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Pro Power Tips 1.0A (c) 1992 Scanlon Enterprises
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
OTHER POWER TIPS
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
This section is devoted to tips which do NOT fit previous
categories. This does NOT mean they are LESS important. These
tips include tips for printers, using modems, and other hardware
devices.
One of the most important items for business, is computer
security, I hope the following will aid in this endeavor.
System Security
If you are the owner of a 286 or 386 system then you have the
means to add additional security to your system. If you don't
want un-authorized users, putting software on your system, which
may be infected by a virus, then this procedure will work for
you. This procedure requires access to the Bios Setup. If you
have an older AT without a Bios Setup (you have to run an
external program to set the Bios), then I suggest you upgrade.
First, reboot your system (hard reset, not <Ctrl><Alt><Del>) and
during the reboot process your system will suggest entering the
Setup Option by pressing a certain keystroke, usually
<Ctrl><Alt><ESC>. NOTE, on some newer systems, you don't even
have to reboot to use the HOT key sequence to start the Bios
Setup. If you have one of the older machines, without a Bios
Setup, pull out your Setup Disk, and start Setup from there.
Once setup is started, select the Floppy Drive Option, and set
The Drive to NONE. Before changing the current setting to NONE,
write down the current setting and place the note with other
important papers, you have regular access to. Now select exit
and reboot. Your system will now think, you don't have floppy
drives. If your system has two floppy drives, be sure to set
both to NONE. When the time comes to update software, or add a
new application, simply start your Bios Setup (as per above) and
reset your Floppy Drive(s) selection(s) back to their original
settings, and reboot. Perform the software installation or
change (update), then redo the above procedure to set the
Floppy(s) to NONE. Now unauthorized persons can't bring unwanted
software to your system.
External Modems Light Up
If your external modem is having trouble making a connection,
you might want to check the headlights (front panel lights).
When the modem is powered up, the modem ready (MR) light should
come on. The terminal ready (TR) light tells you, that the modem
and your PC are in communications, and are ready to make a call.
If you've set the modem to answer the phone, the auto answer
(AA) light will be on. And, whenever the modem "picks up the
phone", the off hook (OH) light should light. Once your modem
and the remote modem make a connection, the carrier detect (CD)
light is supposed to come on. While the modem is sending and
receiving data, the receive date (RD) and send data (SD) lights
will flicker. As soon as the connection is severed, the carrier
detect light (CD) should go off. If your modem lights behave
differently than the above, you may, have a hardware problem. If
this is the case, call your modem manufacturers technical
support line and report what your lights show (light
combinations).
Power Definitions
AUDIT - Automated Data Input Terminal, a hand held terminal that
stock brokers use to key in stock transactions.
BBS - Bulletin Board System - An online computer service that
functions as a centralized information source. Users connect
with a BBS using a modem to download and upload and leave
messages to each other.
BOOT SECTOR - The first sector on any computer disk, on the
first track. This sector contains enough information defining
the disk's layout and programming code to load the Disk
Operating System.
BROKER WORKSTATION - A specialized personal computer used to
calculate the type and number of stock transactions a broker
would have to make at a certain market price.
DATABASE SERVER - A specialized node on a local area network
system, that handles database management.
DATA DICTIONARY - A file that lists all the data formats, files
and relationships in a database.
DATA ENCRYPTION - Information is transformed into a random (or
seemingly random) stream of bits to create a secrete code for
data security (and to confuse anyone trying to access the
information illegally).
DISK PARTITION TABLE - A data structure stored on the boot
sector (see BOOT SECTOR above) that describes how information is
laid out on the disk.
EXPERT SYSTEM - Considered a form of artificial intelligence, it
is a computer software system, that uses stored information to
draw conclusions about a particular issue or problem.
FAT (FILE ALLOCATION TABLE) - The FAT tells DOS where to fine a
file. It's a chart of numbers, that correspond to cluster
addresses on the disk. When you or a program, you're using,
requests a file, DOS goes from address to address in the FAT
finding out where a files clusters are stored on disk, then DOS
goes to each cluster so derived to get the information there-in.
FLOATING DEFECTS - Defects on a disk that suddenly appear due to
the drifting alignment of the drive heads. These defects may not
have been noticed previously because they were located between
tracks.
HIGH DOS - The area of RAM located between 640K AND 1024K. This
384K of memory is reserved for system use for such things as
video memory and network interface cards. Memory managers can
utilize some unused portions of High DOS for programs such as
TSR's.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) - An all digital
telephone line that is capable of transmitting digital data as
well as voice without a modem.
LAN (Local Area Network) - A LAN, is a system of linking PC's so
that users may share resources. A LAN lets you share files as
well as devices such as printers or CD-ROM devices.
NOS (Network Operating System) - A NOS coordinates a networks
primary functions such as file transfer and print queuing.
Banyan's Vines, Novell's Netware and Microsoft's Lan Manager,
are examples of network operating systems.
PASCAL - The computer programming language taught in most
beginning computer science courses. Because it's relatively easy
to learn, PASCAL, is the language of choice in colleges and
universities.
PIM (Personal Information Manager) - A database management
system that stores and retrieves personal information, such as
notes, memos, addresses and appointments.
REAL MODE - An operating mode for an 80386 microprocessor. In
this mode the 386, acts like, an 8088 processor, so only 640K
RAM is available for use.
SECTOR HEADER - A block of data that appears at the beginning of
each sector on a disk. Information in the sector header lists
the sector's physical address, including the track number,
surface number and the sector number around the track.
STEPPING MOTOR - The mechanical motor that positions the read
and write heads over the correct tracks on the platter of a hard
disk system.
TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident Program) - Also called a Memory
Resident or Pop-Up program. A software system, that stays in
memory while you are executing other applications. To get the
TSR's attention, it is common to set a Hot-Key sequence, which
causes the TSR to Pop-Up!
UMB (Upper Memory Block) - A free area of memory, between the
sections actually used by hardware, and in the 384K reserved
memory. A memory manager, like QRam can take advantage of these
upper memory blocks, by moving TSR's and Device Drivers into
that area.
V86 MODE (Virtual 8086 Mode) - A sub-mode, of the protected
operating mode, in an 80386 processor unit. When using the V86
mode, the 386 is able to simulate the 8086 processor, operating
in Real Mode.
VIRTUAL DISK - An imaginary disk that is contained in RAM.
Virtual disks can speed up some operations on your PC by
eliminating hard disk accesses.
Money-Saving Protocols
If you transfer large files with a high-speed modem (9600 baud
or faster), you can save time and money by using an asynchronous
error-checking protocol, such as ZMODEM, windowed XMODEM or
windowed KERMIT. Synchronous protocols like XMODEM and YMODEM
send a block of data and wait for the remote PC to check the
block of data before sending another, leaving periods of idle
time on the line between blocks. Asynchronous protocols transmit
data in one continuous stream, enabling you to make cost
efficient use of all you phone line time.
Now You See It With Procomm
With Procomm and Procomm Plus, some monochrome monitors don't
display all the text or highlighting of the help screens. If
missing text is a problem, try starting the program with the
"/B" option, to use ProComm's black and white settings. Type
"ProComm/B" and you'll be able to see the status line and all
text.
Procomm's Handy On-Line Log
To capture data easily during an on-line session, use Procomm
Plus's Log File command instead of the usual method, which
requires you to select a protocol and enter a filename. To begin
recording just press <Alt><F1> and either enter a file name or
simply press <ENTER> for the default file name "PCPLUS.LOG".
Press <Alt><F1> again to finish recording . If you want to pause
the log to skip over extraneous on-screen data, press <Alt><F2>;
to continue, hit <Alt><F2> again. To read the log, press <Alt>-V
and enter the file name.
Speedy Norton Menus
Batch File menus made with Norton Utilities' Batch Enhancer (BE)
can be very slow if there are many BE commands, because BE.EXE
must execute (read from disk) for each BE command. To speed up
the process, place all your BE commands in one text file. Now,
you can launch your menu from a batch file from a batch command
line of "BE filename", where filename is the file containing all
the BE commands.
From the Oven to the Laser
In humid climates, laser printers can warp the paper coming out
of them and seal envelopes as well. If you have this problem,
try baking your paper and envelopes in the oven at 125 to 150
degrees, for 1 to 2 hours, prior to printing.
Norton MCI From Anywhere
Norton Commander 3.0 users can write MCI Mail with any Word
Processor, as long as the letter starts as follows :
Via: 1
To: MCI mailbox
Subject: Subject
After the letter is complete, save it as an ASCII file in
Commander's OUT directory, and it will be sent out the next time
Commander logs on to MCI. If you wish to attach a binary file,
insert the line "Attach: drive:\path\ filename" between the
"To:" and the "Subject:" lines.
LaserJet Toner Down but NOT out
If your LaserJet printer turns out pages with vertical streaks
on them, you're running out of toner. Don't throw that cartridge
away, yet. Take the cartridge out, hold it by the handle and the
opposite side, rock it gently back and forth several times, to
redistribute the toner. Now, you can print several hundred more
copies. This is also a good bet for copiers.
Easy Exchange Between Compuserve and MCI Mail
It's easy to exchange messages between Compuserve's Easy Mail
and Mci Mail. Just address as follows, inserting MCI and
Compuserve ID numbers in place of the #s. From Compuserve to MCI
: TO >MCIMAIL ###.#### from MCI to Compuserve : TO EMS |
Compuserve MBX : #####,###
Crosstalk's Screen Snapshots
During an on-line session, you may need to save a screen of data
to disk, such as a new host system's commands. Crosstalk XVI+
has an obscure command that saves a snapshot of a screen to an
ASCII file. Press "<ESC>pi <ENTER>" during the session, and
enter a path and the file name.
Run Programs Full Screen Under Desqview
If you want an application to always open full screen in
Desqview, take these steps. In the Change a Program Advance
Options screen, give the program a 'Starting Height' of 25, a
'Starting Width' of 80 and both a 'Starting Row' and 'Starting
Column' of 0. Now when you launch the application, it will run
full screen.
Speeding Modem Dialing Through Office PBX's
If you have a nonstandard dial tone on your office phone system,
you may have to tweak your modem's attention (using AT) command
strings. Start your communications software, enter it's setup
menu, and under modem setup, find the strings that begin with
"AT". the modem's initialization string (the longest string,
usually), add S6=n, where 'n' is any number, in seconds (2 or
greater) which your system takes to get an outside line (dial
tone). Setting the S6 register forces the modem to stop
listening for dial tone, after the 'n' number of seconds, and to
begin the dial sequence. You can further speed dialing after the
modem gets an outside line by adding W to the tail end of the
command string that starts with "ATDT". This sets the modem to
dial the phone number immediately once it hears a normal dial
tone rather than wait the entire duration set by register S6.
Swap Mouse Buttons
By default, PC Tools Deluxe's shell program doesn't care which
mouse button you use to open menus or select a file. But if you
want to copy, delete, or otherwise manipulate a group of files,
you must use the left mouse button. If you're left-handed,
however, this can be a pain. The solution: Swap the mouse button
functions by using "PCSHELL /LE" at the DOS prompt, to load the
shell.
Easy LaserJet Printing With Norton Utilities
Norton Utilities 4.5's LP (Line Print) program assumes you can
print 66 lines per page, but the HP Laser Jet allows only 62. In
order to use LP easily with the LaserJet, create a simple one-
line batch file of : "LP %1 /H62". Call it HPLP.BAT and put it
in a directory listed in your system PATH variable. Then from
any DOS prompt, enter HPLP filename, where filename is the file
to print.
Chameleon PaintBrush
A lot of people use PaintBrush in more than one video mode or
with different printers. Instead of running PBSETUP to change
PaintBrush's defaults, create variations on the PAINT.BAT file
generated when the program is first installed. Say for example,
that your system (and PAINT.BAT) is currently configured for 256
colors at 640 x 480, yet you sometimes need to run the program
with 16 colors. Rename PAINT.BAT to "256.BAT", run PBSETUP, and
generate a new PAINT.BAT with the appropriate settings. Exit
PBSETUP, and rename that new PAINT.BAT to "16.BAT". Now, you can
run PaintBrush in either mode with a few keystrokes.
Modem Trick, Don't Compress Compressed Files
If you own a modem with built in data compression (using MNP-5
or V.42bis), be sure to turn off the modem compression when
downloading or uploading files which are already compressed,
with utilities such as ARC, LHA and ZIP. Uploading or
Downloading a previously compressed file with a data compressing
modem, takes more time, than up or down loading the file without
the modem compression. Check your modem manual for instructions
on how to turn off your modem compression.
DeskJet 80 Column Help
HP DeskJet printers provide near laser-quality printing at a
much lower price. There are, however, drawbacks. For one, the
DeskJet prohibits you from printing close to the edge of the
paper, so text files with 80 column lines don't always print
correctly. To fix this problem, create the following one line
batch file, calling it something like DJ80C.BAT.
ECHO [(s1Q[&a5[&L7.27c[&k11.25H>PRN
Replace the above "[" bracket characters with <ESC>. Many text
editors allow entering the <ESC> character, by holding the <Alt>
key down and entering "27" from the numeric keypad. If your text
editor or word processor do NOT support this feature, use EDLIN,
which comes with DOS.
ProComm and Auto Scripts
Users of the popular shareware telecommunications package,
ProComm can take advantage of ProComm's script language and
automatically log on to Delphi and other online systems. The
following is a listing of a ProComm script file that will dial
the Telenet number stored as Number 1, in the dialing directory
and automatically log on to the Delphi at 8 bits, 1 stop bit and
no parity.
DIAL "1"
WAIT "3"
TRANSMIT "!D!"
WAITFOR "@"
TRANSMIT "C DELPHI"
WAITFOR "Terminal="
TRANSMIT "D1!"
WAITFOR "Username:"
TRANSMIT "{YOUR NAME}"
WAITFOR "Password:"
TRANSMIT "{YOUR PASSWORD}"
WAITFOR "MAIN >"
TRANSMIT "GR PC"
For more information on the ProComm script language, see the
ProComm's documentation. Procomm is available for downloading
from most major BBS systems. Many other communications programs
also support script languages of their own. The above script
listing, can be converted to other script languages with
relative ease.
Pascal TypeCasting
Typecasting in Turbo Pascal 4.0 works very well, on variables
and values. However, if you try to typecast a function result to
match a variable, you will run into trouble. A solution to this
problem, is to typecast the variable to match the function
result. An example : POINTER(LongIntVar) :=PointerFunction;
Special Guest Tip, from Jim Hood, Author of Prof. PC Laptop
Tutor. If you have a Laptop computer you should order your copy
of his great product.
The Traveling Laptop
Laptops are made to travel. Their small size and potent features
make computing on the road a snap. Consider using this
assortment of tips which seasoned laptop owners have come to
rely on....
Airports are a frequent transit point for laptop owners. Be sure
to be prepared for a SPEEDY passage through airport security by
being aware that in most cases you MUST boot up the laptop so
that a DOS prompt, menu or other sign of visible activity is
displayed on the screen. Security officials do this for a
reason: if a laptop computer has been tampered with or hollowed
out to serve as an empty shell for explosives or weapons, the
machine will not boot up or operate. By forcing the laptop owner
to activate the machine, airport security is effectively
screening for tampered machines.
Once you know this, several important tips are quite useful.
Always carry a BOTH a fully charged battery and AC adapter with
the laptop. No power means no possibility of booting the machine
and your laptop might be forced to remain behind!
To speed the process on laptops equipped with hard drives try an
experiment. Prepare a bootable floppy disk with DOS system files
and a short AUTOEXEC.BAT program which boots the machine rapidly
since DOS usually tries to boot from a floppy first and then the
hard drive second. Now time how long it takes to boot from the
floppy as well as the hard drive. Whichever is faster is the one
you want to use to speed your trip through airport security. But
ALWAYS take the bootable floppy as well. Why? If your laptop
hard drive becomes damaged in transit - a possibility in today's
airport environments - then you have a floppy backup which will
also get you through airport security.
This Tip is From The PC Professor Laptop Tutor, by Jim Hood. For
more information on this product please see the description in
the sub section "SOFTWARE SPECIALS", in the section "Software
Directory". PC-Learn is a MUST have for anyone using a computer
and wants the most from their system.
Here is another tip from Jim Hood. For more of this type of
information, order your copy of PC-Learn
Alternate Power
Beginners also need to know about the alternate keyboard.
Sometimes you need a special symbol like the cents sign, the
British currency (pounds sterling) symbol, or the one half
fraction sign. IBM compatible computers contain an "alternate
keyboard" system which allows access to special math, foreign
language and graphics symbols. The source is a special ASCII
chart printed in the appendix of your DOS manual as well as most
computer reference books. It's easy to use this system: while
you are in your word processor, DOS or other program, press AND
CONTINUOUSLY HOLD DOWN the Alt key and then USING ONLY THE
NUMBER KEYS ON THE NUMERIC KEYPAD (to the right of the keyboard,
not the normal number keys above the keyboard) hit the three
digit DECIMAL number code of the special character you need.
For example, from the ASCII table in the back of my DOS manual I
note that the symbol for the British currency Pound is decimal
code 156. I hold down the Alt key, press in sequence the three
numbers 156 on the numeric keypad and finally release the ALT
key to get the proper symbol on my screen.
There are many useful symbols for foreign languages, math,
fractions, foreign currency, symbols to draw boxes, lines and
useful graphics symbols. Note that these ASCII symbols will
usually display properly on your screen but MIGHT NOT print
properly on your printer since some are used for special control
codes and other activities. Many will, however, display on both
your screen and printer.
Jot down the codes for the most interesting ASCII symbols to
keep near your keyboard! By the way, PC-Magazine published a
shareware utility called ASC.COM several years ago (available
from many computer clubs and BBS systems) which can "pop up"
over many of your programs and display the full ASCII code table
for quick reference and handy use if you don't want to go
searching for the ASCII index in the back of your DOS manual.
Before leaving the discussion about the alternate keyboard, note
that crucial control of your printer - setting various typefaces
and features - can be provided via a combination of batch files
and use of the alternate keyboard. See the printer discussion at
the end of the PC-Learn batch file tutorial elsewhere on this
disk.
This Tip is From The PC-Learn, A PC Tutor, by Jim Hood. For more
information on this product please see the description in the
sub section "SOFTWARE SPECIALS", in the section "Software
Directory". PC-Learn is a MUST have for anyone using a computer
and wants the most from their system.
Section finished. Be sure to order your THREE BONUS DISKS which
expand this software package with vital tools, updates and
additional tutorial material for computer users! Send $24.95 to
Scanlon Enterprises, Department TIP, 38354 17th St. E.,
Palmdale, CA 93550. Bonus disks shipped promptly! Modifications,
custom program versions, Site and LAN licenses of this package
for business or corporate use are possible, contact the author.
This software is shareware - an honor system which means TRY
BEFORE YOU BUY. Press escape key to return to menu.