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NComm 1.8 - released 1 July 1989 // A terminal program for the \X/ AMIGA This program is FreeWare. It is freely distributable and is intended for personal use only. Sale of this program except for REASONABLE media costs is prohibited. NComm 1.8 written by Daniel Bloch. Based on Comm 1.34 by Dj James. ====================================================================== This program was developed using Lattice C, and is the result of a project started in Oslo in 1988, using the Rodeløkka (M)BBS to coordinate the initial efforts. Many of the communication programs on the market today *look* nice, but after testing them for a few minutes you find out that they are so bug-ridden that even the old Basic-program you used on the Commodore 64 would be preferable. We thought that no Amiga communication program fulfilled our needs, and figured out that the only way to get a program that did everything we wanted, was to make it ourselves! Luckily the source for Comm 1.34 was available. It had all the basic functions, so we could concentrate on what we thought was missing. Our goal wasn't to make a program with a lot of functions you never use, but with the functions that we needed - and they had to work! Our national characters have been ignored and mistreated, but NComm puts an end to that. The project was led by Daniel Bloch, and chief contributors to the design so far, apart from Daniel, have been: Trym Hansen Conrad Helgeland Torkel Lodberg Jørn Lokøy Per Hansen Geir Atle Storhaug Arvid Johansen Geir Inge Høsteng Anders Herbjørnsen Bjørn Melbye Eric Wheatley Marek Rzewuski Thanks go to Mike Robertson (who gave us the necessary information for the G&R protocol, and helped us out with a few other things), Dj James (for the source to Comm 1.34) and to Carolyn Scheppner (for the colour palette source). Also thanks to all the Beta-testers. Feedback from the users is the most important thing when developing a program! All programming by Daniel Bloch, with help from Torkel Lodberg. Phonebook made by Trym Hansen. File requester enhanced by Daniel Bloch and Torkel Lodberg. This manual is based on the original Comm manual. It was written by Torkel Lodberg, with help from Conrad Helgeland and Eric Wheatley. Phone icon by Bjørn Rybakken. Doc icons from the Swilling collection, courtesy of Frank Swilling (Minotaur). File Input requester from C. Heath. Palette from C. Scheppner. We welcome bug reports and comments about NComm and the documentation. Send your comments to this address: Daniel Bloch, Fyrstikkbakken 9, N-0667 Oslo 6, Norway. Email: d_bloch_d@inger.uio.no (internet) Or call Rodeløkka (M)BBS at 300-2400 baud, 24hrs, two nodes. Phone # +47 2 380949 (international) (02) 380949 (Norway) A probable future expansion is the addition of more protocols. We welcome debugged and documented C-source of other protocols, as lack of time prevents us from writing them ourselves... A final note: Please read this documentation carefully. Most things should be explained here. Disclaimer: ----------- We have made every effort possible to ensure that NComm will function as described, but no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, is made by us. We will not be liable for any direct or indirect damages to either machinal equipment or mental health arising from a failure of the program to operate in the manner desired by the user. In no event will we be liable for any loss of profits or savings. Summary of functions: * Works on any Amiga with 512K RAM or more. Menu driven. * Hot Keys for most program functions, including dialling of up to 10 phone numbers. * Interlaced screen (optional). PAL and NTSC support. * Screen I/O greater than 2400 baud. * ANSI / VT100 terminal emulation with full 8 colour text support. IBM graphics (optional). Optional translation of styles. * Split screen mode for conferencing. * Full user control of colour palette. * Full support for all European languages (both character- sets and keymaps). Twelve translation modes. * Serial port parity, word-length, stop bit, full/half duplex, line-break and control of End-Of-Line characters. Baud rates up to 19200 baud supported. * Xon/Xoff and CTS/RTS handshaking. * Script language - simple text language automates sessions. * File transfer protocols: ASCII, Xmodem, Xmodem-CRC, Ymodem. Autochop on receive files - disabled for ARC, ZOO, PAK. Optional translation. View transfer option. * Autodownload feature for MBBS or systems with G&R protocol. * Dialling directory, queued dial, redial until carrier received. * Support for non-Hayes type modems. * 46 entry fast phonemenu. Phone requester with unlimited entries. Sort and print from phonebook. * 20 keyboard macros using function keys. Macrokey requester. * Print function for printing incoming text. * Optional remapping of Del/BS keys. * View Hex Chars option. * Statusline. Log writes. * Internal multitasking. Preparation ------------ The following files should be included in this package: .info ExampleI.script ExampleII.script Execute.me NComm NComm.config NComm.doc NComm.doc.info NComm.info NComm.keys NComm.news NComm.phone NComm1.8 NComm1.font NComm2.8 NComm2.font Script.doc Script.doc.info Be careful not to mix these files with old Comm 1.34 or NComm 1.01 files that may be lying around. The datafiles are incompatible. NComm uses two fonts to emulate IBM graphics. They must reside in the directory named fonts: If this copy of NComm was downloaded as an archive file, enter the following command in CLI: 1> Execute execute.me This batchfile will copy the font files used by NComm to the fonts: directory. First (of course) you have to assign fonts: to the directory where you keep your fonts. Unless you assign these fonts correctly, the IBM graphics emulation will not work! Data files ---------- It is important for NComm to know where it can find its data files, and we must help it on its way. If NComm was unarced in the ROOT directory of a floppy disk, relabel the disk as "NComm". This can be done by the following command if NComm resides on df1: 1> Relabel drive df1: name "NComm" If the files were unarced within a directory or on a harddisk, you must assign "NComm:" to the directory that NComm resides in including full device and path names. Examples: 1> Assign NComm: "df1:NComm 1.8" ...expects NComm to reside in directory "NComm 1.8" on drive "df1:" 1> Assign NComm: dh0: ...expects NComm to reside in the ROOT directory of drive "dh0:" If you do not wish to name the disk that NComm resides on 'NComm', it is probably a good idea to edit the "s:startup-sequence" file and add the assign command that you just entered. NComm has an inbuilt command for opening a new CLI. If NComm should not use the normal "NewCLI" command for opening the CLI, this can be done by using the SetEnv command in WB1.3. For example: 1> setenv NEWCLI "NewSHELL *"newcon:0/11/640/245/NCommShell*"" To start up NComm, enter the following command in AmigaDOS: 1> NComm [filename] ...where filename is the name of an optional script file. From WorkBench, just click on the NComm icon. Users of boards with multiple serial ports should notice that NComm opens the serial.device in "exclusive" mode. If the serial.device could not be opened, the message "Can't open serial.device" will be displayed (workbench users will notice a flash on the workbench screen if NComm of some reason can't run). It is therefore possible to patch NComm to make it work with other devices, i.e; multiple copies of NComm may run simultaneosly. Note: ----- Single-drive users have to execute these commands in a bit different manner. Either you can copy the needed commands into RAM: and assign c: to RAM:, or you may enter the desired commands with just a question mark as command-line. You will then be given a long prompt, at which you should enter the "normal command-line" with drive specified as df0:. As an example, here is how to relabel a disk... Boot your AmigaDOS disk in df0: and enter this at the prompt: 1> Relabel ? "DRIVE/A,NAME/A" now appears on the screen. Now put your new NComm disk in df0: and enter this: drive df0: name "NComm" How to configure NComm for use with MBBS. ----------------------------------------- To get the most from NComm when using the MBBS program, you should log in at the MBBS boards you are going to use. In the utility menu, there are several options that have to be turned on. Walk to the utility menu with the (U)tility command, and select (M)ode changes. Answer 'YES' at all prompts. The message 'User profile updated' will be displayed. Now, if you're using a PAL machine, you probably want to configure a larger number of lines per page than what has been configured by MBBS. Select (L)ines per page, and enter '29' at the prompt. Finally, select IBM graphics by using the (S)et character set command. Enter 'IBN' at the prompt. Some options must now be turned on in NComm. Walk to the 'Transfer' menu, and turn on the 'G&R Protocol'. Configure the default directories for these transfers if you don't have enough memory to use the RAM DISK. Now, examine that your 'Com' setup is 8N1. Always use this setup when connecting to MBBS boards, otherwise high bits will be stripped. Turn the 'IBN character set' on in the 'Translate' menu. Turn the '8 Colour' mode on in the screen menu, and 'Reset' the colours by opening the palette. You now have true ANSI graphics! Remember to save the present configuration. When in NComm, the following menu items are available: 1. SYSTEM: Here you control all the system functions. From here you can load and save settings, view the status, edit the macrokeys, turn on and off the printer, and start a new CLI. You can also choose whether NComm should add entries to the logfile when you connect with a board. You may also exit NComm from here, as well as execute script-files. The sub-entries of the SYSTEM menu are: About NComm Will tell you a few things about NComm and the author. Simply click in the window to close it... Status This will bring up a status display showing the amount of memory available, the state of the printer and capture buffer toggles. If the capture buffer has been turned on, the filename will also be displayed. Here you will also find a slider gadget for use with the "ASCII send" and "message send" functions. Some Bulletin Board Systems lose data if is being sent too fast, so this function can be very useful. You can select a time to delay after transmitting each character by using this slider gadget. The gadget can be adjusted from approx 20ms (Fast) to 300 ms (Slow) delay between transmitted characters. The slider can be adjusted while a file is being sent to allow for fine tuning. With the slider in the (default) far left position, there is no delay. Load config Will load a new NComm configuration. All menu options and the "text send delay" function are covered by this function. The macrokeys and the phonebook must be loaded separately. A file input equester will appear in the center of the screen. Only files with a ".config" suffix will be shown. For instructions on how to use the file requester, see "The file input requester" below. Save config Will save the current NComm configuration. All menu options and the "text send delay" function are covered by this function. The macrokeys and the phonebook must be saved separately. A file input requester will appear in the center of the screen. For instructions on how to use this, see "The file inputrequester" below. Script This function will execute a scriptfile. A file input requester will appear in the center of the screen. For instructions on how to use this, see "The file input requester" below. Select the script you want to run. The text 'SCR' will be displayed on the status line. To stop a script, select this entry again. See the file "Script.doc" for detailed information on scripts. Macrokeys This will bring up a requester that lets you edit the macrokeys. Here you may also load new macros and save the text stored on the different macrokeys. The function keys definable are F1 to F10 and SHIFT F1 to F10. A macro definiton can be 127 bytes maximum. Not all keys have to be defined. To edit a macro just click in one of the requester text input boxes and enter your definition. The macros can contain control characters which can be represented in two ways. These characters can also be used in the modem setup requester. 1. C-style slash conventions. The following sequences are supported: \n, \r Carriage Return \t Tabulator \f Form Feed \b BackSpace \v Vertical Tabulator \e Escape \\ Backslash \" Quote \p Phonebook Password \w .5 second Delay \l 250 ms Line Break \m Macro 2. The caret followed by a letter, meaning CTRL+letter. If you need the line feed character, for example, use ^J. You can have nested macros by using the \m## option, where ## is a number from 1 to 20 - with 1 representing macro F1 and 11 and 20 representing Shift F1 and Shift F20 respectively. Examples: commodore ;Will not add a carriage return. at \\N3\n ;AT \N3 plus a carriage return. ^pread ;The control-P code, followed by 'read'. \m1\m2run testfile\r ;The text stored on macro F1 and F2, plus ;the text 'run testfile' and a CR. Selecting the 'Load' gadget will bring up a file requester in the center of the screen. For instructions on how to use this, see "The file input-requester" below. From here you may load new macrokeys. Remember to save the current macrokeys if any changes have been made. Entering "NComm.keys" will load the macrokeys that are normally loaded at startup. Selecting the 'Save' gadget will bring up a file requester in the center of the screen. For instructions on how to use this, see "The file input-requester" below. From here you may save the current macrokeys. Enter the name "NComm.keys" if you want the macrokeys to be loaded on startup. Selecting the 'Cancel' gadget will leave everything unchanged and remove the macrokeys window. Selecting the 'OK' gadget will close the window and install the new macros. Printer Toggles the printer ON/OFF. When ON, text received from the serial port will also go to the printer via the PRT: device. The text 'PRT' will be displayed on the status line. New CLI Works like the "NewCli" command. Will open up a command line interface on the Workbench screen. Type 'EndCli' to exit the CLI and return to NComm. Log Calls When this option is turned on, NComm will log all calls made within NComm. The information will be added to a textfile called "NComm.log". Quit NComm Selecting this entry will close all open files and windows and exit back to the operating system. The File Input Requester ------------------------ Many functions call upon a file name. The file input requester then appears on the screen with a sorted directory listing of the current directory in the window. At the bottom of the requester, eight devices are displayed. To change the current device, click in one of these boxes - the device must be available on your system (i.e not ghosted) for you to chose it. To enter a directory, position the pointer over the directory name and click once or enter the directory name in the 'Directory' string gadget. The 'PARENT' gadget will move you back one directory - i.e. this will cause the parent directory to be displayed, if such a directory exists. You may select a filename by positioning the pointer over it. Open the file by doubleclicking, or by first clicking on the filename and afterwards on the 'OK' gadget. Alternatively, type the name of the desired file in the requester marked 'File' and press Return. In the 'Type' string gadget, enter an optional extension. This will display only the files with that suffix. For example, entering ".TXT" will display only the textfiles. The window only has room for 10 entries. To scroll through the directory, use the dragbar. The number of bytes free on the current device will be displayed in the middle of the two gadgets. Always check if there is enough space on the current device before downloading files. The 'Directory' string gadget will be active when the window opens. Pressing Return will move the cursor directly to the 'File' gadget. This can be handy if you don't want to mouse around. Use the upper right depth-arrangers to move the window in front or in back of other windows. Selecting 'CANCEL' will abort the operation. Note: When the file requester is on screen (active), you can still send and receive data. Sorting and displaying the files on a disk takes some time; you may want to bring up the requester early, and continue talking to the remote system while this is being done. 2. FILE: This is the file transfer menu. From here you can start a transfer and select the different transfer options i.e protocol, handshaking etc. When the upload or download function is selected, a file input requester will appear, that is if you have not selected the G&R mode. Again, turn to "The File Input Requester" for instructions on how to use this... The sub-entries of the FILE menu are: Start ASCII Capture All data received from the serial port is also saved into the named file. The text is buffered and written to the disk in 8K blocks. If you are using a translation table, the incoming data will be translated. Select the 'ISO' character set to avoid this. When this mode is selected, the text in the MENU entry is changed to "Stop ASCII Capture". Selecting this entry will flush the data buffer to the disk and close the file. When capturing is enabled, the word "CAP" will be visible on the status line. When entering a filename for data capture, NComm will check to see if this file already exists. If it does, a requester will appear informing you of that fact. You may then choose to CONTINUE using the filename entered or CANCEL and enter another filename. If you choose to CONTINUE, you will be presented with another requester. You can APPEND data to the existing file or DELETE the existing data and start with a fresh file. Start ASCII Send The named file will be read and sent to the serial port. If the file does not exist, a message to that effect will be printed. If you are using a translation table, the outgoing data will be translated. Select the 'ISO' translation to avoid this. When this mode is selected, the text in the MENU entry is changed to "Stop ASCII Send". Selecting this entry will stop the transfer and close the disk file. Message upload The named file will be read and sent to the serial port. If the file does not exist, a warning message will be printed. If you are using a translation table, the outgoing data will be translated. Select the 'ISO' translation to avoid this. This function will perform almost like "Start ASCII send", but the message will be packed. Blank lines will be translated into spaces. This can be useful when uploading to systems with a certain pagewidth, or if your message contains blank lines (usually you will exit the editor when a blank line occurs in a message you upload with the ASCII send function.) Select this entry again to stop the transfer and close the disk file. Download The named file will be created on the disk and the transfer will be started using the protocol you have selected in the TRANSFER menu. If the specified file already exists, a requester will appear; asking if you want to CONTINUE or CANCEL the use of that filename. Selecting CONTINUE will overwrite the old existing file with the new one. Selecting CANCEL will bring up the INPUT WINDOW allowing you to enter another file name. A window will pop up that among other things will display the name of the file being transferred, a running total of the bytes received, the number of NAKs and the last block to be NAKed. The transfer can be aborted by hitting the ESC key, or by pressing the upper left-hand close gadgget. The serial port parameters will be saved and changed to 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit for the transfer. Upon completion, the old settings will be restored. Upload Use this selection to transmit a file to a system. The named file will be opened on the disk and the transfer will be started using the error checking method (CRC or Checksum) selected by the receiving end. If the specified file does not exist, a requester will appear informing you of this fact. You only have the option to CONTINUE, which will bring up the INPUT WINDOW allowing you to re-enter the filename or CANCEL the upload. A window will pop up that among other things will display the name of the file being transferred, a running total of the bytes sent, the number of NAKs and the last block to be NAKed. The transfer can be aborted by hitting the ESC key, or by pressing the upper left-hand close gadgget. As described in the Download section, the serial port parameters are temporarily changed to 8N1 for the transfer. Protocol Here you select the protocol you want used for the upload and download functions. YMODEM This is basically XModem-CRC with 1024 byte blocks. This means that there is less handshaking, which saves time. YMODEM is faster than XMODEM as long as the line quality is acceptable. XMODEM This is the protocol originally written by Ward Christensen. It is used by almost every type of personal computer. This is a good protocol to use if the line quality is poor. Its biggest drawback is that it transfers data in 128 byte blocks making it slower than YMODEM. Options This function selects the type of error checking to be used. If CRC is not turned on, the checksum method will be used. CHECKSUM The original Christensen protocol used an 8 bit checksum for error checking. It is about 97% effective in catching errors. All implementations of XMODEM can use the checksum method. Only use the cheksum method when in doubt, the CRC method is much more secure. CRC A later addition to the protocol was the 16 bit (two byte) Cyclic Redundancy Check ( CRC ) which is about 99.997% effective in detecting errors. Not all implementations of XMODEM can use the CRC method. If you select this mode and the sending computer is unable to transmit in CRC mode, NComm will detect this after 5 timeouts ( about 50 seconds ) and switch to the Checksum method. View Transfers This option will output the file data to a view window while transferring data. It is wise only to view files you know to be ASCII because binary files will look like Greek. However, no harm will be done. Chop Files File transfers will increase the size of a file to the next largest multiple of 128 bytes for XModem transfers and 1024 bytes for YModem. The CHOP FILES option will remove the padding on the end of the file. This is always required when transferring executable binary files. CHOPing files is therefore desired. Note: It is not desireable to CHOP an .ARC, .ZOO or .PAK file. As it is very easy to forget to turn off the CHOP mode for these files, NComm will check the receive-filename for such an extension. If this is found, it will temporarily disable CHOPing for this file and on completion of transfer the CHOP flag will be reset to its previous value. G & R Protocol This is an auto up/download protocol for use with the MBBS system. You must remember to also turn on G&R in your MBBS user account to make it work. By using this protocol, you no longer have to enter the desired protocol and filename in NComm when transferring files to and from an MBBS system. This means that you do not have to deal with the tedious file requester. Default directory Here you may specify the default paths and directories for uploading and downloading. A file requester will appear, select a path and directory and click on the OK gadget when you are satisfied with your selection. NComm will default to these directories, but as long as you are not using the G & R protocol, you may change the path and directory yourself before an upload or download. 3. COM: Serial device parameters are changed here. Baud Baud rates from 300 to 19200 baud can be selected. This entry, however, may be overridden by the default baud rate in the phonebook. Note: This selects the serial speed of the port, the actual data throughput rate depends upon whether the capture buffer is active, if printer capture is selected and upon the screen I/O speed. With no printer or file capture, the throughput rate depends on the screen I/O speed. This will be around 2400 baud if you are using a 8 colour screen. If a 2 colour screen is being used, the screen I/O speed will be greater than 4800 baud, but less than 9600 baud in this release of NComm. This means, that if you select a baud rate greater than 2400 baud, you may lose characters unless the XON/XOFF feature has been selected from the SERIAL menu. Data Length Selects the length of a data word as 7 or 8 bits. Most computer systems today will operate with 8 bits. Note that during binary transfers, serial port data length is set to 8 bits and restored to the previous value on completion. Parity Selects ODD, EVEN or NO parity. Most computer systems today will operate with NO parity. Note that during binary transfers, serial port parity is set to NO parity and restored to the previous value on completion. Stop Bits Selects the number of stop bits transmitted as 1 or 2 bits. Most computer systems today will operate with 1 stop bit. Note that during binary transfers, serial port stop bit length is set to 1 bit and restored to the previous value on completion. The Amiga hardware does not allow 2 stop bits to be used with an 8 bit data word length. Duplex Selects whether NComm or the remote system should echo key strokes to the screen. Select FULL duplex when the remote machine will echo your key strokes. You will normally be using this option. Select HALF duplex when the remote system does not echo your key strokes. That is when the remote system seems to be responding to your commands, but you cannot see what you are typing. Handshaking Enables or disables the serial driver check for flow control characters. Select 'None' when you do not wish to use flow control. Select 'XON/XOFF' when you wish the driver to use the XON/XOFF type of flow control. Normally this is used at baud rates greater than 2400 baud to avoid losing characters. Select 'RTS/CTS' when you wish the driver to use the hardware RTS/CTS type of flow control. This should only be used with modems which support it. Note: In some cases, when the XON/XOFF mode is selected, NComm may receive an XOFF character ( noise or otherwise ) and appear to be hung -- that is, no characters appear on the screen yet the menus still function properly. Whenever NComm appears to be hung, typing a Ctrl-Q will re-start the serial line. If the problem was due to an XOFF character received, this will restore everything to normal. Send Break Sends a 250 ms break signal. 4. TRANSLATE: This is where you define the translation of out- and ingoing data and the special keyboard keys. End of Line You can select how End of Line characters are handled on the screen and when sent out the serial port. By default, EOL is just a CARRIAGE RETURN character, but you can change this to CR and LINEFEED pairs. Use this option if all text seems to be printed on one line. Character set NComm offers twelve different translation tables, and they can be selected here. ISO NComm will use the standard Amiga character set, without any translation. This should be used when using Amiga systems only. Please note; if no translation of the in or outgoing data is wanted when using the ASCII capture or ASCII send option, switch to ISO before transfer. IBM Should be used with bulletin boards running on PC/MS-DOS machines that use the IBM extended character set. NComm will utilize a special IBM font containg all the IBM graphic characters. IBN Should be used with Norwegian bulletin boards running on PC/MS-DOS machines that use the IBM extended character set. This is a version of the character set that has two norwegian characters that are missing in IBMs original character set. NComm will utilize a special IBM font containing all the IBM graphic characters. NO7 Use this option when the host uses the Norwegian ISO 7 bit standard. US7 Use this option when the host uses the American ISO 7 bit standard. UK7 Use this option when the host uses the English ISO 7 bit standard. GE7 Use this option when the host uses the German ISO 7 bit standard. FR7 Use this option when the host uses the French ISO 7 bit standard. SP7 Use this option when the host uses the Spanish ISO 7 bit standard. IT7 Use this option when the host uses the Italian ISO 7 bit standard. SF7 Use this option when the host uses the Swedish/Finnish ISO 7 bit standard. DE7 Use this option when the host uses the Danish ISO 7 bit standard. DEL <-> BS Here you may configure whether the backspace and del keys are to be exchanged. This can be useful when communicating with a machine thar runs Unix, VMS or Tops-20, amongst others. Show HEX chars This option will translate all incoming text to HEX numbers, as well as displaying the text to the right. Perfect for debugging. 5. SCREEN: This is where you may configure what your screen should look like. Title bar Toggles the title bar on and off Interlace This option will make NComm use an interlaced screen, which will double the vertical resolution but cause a lot of flicker if you haven't invested in a flicker-fixer card or a long-peristance monitor. Colours From here you may choose whether NComm shall use a 2 or 8 colour screen. If you choose the eight colour mode, you will get full ANSI colour emulation. Choose the two colour mode if you prefer faster screen updates. Palette This will bring up a requester that lets you configure the colours for the current screen mode. Each screen mode has its own palette. Click 'RESET' to use the colours that NComm was shipped with. Split Screen This function will divide the screen into two windows, a small one ( 4 lines ) for your typed characters and a larger one ( 19 lines when using NTSC) for characters received from the modem. You should select the half-duplex mode on the host system to prevent your typed characters from being echoed back into the receive window. To exit the split screen mode, select 'Split Screen' from the menu again. Split screen mode requires at least 1MB of memory to operate in interlaced mode. Caution: If you login to a system while in the split screen mode, your password will be echoed in the TX window. It is best to login in the single screen mode. Style This function allows you to turn on or off the translation of the different styles (boldface, italics and underline). The reason why this function was included is that the styles are misused by many bulletin board systems. The text will appear clearer, and this will also reduce flashing when the screen is scrolling. Bell From here you can configure what NComm should do when it receives the ASCII "bell" code. You can have an ordinary audible bell or a visible bell. You even select 'ScreenToFront', which will bring the NComm screen to front when the "bell" code is received. You may freely mix the three or turn bell off. Reset This function will clear the screen, turn off all style settings and reset the colours. Window Gadgets -------------- The screen contains hidden gadgets for depth arranging the NComm window. The depth gadgets are in the upper right hand corner. 6. PHONE: From here you may dial phonenumbers, edit the phonebook, configure the modem and redial, or hang up the phone. Phonebook This entry will bring up the phonebook window, where you may load or save phonebooks, as well as edit, delete and add entries. The entries can also be sorted, dialled or printed. When loaded, NComm first looks for a file called NComm:NComm.phone. If not found, the phonebook will be blank. The phonebook can consist of an unlimited number of entries, but only the first 46 will be displayed in the DIAL menu, and only the first 10 can be dialled using hot keys. Only 15 entries can be displayed simultaneously in the window. To scroll through the phonebook, use the right drag bar. You may select an entry by positioning the pointer over it and then clicking on the left mouse button. When an entry is selected, it will show up in reverse video. Several entries can be selected at the same time. Selecting the 'Dial!' gadget will dial the entries that are selected, starting at the top. This will bring up a small window telling you which board you are calling, and eventually which is the next to go. The phonebook window will be removed. More entries can be added while dialling by selecting them from the DIAL menu, or by bringing up the phonebook again. If a number is busy, the program will continue with the next number on the list. If redial has been turned on, NComm will start over again if no connection has been established with any of the numbers in the queue. It will not stop until a connection has been established. Abort the dialling by pressing the ESC key or closing the window by clicking in the upper lefthand gadget. To remove the current entry, press the DEL key. Press the SPACE key if you would like to go on with the next entry. You may also click within the window gadgets. Selecting the 'Edit' gadget will bring up the edit window, containing the information about the first entry selected. This information can then be edited. See below for more information about how to use the edit window. Pressing the 'OK' gadget will accept the edit, 'Cancel' will leave everything unchanged. Selecting the 'New' gadget will add a new entry in front of the first entry selected. However, if no entry has been selected, the entry will be placed at the bottom of the list. This will bring up a special edit window. See below for more information about how to use the edit window. Pressing the 'OK' gadget will add the current entry, 'Cancel' will abort the edit and not add the entry. Selecting the 'Abort!' gadget will remove the window. This equals pressing the upper lefthand closegadget. Selecting the 'Load' gadget will bring up a file requester in the center of the screen. For instructions on how to use this, see "The file input-requester" above. From here you may load a new phonebook. Remember to save the current phonebook if any changes have been made. Entering "NComm.phone" will load the phonebook that is normally loaded at startup. Selecting the 'Save' gadget will bring up a file requester in the center of the screen. For instructions on how to use this, see "The file input-requester" above. From here you may save the current phonebook. Enter the name "NComm.phone" if you want the phonebook to be loaded at startup. Selecting the 'Delete' gadget will delete the entries that are currently selected. Selecting the 'Sort' gadget will sort the phonebook. If a entry has been selected, the function will only sort the entries between this entry and down. If multiple entries have been selected, the function will only sort the entries between the top and lower entry. This can be handy if you are using hot keys to dial numbers, and don't want the upper entries mixed with entries that are lower on the list, or if you prefer using the DIAL menu for dialling entries and don't want entry 45 and down to be mixed with the upper entries. Selecting the 'Print' gadget will print the phonebook. Enter the name of the file in the righthand text gadget, or use "PRT:" if you want output sent to the printer. If no entries are selected, the whole phonebook will be printed. Else, only the entries selected will be printed. Dial # This requester will dial a number which is not listed in the phonebook. If redial has been turned on, the program will try reaching the number until connection has been established. This function can be used together with the dial queue. Hang up Selecting this entry will send the HANGUP command string to the modem. Redial By configuring this option, NComm will try over and over again when a board you are calling is busy. Modem setup Within this requester you may configure the things that are sent and received by the modem, and how long NComm should wait before redialling. Simply click in the text gadgets to edit them. The setup strings can contain the control characters listed under the explanation of 'macrokeys'. The 'initialization string' will be sent to the modem soon after NComm opens the serial device and before keyboard input is accepted. It can be left blank, but remember that NComm requires 'echo' from the modem, so it can be clever to configure this here. This can be accomplished by the 'AT E1' command if your modem is Hayes compatible. You must also set your modem to detect the BUSY signal if it has got such a feature. If you have problems configuring your modem, the 'AT &F\n' line will load the factory configuration on Hayes compatibles. This configuration is usually accepted by NComm. The 'exit string' is sent just before the serial device is closed, when exiting NComm. It is normally left blank. 'Dial prefix' is the command to be inserted before the phonenumber. For Hayestype modems, this should be ATDT (or ATDP for pulse dial). 'Dial suffix' is the string to be added after the phonenumber. For Hayestype modems, this should be '\n', which will send a carriage return. 'Hang-up string' is the string to be sent when you choose the Hangup function. For Hayestype modems, this should be '\w\w+++\w\w\w\wATH\n' (Wait 1 sec +++ Wait 2 sec ATH CR). The 'disconnect string' is the string sent from the modem when a call has ended. For Hayestype modems, this should be 'NO CARRIER'. The 'connect string' is the string sent from the modem when you get connected to a board. For Hayestype modems, this string should be 'CONNECT'. The 'busy string' is the string sent from the modem when the phone is busy. For Hayestype modems this string should be 'BUSY', but if your modem is having problems detecting the busy signal, enter this as 'NO CARRIER'. In the delay box you may specify how many seconds NComm should wait before redialling. This delay is normally set to '3', but enter this as '0' if you have used 'NO CARRIER' as the BUSY string. Auto-speed is a feature that normally should be turned on. When connected, NComm will look for the number specified right after the 'CONNECT' message, and will switch to this speed. This feature should be turned off if you have set a constant speed between the modem and the machine, or if you are certain that the hostmodem supports the speed that you are calling at. To make this feature work, it is important that you have told your modem to report the baudrate sent after the 'CONNECT' message. This is done, again on Hayes, with the command 'AT V1'. Pressing the 'OK' gadget will accept the edit, 'Cancel' will leave everything unchanged. Edit window ----------- The edit window contains six text input boxes and eight gadgets. In the text input box marked 'Name', enter the name of the board. The name can be up to 40 characters long, however, only the first 17 characters will be displayed in the dial menu and window, and in the logfile. You can not leave this empty. In the text input box marked 'Phone #', enter the phonenumber to the current board. The phonenumber can be up to 60 digits long. If a board has multiple numbers, enter them separated by the '|' character, for example "416588|410403". Only the first 17 characters will be displayed in the dial window, and in the logfile. This field can not be omitted. In the text input box marked 'Comment', enter an optional comment, like when the board is open, what the main purpose with the board is, if MNP is available or which speeds are available. The comment can be 40 characters long. In the text input box marked 'Config', you may specify the name of an optional configuration file that must reside in the NComm: directory. It will be loaded just after dialling. The colors, screen mode and menu settings will be changed back to the way they were when the configuration file was saved. In the text input box marked 'Script', you may specify the name of an optional scriptfile. The filename is relative to the current directory. It will be loaded and executed just after dialling, which means that the scriptfile should not contain the 'dial' command as the first entry. In the text input box marked 'Password', you may specify the name of an optional password. This can be handy if you prefer only using one scriptfile for multiple boards. The scriptfile can then contain a 'SEND "\p\n"' command line that sends the password configured for the current board. The password can also be sent by configuring '\p\n' on one of the macrokeys. Pressing 'return' in one of the text input boxes will bring the cursor to the text input box below the current box. The cursor will be brought to the top if 'return' is pressed in the bottom box. Pressing the gadget marked 'Baud rate' will multiply the board rate which is to be used for the board by two. However, since NComm only supports board rates up to 19200 baud, the baud rate will revert to 300 baud when this baudrate is present. Pressing the gadget marked 'Data length' will switch between 7 and 8 bits data length. This data length will be used when NComm dials the board. Pressing the gadget marked 'Parity' will switch between Even, Odd and None parity. This parity will be used when NComm dials the board. Pressing the gadget marked 'Stop bits' will switch between 1 and 2 stop bits. This number of stop bits will be used when NComm dials the board. Pressing the gadget marked 'Duplex mode' will switch between Full and Half duplex. This duplex mode will be used when connection is established. Pressing the gadget marked 'Character set' will switch between IBN, US7, UK7, GE7, FR7, SP7, IT7, DE7, NO7, SF7, ISO and IBM translation. If the IBM or IBN character set has been chosen, a special IBM graphics font will be used. ISO should be used for Amiga boards only. The other character sets should be used on machines only having a 7-bit character set available. By watching the first two letters in the translation name, you may easily find out which one is to be used for your country. 7. DIAL Use this menu for fast dialling of entries in the phonebook. Simply choose the board you would like to dial from the menu. Choosing a entry will bring up a small window telling you which board you are calling. From here you may add more entries from the menu, and set up a dial queue. The window will at all times tell you which board is the next to dial. If a number is busy, the program will continue with the next board on the list. If redial has been turned on, NComm will start over again if no connection has been established with any of the boards in the queue. It will not stop until a connection has been established. NComm will abort the dialling if it receives any text from the modem during the redial delay. Abort the dialling by pressing the ESC key or closing the window by clicking in the upper lefthand closegadget. To remove the current entry, press the DEL key. Press the SPACE key if you would like to go on with the next entry. You may also click within the window gadgets. HOT KEYS Are you fed up with menus and mice and want to use something quicker instead? Look no further - NComm offers hot keys for most important functions. Hot Key Function ------- -------- Right Amiga A About NComm Right Amiga B Sends a 250ms break signal Right Amiga C Start/end ASCII Capture Right Amiga D Download Right Amiga E Enter phonebook Right Amiga G Palette Right Amiga H Hang up phone Right Amiga I Execute script on/off Right Amiga L Load configuration Right Amiga M Macrokeys Right Amiga N Dial number Right Amiga P Printer on/off Right Amiga Q Quit NComm Right Amiga R Reset Right Amiga S Start/end ASCII Send Right Amiga T Toggle title bar Right Amiga U Upload Right Amiga W Save configuration Right Amiga Y Message upload Right Amiga Z New Cli Right Amiga # (# is one of the keys 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0) This sequence will dial one of the first 10 entries in the phone directory. HELP key Status The CONTINUE and APPEND options can be answered with the LEFT AMIGA V key. The CANCEL and DELETE options can be answered with the LEFT AMIGA B key. You can of course click the left mouse button over these selections as well.