Copyright: CreateHelp! {Unregisterd} ® Nic Barnes 1993


vMail Contents

Welcome to Check vMail!.  You will no longer need to lift that receiver to deterime if you have voice mail.  Let Check vMail! do it for you.  Check vMail! will notify you by a dialog box with sound!.  It can even page your beeper. (Registered version).  So check it out!

About Stage Research

General description

Requirements

Getting Started

Error messages

How to register


About Stage Research

Stage Research:

- A group of programmers dedicated to creating useful programs.

- Have "real" jobs programming operating systems and wish to work

  with higher languages other than ASM.

- Have fun doing what their doing.

- Willing to take suggestions/critisism.

- Always looking for good ideas.

In general we're just a bunch of programmers who like to throw ideas around, come up with better ways of doing things, and ACTUALLY do them.  We are always looking to improve our programs, and gather ideas for great new ones.  If you have any questions, ideas, suggestions, etc, please feel free to contact us.  Thank you for using Stage Research products.


General Description

After having to pick up my phone every time I came back from lunch, meetings, and bathroom breaks, I started to get annoyed that the voice mail system forced one to waste so much time.  Thus this program.  Check vMail!, by Stage Research, now does this dirty work for me, and can do the same for you.  In general, Check vMail! uses a modem to detect if the phone has a STUTTER tone, and then ASSUMES you have voice mail.  At this time it will notify you by placing a dialog box on the screen, playing a WAV file, and/or even paging you.

After the first page you get, if you retrieve your voice mail from a remote site, Check vMail! will detect that you got your voice mail, clear it's dialog box from the screen, and start looking again.  When you get a new message, you'll be notified again.

The techology this program imploys does have STRICK requirements and may not work on all systems.  Please read the requirements section of help.


Requirements

Computer

Any computer that can run Windows 3.1.

Modem

9600 or better modem.

Voice mail service

Any voice mail service that STUTTERS the dialtone when you pick up the phone when you have voice mail.

** This program will NOT work with internal voice mail systems.  Only those systems that stutter the dial tone.

Pager Service

Any pager service that you can call directly into your pager number.  This usually is a 800 number that you dial.  So if you wanted to send a page, you'll do this:

Dial 1-800-xxx-xxxx

Wait 2 seconds

Dial 123-5678

Hang up.

That's what Check vMail! does.

Phone setup

Phone plugged into the modem.

Modem plugged into the phone jack.

This phone must be the phone that has the voice mail service on it.

Special note

If the phone isn't connected to the Phone Company, Check vMail! will determine that there is no dial tone and think that there is voice mail


Getting Started

First you'll need to copy all the files to the correct place on your hard drive.  This program doesn't have an SETUP program.  The following files must be placed into the same location.

VMAIL.EXE	- The main program.

SR_ABOUT.DLL	- Support DLL program.

SR_DIB.DLL	- Support DLL program.

SR_MODEM.DLL	- Support DLL program.

SR_REGS.DLL	- Support DLL program.

SR_FILE.DLL	- Support DLL program.

CTL3D.DLL	- Support DLL program

VMAIL.BMP	- Startup graphic

VMAIL.INI	- Created first time run.

VMAIL.HLP	- Help

VMAIL.TXT	- Help in TXT format.

After you get all these programs in one place, just run VMAIL.EXE.  The first time it is run it will determine that it doesn't have a INI file and will create one.  You'll then need to fill out the options for your system, then say "OK".

The next time Check vMail! is executed, one of two things may happen:

1)  The dialog box will come up again.  Either Check vMail! is not enabled or there is a copy of Check vMail! already in memory.

2)  Check vMail! will activate and wait for voice mail.  No dialog box.

If you'd like to get the options dialog box back, just run Check vMail! the second time and it'll pop up the options dialog.  If you make any changes, you'll need to click to save them.  If you click CANCEL, vMail! will unload and you'll lose your changes.


Error messages

Check vMail! will only display errors if there is a problem communication with your modem.  They are:

"Unable to open com port"

The communication port you selected is either incorrect, or someone else is using it.

"Unable to init com port"

The modem is not able to handle the messages Check vMail! is sending to it.  Check vMail! requires a 9600 baud or better modem.

"Com port timed out"

More then five seconds passed and the modem didn't respond to the initializing string.


How to register

First, why would you want to.  Well, there are two options that are not enabled in the shareware version.  They are:  Send Page, and Wait for Idle.  Send page does just that.  If  Check vMail! detects you have something waiting, it'll call your pager service (see requirements), and send you a page.  The Wait for Idle is purely for convience.   As you're working on your machine, everytime Check vMail! checks the phone line it needs about 8 seconds to determine if you have voice mail.  The Wait for Idle will wait until your machine sits idle for a period of time before it starts checking.  One other thing that Wait for Idle can do.  Instead of turning off Check vMail! each time the phone rings and you are talking, you'll just need to move your mouse around.  If you don't turn off Check vMail! or move your mouse, Check vMail! will try to pick up the phone while your on it.

Please print out the VMAIL.TXT file for the order form.


Detect Voice Mail

Enable voice mail detection.  Turns Check vMail! detection on and off.  The minutes field will determine how long between each test.

Enable idle detection.  When enabled, Check vMail! will not activate and start looking for voice mail until the determined amount of idle time has passed.  After idle time has passed, the counter will start for detection.  Thus the first detection will be the total of idle time plus detection time.

Enable on/off button.  This is a window that will either float to the top or remain under other windows that will allow you to turn Check vMail! detection on and off.  This will allow you to use your phone without being interrupted by Check vMail!.

Display Box.  Display a box when voice mail is detected.

Send page.  Send a page when voice mail is detected.

Play wave.  Play a .WAV file when voice maill is detected.  Browse and Test are buttons that will

allow you to look for and test .WAV files.


Modem Info

Phone number.  This is the phone number of your voice mail service.  Although NOT called, Check vMail! is required to attempt to place a phone call.

Comm1/Comm2.  The communication port that your modem is on.


Pager Info

Pager phone number.  Phone number of your pager service.  Must be a direct connect to your pager PIN number.  Please see requirements

Message.  The message you want to receive on your pager.