------------------------------------------------------------- swIXO by RTFM UN*X SOLUTIONS and beachSystems copyright 1992 Robert Swirsky and Steven Warner Swixo is designed to enable you to easily and quicky send text messages to alpanumeric pagers. Some paging systems disallow "manual" mode of page entry, only permitting IXO messages, presumably to discourage users from not using expensive messaging services. Swixo uses IXO protocol, so you should be able to use it on any system. ------------------------------------------------------------- 0. AS-IS, No Warranty, License to use. Swixo belongs to RTFM UN*X solutions and beachSystems. You are granted a license to use the software, provided to do not modify anything, and you do not sell it. You may distribute it to others, and are encouraged to do so. You may register with us for the enhanced version. DO NOT modify the .ZIP file or the 'authenticity flags' will be reset. Swixo is used entirely at YOUR OWN RISK. There is no warranty of any kind, either express or implied. If any law excludes us from providing software to you in this manner, then the license to use is VOID, and you must not use swIXO. ------------------------------------------------------------- 1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS swIXO will operate on any machine that is running Microsoft Windows, version 3.1. swIXO requires a serial port, with a connected modem. Some knowledge of your modems setup commands will be helpful. ------------------------------------------------------------- 2. SOFTWARE INSTALLATION The distribution disk contains a .ZIP file, which when UNZIPPED should have given an authenticity notice. If it did not, then do not use swixo. See #0 above. To install swIXO, create a directory for swIXO on your hard disk, and copy the file swixo.exe, which was created from the .ZIP file Start windows, and add swIXO to a program manager group, using NEW... Start swXIO by double-clicking on the icon. swIXO will automatically create the file SWIXO.IXO, which contains setup information and other runtime parameters. You may delete the file SWIXO.IXO, to return swIXO to default settings later. ------------------------------------------------------------- 3. GETTING GOING swIXO requires a modem and serial port. Modem cards should work okay, but are untested. The free version of swIXO only supports COM1: and COM2: The first time you run swIXO, you must use the SETTINGS... menu choice to define your system to swIXO. The default settings should work okay. If your modem has any funky strings that need be sent, then put them here. When you are done with this screen, click OK. RS-232 settings: Baud rate - Select the baud rate that swIXO should use to talk to your modem. If your modem uses a fixed DTE, then go ahead and use 9600. In this case you will need to add commands to the dial string that tell your modem to dial at 300 or 1200 baud. Most paging systems use 300 baud. Some use 1200. Experament here and see what works best for you. Some paging system modems will get upset if your modem trys to negotiate an error free connection, and/or compression. (MNP3,4,5, LAP-M, V42.bis) etc.. You might have better luck if you initially put strings to temporairly disable these features into the dial string. On a hayse modem this is commonly &Q0, and on a multi-tech modem, use &E0. Word Length, Stop Bits, Parity. Leave these at 7 bits, 1 stop bit and even parity. This is what most paging systems like to see. These settings are provided in case your situation is unusual. Modem Control: RESET: The sequence of characters that swIXO needs to send to get your modem to reset. If you modem does not need to be reset, or if dropping DTR will reset your modem, then leave this field BLANK. This text is automatically terminated with a C/R. use a tilde ~ to add a one second delay. If your modem becomes busy after sending reset or dropping dtr, add tildes ~ to make swIXO wait for the modem to become ready again. DIAL PREFIX: The characters you want swIXO to send before the telephone number in the dial string. We use ATV1Q0 as a default, which uses tone dialing, and verbose word responces. USE ATH0 TO HANGUP: Check this box if your modem will not hangup upon loss of DTR. GIVE UP TIME: Put the amount of time that swixo should wait for carrier, and the paging system. 40-60 seconds is about right. Modem reply strings: CONNECT: The string your modem sends when it receives carrier. BUSY: The string your modem sends when the line is busy. FAIL: The string your modem send if it never gets carrier. ------------------------------------------------------------- 4. SENDING PAGES To send pages, make sure you did the SETTINGS... (#3) at least once since you installed swIXO. On the swXIO main screen is a picture of an ADVISOR pager. Click anyplace on the pager to send a page. The ENTER PAGE dialog will pop up, and provide you with some options. The Message to send area is where you type the text that you want to be transmitted to the pager. If you are sending to a POCSAG pager, you may use upper and lower case, along with most punctuation. If your pager is GSC, you may use only UPPER case, and limited punctuation. See appendix for pager identifications. You may enter up to 199 characters into the message screen. Note: some paging systems may impose limits less than this. The PAGER ID box is where you put the digital address of tha pager you wish to transmit to. Your paging company will provide you with this number. Sometimes this number is identical to the telephone number used to send NUMERIC only pages to this pager. PAGING SYSTEM PHONE #: This is the dial-in phone number that your paging service has provided to allow modem entry of alpha pages. It is usually the same number for everyone on the system. Your paging company will provide this number for you. PAGER TYPE POCSAG/GSC: Check the radio button indicating the type of pager you are sending to. Use GSC if you don't know (or care). If you want to use lowercase and punctuation, you might want to experament. See the appendix. CLEAR: Will erase the message text area. SAVE DEFAULT: Press this button to save the contents of this screen as the default. Very handy if you send pages to the same person most of the time. RECALL: A cool, handy feature that will cause swIXO to fill out the ENTER PAGE screen in the same way as the last 10 pages. This will allow you review pages and send one again easily. try it! CANCEL: Close this window and return to the main swixo screen. OK, SEND PAGE: Swixo will send your page when you press this. You will see dialog messages that describe the process, and complain when something goes wrong. When your page is accepted, swIXO will reply with 'PAGE SUCCESSFUL'. ------------------------------------------------------------- 5. PROBLEMS: ---MODEM WON'T DIAL--- Be sure you have used the settings screen to set up all RS232 parameters for your modem. Be sire settings are correct, and that cables are Okay. Be sure your RESET string has enough delay in it so that your modem is READY when dialing begins. ---CANNOT LOG INTO PAGING SERVICE--- Be sure you are using the correct paging system phone number. Disable error correction and compression on your modem. Try using 300 baud. Your paging system may have a password on it. Swixo does not support passwords in this release. ---MODEM WON'T HANG UP--- We strongly suggest you set your modem to hang up with DTR. If you absolutely cannot do this, check the ATH0 box in the RS232 settings section of SETTINGS... ---PAGE IS INCOMPLETE--- You may have a GSC pager, and are sending with POCSAG checked. Check the GSC button. Your paging system may have the MAX character limit set to less than 199. Send fewer characters. ------------------------------------------------------------- A. Appendix A GSC or POCSAG. GSC: Golay Sequential Code. POCSAG: Post Office Code Standard Advisory Group. (who thought of this stuff??) It is difficult to tell which is better, GSC or POCSAG, unless you like reading UPPERCASE LETTERS and no punctuation. GSC is UPPERCASE only, and seems to be popular with paging companies because it is faster to transmit in batch mode.. If you have a MOTOROLA ADVISOR, look on the back for the model number of your pager. It usually starts with A05 or A03. (A05 means 5-year warranty by the way, dunno anout A03). The 8th character in your model number will tell you POCSAG/GSC.. Example: A03KLB5662AA ^ If the 8th character is 3 or 9, POCSAG. 6, GSC. The example is a GSC pager. ------------------------------------------------------------- B. TECH SUPPORT Swixo comes with NO technical support. We will however be happy to assist you by email with your problems or questions. Since this is a beta release, your comments and input are particularly welcome. Please email your technical questions and input to rtfm@boy.com From compuserve: >INTERNET:rtfm@boy.com ------------------------------------------------------------- C. Register! If you would like to register your copy of swIXO, you may send $20 to: S Warner RTFM/ BeachSystems 35451 Dumbarton Ct. Newark, CA 94560 Please email for availability Registered users will receive the latest copy when available, and the enhanced copy when available. The enhanced copy will have an improved page database, and pager management features such as ENABLE and DISABLE a pager. ------------------------------------------------------------- D. MUMBO JUMBO Motorola and Advisor are trademarks of Motorola. Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, MS Windows are trademarks of Mircosoft corporation. -------------------------------------------------------------