reason for this. USING DUNCE: How do I use Dunce? Well this question is easy to answer. You just install it and then you use Dial-Up Networking the way you did before. Dunce does *NOT* replace the dialer, it mearly interfaces with it. Please read the rest of the documentation for setup and features. THE MAIN DIALOG: Now that you have Dunce installed on your system we can begin looking at its features. When you first run Dunce a splash screen will be displayed (this is a once per version screen so don't worry about it). After that the main dialog is displayed. Once again this dialog is only brought up the *VERY* first time. This dialog is the control center of Dunce everything is either located in this dialog or can be accessed from this dialog. There are two methods of bringing this dialog up. You may run the dunce.exe program (by double clicking on it or selecting it from the Start Menu if you added it) or from the Tray, which we will deal with later. The following are the options in the main dialog and exactly what they do: * Connect To Dialog: This checkbox controls if Dunce presses connect on the Connect To dialog, this is really a necessity but if you don't want Dunce to press the connect button for you it can be turned off. The edit box right beside it sets the number of seconds Dunce waits after detecting the dialog box before pressing connect for you. * Force Redial if line is busy: This feature will cause Dunce to press okay on the dialog that comes up telling you that the line is busy. The edit box next to it again corresponds to the amount of time Dunce waits after seeing this box, this can be useful to give modems time to reset. Note: This should not be a replacement for the redial feature in the Dial-Up Networking folder, this feature is really for those of you who are using AutoDial so that when you run a program that requires a network socket it starts the connection to your provider. When dialing in this way Dial-Up Networking will *NOT* redial that's were Dunce comes in. * Force Reconnect if Disconnected: This feature causes Dunce to respond OK to the Reestablish Connection Dialog. Again the edit box sets the time Dunce waits before responding after seeing the dialog. Note: If you want Dunce to hit Cancel to this dialog open up the ini file make change the ForceReconnect= setting to 2. Like: ForceReconnect=2. This may be necessary in some cases where you are using Automated Connections and you ISP drops on you since DUN won't allow another connection until that box is responded to. Sorry, this doesn't have a user-interface it got thrown in at the last minute. You have to quit Dunce and restart it before this takes effect (the Cancel feature that is, the OK feature doesn't require that). * Minimize Connected Dialog: When the Connected To dialog telling you that you have been connected to the service comes up Dunce will minimize it after the amount of time specified in the edit box to the right of this check box. Note: This feature really doesn't work with OSR2 so I have disabled it if you are running OSR2. * Expand Details: When the Connected To dialog shows up this makes it so it automatically expands the dialog out to show you what protocol the connection was done under. There is no edit box on this feature to control how long after seeing the dialog it does this. However, it uses the same time settings as the Minimize Connected Dialog feature does. Again, this isn't really necessary with OSR2 but I left it enabled since it works, why you got me. * Tray Item: Yes, I know I skipped some stuff I will come back to it in a sec. This enables a tray item. You ask what is a tray item. A tray item is a small icon that sits on the lower right hand corner of your taskbar (for most people) next to the clock. The tray item has three uses. First of all it tells you Dunce is running. Second, it gives you an easy way to turn Dunce off. Just left click on the icon and it will toggle Dunce's features off and on. Third, you can access the Main Dialog by Right Click on it. Cool, ehh. * Password: This lets Dunce type in a Password for you in the Connect To Dialog Box. Obviously the box to the right of this checkbox contains the password that Dunce will enter. This is useful if you can't use Password Caching built into 95 or if yours is broken (which is the case for many people who have upgraded to Service Pack 1, see the Dunce tips WWW page for more info on this). Note: This password and any others Dunce saves is *NOT* secure, you cannot rely on someone not being smart enough not to just look it up in the .ini file. Vector Development takes no responsibility for anything that happens if someone steals your password from here. For most home users this shouldn't be a problem. See the To Do List for the status of Encryption on this feature. * AutoLoad Dunce on Startup: This lets you toggle if Dunce is installed as a program to load when Windows95 starts up in the registry. More than likely you will always leave this checked. Note: There is no corresponding .ini setting to this feature. Dunce looks to see if its path matches the one in the Registry. * Run: This checkbox toggles if Dunce will Run programs at various times during your connection. This feature is *NOT* compatible with MSN connections, Sorry. To configure it click on the Run Options button, information on that dialog is found below. * MSN: This checkbox toggles MSN features. There are only two and they are covered under the information on the MSN Setup Dialog below. To get to this dialog you click on MSN Settings button. * Automated Connections: This toggles Automated Connections being on or off. You can configure this feature by clicking on the Settings button to the right of this checkbox. * About: Brings up a simple about box with my email and some web pages that might be of interest to you. I particularly suggest you look at the page listed under tips. * Quit: This unloads Dunce from memory and makes all of its features unusable until it is run again. Unusual to use unless your testing a lot like me. * OK: The Normal, just saves what you changed and closes the dialog. * Cancel: Cancels the changes and closes the dialog. RUN OPTIONS DIALOG: This tabbed dialog lets you easily access the 4 run items. Each item has its own tab and each item has the same settings so we will only cover what each control does once. * Item Active: This checkbox controls if this item is Active for manually or Auto-Dial connections (i.e. connections that you either double clicked on the connection icon to start or ones that a WinSock program started). This does not control if an item is active for Dunce's Automated Connections. * Active for Automated Connections: This checkbox toggles if this item will be run when Dunce executes an Automated Connection. See the Automated Connections Dialog for more info on this. * Allow Multiple Instances of Program: If this checkbox is checked even if a copy of the program is already running Dunce will start another copy. This can be annoying if you get disconnected from the net and Dunce reconnects you and then runs another copy of Netscape for instance. This box is really a override box so you probably will leave it unchecked. * Application: This Edit Box contains the name and full path to the executable that will be run for this item. If you use a path name that has a space in it (Long File Name) then you must enclose that path in quotes. This is because Dunce uses the first space it sees as the beginning of command line parameters that some programs use. For instance if you wanted to have a program with a command line parameter that used a long file name also you would type: "c:\Connect Time Monitor\ccm30.exe" 1 where the 1 is the command line parameter. * Browse: This button brings up a dialog box that will let you select the application that you want to run. * Default Directory: This Edit Box defaults to the directory that the application is in and changes itself to such if you change the application. However, you can change this if you want a program to look for files initially in a different directory. This is especially useful to start different copies of programs like Pegasus so that they use different .ini files. * Run When Dialog Appears: This group of Radio Buttons allows you to tell Dunce when to run the program. Each radio box corresponds to the name of a dialog that Dial-Up Networking Displays as it connects you. If your unsure about what to set this to set it to Connected To. * Run Styles: This group of Radio Buttons allows you to tell Dunce how to run the program. I think the names of the buttons are obvious other than Normal which means what would happen if you just double-clicked and didn't have any special properties setup for that application. MICROSOFT NETWORK SETTINGS: This small dialog controls the two features of Dunce that relate to the Microsoft Network. Unlike previous versions of Dunce you no longer have to enter the path of the Guide.exe file. * Delay Sign In Dialog: This tells Dunce to click Connect after it sees the Sign In Dialog. It waits the number of seconds specified in the edit box to the right. * Quick Shutdown: This tells Dunce that when Microsoft Network asks if your sure you want to disconnect to say Yes. Dunce does this immediately. There is no delay. AUTOMATED CONNECTION SETTINGS: This is probably the most confusing dialog in Dunce. It allows you to control when Dunce will activate a given connection without you even being there. Really useful, ehh? * Connection Name: This drop-down box lists all of the connections on your system. You select the connection that you want Dunce to dial into at the specified time below here. * Setup: This button allows you to get to the property sheet of the Connection so that you can change phone numbers etc... * Password: This is the password to use for this connection. This is a separate password from the one in the main dialog and is stored separately. Even if you are using Password Caching you *MUST* fill this field in order for Dunce to be able to use it. If you aren't using the Password box in the Connect To dialog found in standard Dial-Up Networking and are just use a hard coded script then you can leave this blank. * Redial: This sets the number of times Dunce will attempt to connect for a given Automated Connection. This has no effect on other connection types. * Connect at: This is the time that Dunce will Connect at. I think this is self-explanatory for the most part. * Disconnect at: This is the time that Dunce will Disconnect at. This event will only occur if Dunce made the connection. * Repeat every: Repeats this process every x number of hours as the box says. Example: Dunce is setup to connect at 8:00 am and disconnect at 8:15 am. If the repeat hour rate is set to 2 hours then Dunce will also connect at 10:00 am and disconnect at 10:15 am and also at 12:00 PM and 12:15 PM and so on... * Run Items: This tells Dunce if you want it to run some of the run Items that are checked as Active for Automated Connections. This toggles all of them on or off. * Run Options: This button brings up the Run Options Dialog see above for more info on this. INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT: Dunce now supports all versions of Windows to my knowledge!!! This requires no intervention from the user, Dunce detects your version on the fly. Enjoy! SHIFT KEY: As each segment of the connection (i.e. Connect To, Connecting, and Connected, corresponds to the dialogs) begins if you hold down the shift key for a short time Dunce will not load the run items associated with that segment. DISTRIBUTION: dunce2.3.zip contains the following files, if your copy does not have ALL of these files please send me an email as to where you got it and download a complete copy from Vector's Web Site (see below for address info.) dunce.exe 202,637 bytes dunce.txt 21,982 bytes file_id.diz 432 bytes ICON CONTEST: Thanx to David A. Karp of Creative Element for the icon. I love it. Check out his Windows Annoyances Page it's great. Tells you how to get rid of lots of those things you just wish would go away in Windows 95. http://www.creativelement.com/win95ann/ TIPS PAGE: Vector Development maintains a tips page that contains information on how to do lots of things that people commonly ask for. PLEASE look at this page before sending an email. The addresses for the web page is: http://www.cjnetworks.com/~vecdev/vector/tips.html TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR SEND: Internet email to: vecdev@cjnetworks.com MSN: ResDev U.S. Mail: 3735 SW Sena Dr. Topeka, KS 66604-1754 IRC: ResDev on #win95-net Voice: (913) 271-2175 WWW: http://www.cjnetworks.com/~vecdev/vector/ Look for updates on my WWW site periodically. Please note I can't always respond to all your messages, I attempt to but it doesn't always happen. Please be patient. Remember look at the Tips Page before sending email about something. BUG REPORTS: When reporting a bug always include the following: 1) A detailed description of the bug. 2) A copy of your DUNCE.INI 3) What version your running. 4) What other applications or items in the startup folder were running when the error occurred. 5) Anything special about your install i.e. if your not running the English version of 95 or some other special version of 95. It is best if you use the bug reporting form located at: http://www.cjnetworks.com/~vecdev/vector/duncebug.html Doing these three things will speed up my bug fixes. POSTCARD OFFER: Vector Development is offering a PostCard Offer, send a PostCard to us and we will notify you of updates and new products. Include a mailing address and an email address. This service is absolutely free and does not constitute registration since there is none. We will except letters as well especially if they include comments!! Please send to: Vector Development C/O Dunce Postcard 3735 SW Sena Dr. Topeka, KS 66604-1754 DUNCE-L: This is something new, Subscribing to this lists means that I will send you notification of updates and bugs as I know of them. To subscribe: * Go to: http://www.cjnetworks.com/~vecdev/vector/duncel.html and follow the steps there. OR * Send an email to majordomo@datacrit.com which in the contents of it says: SUBSCRIBE DUNCE and no subject. Do not put SUBSCRIBE DUNCE in the subject line it will *NOT* work. It must be in the body or contents of the message. KNOWN BUGS: Some people are still having problems with the following: Force Reconnect if Disconnected Runs sometimes still happen at odd ball times. FUTURE PLANS: 1) Encrypting the Passwords Dunce stores (I won't do this until I have a good routine, no lame routines like WS_FTP that can be hacked easy). 2) Adding support for multiple ISP's with different settings for each. 3) Additional support for the OSR2 DUN. 4) Rotating phone numbers. 5) More freedom on number of Run Items. 6) More freedom on times for Automated Connections. 7) Perhaps a smart cancel system in which if you click cancel on the Connecting to... Dialog it won't by pass the Connect To box. 8) Script editing. 9) Scripting/Bat support of run options. 10) Misc. other things I have forgotten to put here... HISTORY: 1.0 Dunce v. 1.0 Initial Release! 1.1 Became Freeware, added postcard offer, repaired Grayed Dialog Box Problem. Splash Screen is a one time deal now. 1.2 Added time-out adjustments for all of the features (run excluded for obvious reasons). Added the run on connect feature. Finally fixed the obnoxious bring to front bug (well sorta). 1.3 Added the minimize feature. Fixed some very stupid typos and actually fixed the bring to the front (z-order) bug. Multiple copies of the options dialog will no longer come up. 1.3.1 Fixes the GPF and adds the Quit button. 1.3.2 Repairs another GPF only one report of this. 2.0 Added Multiple Runs, Tray Support, Timed Connections, MSN support, and International Support. Fixed Minimize bug, Selection of when the item runs, and other things I can't think of right now. 2.0.1 Fixes the Connect To Run Options Problem. Fixes the Reconnect and Redial bug. It also fixes the problem with the time on the Connect To Dialog. Adds the Password Feature. 2.0.2 Fixes the following bugs: Wouldn't always disconnect on timed connections Default directory on runs Multiple parameters for run lines. 2.3 Fixes the following bugs: * No longer runs duplicate copies of apps (you can override this though) * The AM/PM bug in Automated Connections (formerly Timed Connections) * The tray icon's disabled state is now visible to the color blink, looks nicer anyway. * The File button in Run Options now works consistently. * No loner have to restart before new settings in Automated Connections take effect. * The About Button no longer gives an error message (okay so I wimped out on this one and took out the stuff that cause the problem). * No longer fails on OSR2 (if you know what this is good otherwise don't worry about it). * Run Items for Automated Connections now work even if you have Run Items on the Main Dialog disabled. * Not really a bug but I increased the time limit for the timeouts. New Stuff: * Tabbed Dialog for Run Options. * Default Directory on Run Items. * You can run things Minimized, Maximized or Normal. * Expand Details. * Reworked Automated Connections TOTALLY. * You no longer need a shortcut on the desktop for Automated Connections. * You no longer need to enter the path to Guide.exe * AutoLoad feature so you no longer need to manually put a shortcut in the StartUp folder. * And some stuff I can't remember. Special Thanx for 1.x Thanx to mook, Nominal, Hunter, berky, mx-3, and all the others who reviewed 1.0 and made suggestions to me!!! Sorry if I left someone out I'm sure I did. Special Thanx for 2.0 Holzer, codeman, StealthM, Aarto, and a few others who I don't remember for Beta Testing. Holzer your work made Dunce one of the most tested freeware apps available :) Scott Craig, and Deanis for their help in implementing the Tray Item. http://www.windows95.com for distributing it. Special Thanx for 2.3 Holzer, StealthM, Herodotus, Brian Emanuels, and many more for either finding bugs or letting me know when they existed. B.E. esp. for the help on OSR2. Alan for your wonderful help on lots of things especially the Process walking code. Your a great friend, best of luck to you and FTPx. As with any program I must thank my Beta Testers. Unfortunately, that list has grown too large to put here. You know who you are. You guys make Dunce great.