S E T T I N G U P T H E M O D E M S O F T W A R E The first thing to do is to read the manual. If you are using a shareware telecommunications program, you should print the manual. It is usually in the form of a text file. For example, the manual for TELIX is a text file called TELIX.DOC. You will need to set up your software for your particular modem. If you have a 2400 baud modem, you can set the baud to 2400. Most BBSs require a setting of 8,N,1. That is, a typical BBS requires the following settings: 8 data bits N for no parity 1 stop bit If you are calling a BBS, use the above setting. If that doesn't work, use 7,E,1 which is explained below. These are the two main settings for personal communications. You need to set your settings to match the computer you are calling. Some commercial online services (like CompuServe) require a setting of 7,E,1 or: 7 data bits E even parity 1 stop bit If you are not sure, call the commercial online service on their voice line and ask them. Most of the commercial online services have toll-free information numbers. See the section on "Getting Online" for phone numbers. TIPS If your modem uses data compression (V.42 or V.42 bis), you can increase performance by setting the baud on the telecommunications software to four times the baud rate of your modem. For example, if you have a 14,400 baud modem, you should set the baud for 57,600. A modem with compression technology can receive data at a faster speed than its rated speed. Effective throughput can be considerably greater than the modems rated speed. If your modem software has an auto-baud option, be sure to turn it off if your modem uses V.42 or V.42 bis. If you don't turn the auto-baud option off, you will not get the advantage of this much more efficient throughput. TERMINAL EMULATION Your terminal setting should match the computer you are calling (the host). If you are going to call a BBS, start off with ANSI terminal emulation. You will probably find that your telecommunications software defaults to an ANSI setting. This is what most BBSs expect. Some other common terminal emulation choices are TTY and DEC VT100/102. You may find that a terminal setting of DEC VT100 or VT102 works better when calling an online service. Most computers on the Internet want a terminal emulation of VT100. If you connect to a computer where you need to emulate VT100 and your telecommunications program doesn't support it, try VT102 or ANSI terminal emulation. LOCAL ECHO Set local echo OFF when setting up your telecommunications software. If you set it to on when you call a BBS, you will see double letters because they will echo what you type back to you. If that is the case, it will likely look "lliikkee tthhiiss." If you are receiving double letters, you will know that you need to turn local echo off. LINE FEEDS Set line feeds to OFF. Most BBSs add line feeds for you. However, if you receive characters on your screen that overwrite the preceding line, you will know that you need to turn your line feeds on. This is done through the modem software. If the computer you are calling and your modem software are both sending line feeds, the lines on your screen will appear double-spaced. Then you will know that you need to set line feeds to off. FLOW CONTROL The way modems tell each other to stop sending or restart sending data is called flow control. Incoming data is held in a block of memory called a buffer. If the buffer gets too full, it is up to flow control to temporarily stop the flow of incoming data to allow the receiving modem time to empty the data in the buffer. There are two types of flow control. The first is software flow control known as XON/XOFF. This stands for transmit on (XON) and transmit off (XOFF). Software flow control is controlled by your communications software. The second type of flow control is hardware flow control (RTS/CTS). A modem equipped with hardware flow control can use wires in the modem to start and stop data transmission. One wire controls the RTS (Request To Send) signal, the other wire controls the CTS (Clear To Send) signal. Software flow control is not as efficient as hardware flow control. You will need to read your modem manual to determine if your modem supports hardware flow control. Most modems that have a baud rating of 9600 or more support hardware flow control. If your modem supports hardware flow control (RTS/CTS), you should use it and turn your software flow control off. You will need to read your communications software manual to see how to set your software flow control. If you have both hardware and software flow control on, it can cause your modem to operate inefficiently and may cause problems with data transmission. Some systems may even "crash" or abort! Many of the better communications software programs have a feature that you can use to automate modem setup. For example, if you are using TELIX, you can run a program called MODEMCFG.EXE. Then select your modem from the pick-list. The software will automatically configure both your modem and the communications software for flow control and other settings. It has pre-defined modem initialization strings for over 200 different modems. If your modem software does not set the initalization string, you will want to look in the manual that came with you modem for help on selecting an initalization string. SETTING YOUR PROTOCOL Before you can download (receive) or upload (send) a file, you have to choose what is called a transfer protocol. Your communications software will support a number of built-in file transfer protocols, and probably external protocols as well. BOTH the calling computer and the host MUST support the chosen transfer protocol. Also, both the calling computer and the computer you are calling MUST be set to use the same transfer protocol. If the computer you are calling (the host) supports Zmodem, then you should use Zmodem. Zmodem is fast, has excellent error checking, and can even resume an interrupted transfer if you select this option on your communications software. This ability is sometimes referred to as "crash recovery." If the computer you are calling does not support Zmodem, then Ymodem-batch would be a good choice. Other transfer protocols include: Xmodem, Xmodem-1K, and ASCII. Avoid using ASCII if possible, as it is only for plain text files and does not use any error correction scheme. See the section on Telecommunications Terms for more complete descriptions of these different protocols. Most communications software today come using Zmodem as the default protocol. If ZMODEM is the default protocol, it means that you won't even have to change a setting to select ZMODEM. Some commercial online services have special file transfer protocols. CompuServe has a protocol called CompuServe Quick B. SETTING YOUR DOWNLOAD DIRECTORY You should create special directories on your hard drive for downloading and uploading files. In DOS, you can use the MD command to create a directory such as C:\DOWNLOAD. To do so, at the C prompt type: md c:\download This will create a directory called C:\DOWNLOAD on your C drive. When you select options on your communications program, you can then specify this C:\DOWNLOAD directory as the one you will use for your download directory. For example, if you are using the TELIX communications software, you would press O for options. Then select FILENAMES AND PATHS. Next, select the DOWNLOAD DIRECTORY and type: c:\download Next, make an upload directory (C:\UPLOAD) in the same fashion that you made the C:\DOWNLOAD directory. Then go into your telecommunications program and save the changes to disk. In TELIX, when you are finished, make sure you select WRITE SETUP TO DISK, so your changes will be saved. For more information, read the manual that comes with your communications software. If you are using TELIX, look for a text file called TELIX.DOC. You can read and print this file using an editor (such as DOS EDIT) or a word processor. Also, the shareware program LIST is excellent for viewing and printing text files. ==========================================================