CONNECT TIME 1.5 This readme file is intended to get you started quickly on CONNECT TIME. It by no means replaces the documentation. FILES IN THIS ARC 1. Readme This file. 2. License.doc A copy of the license agreement that also appears at the top of the documentation file. 3. Ct.doc The documentation file. Refer to this file if you have any questions about how something works or what it does. 4. Ct.exe The program that does maintenance and prints reports. 5. Ctres.exe The memory resident program that actually logs the calls you make to information systems. 6. Ct.dat The data file that contains the Services you call, and the Rates that they charge. Two Services are already set up for you. 7. Ctlog.dat The data file that contains the call transactions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST THINGS FIRST The two data files (ct.dat and ctlog.dat) should be located on the root directory of your drive. So once you have unarced them, you need to make sure that they are on the '\' directory. Then, you should add all the Services you call in the program CT. Use the pull-down menu for 'SERVICES' and select 'ADD A SERVICE'. Just fill in the blanks, its easy. Next you should add any Rates that are charged by the Services you call. This is also done in the program CT. Use the pull-down menu for 'RATES' and select 'ADD A RATE'. Once again, fill in the blanks. The per minute Rate you will be asked to supply is just that. The amount of money that *each minute* costs you to be connected to some Service. If you only have an hourly charge, then you will need to divide 60 into that number to get the per minute Rate. For instance, if your hourly Rate was $10.80, then your per minute Rate would be $0.18. *****IMPORTANT NOTE***** In order for the report that prints out the log to make any sense, you *MUST* set the date and time correctly on your computer. CONNECT TIME will always figure the right amount of time connected, and compute the right total amount due. However, if you don't set the date and time on your system, all the records will be on the same day, and thus make the report largely useless. Also, CONNECT TIME supports the COM1 and COM2 devices only. If you have your modem selected as another device, you won't be able to use CONNECT TIME unless you can rearrange your peripherals to put the modem on one of these devices. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CTRES Now that you have set up your Services and Rates, you are ready to start logging the calls you make to information services. This is done by the program CTRES. CTRES, as the name implies, is a memory resident program. To load it into memory, you need only type 'CTRES' at the DOS prompt. Now, when you disconnect from a Service, CTRES will *automatically* pop up and let you pick the Service you were connected to, and the Rate that was in effect. After you have chosen these two things, you will be shown on the screen how long you were connected, and how much the charge was. At that point you are prompted with 'Remove CTRES From Memory: N'. If you want to leave CTRES in memory to handle future calls, just press the Return key, or type the letter 'N' on the keyboard. If you do want to unload CTRES from memory, type the letter 'Y' on the keyboard. You also have the option to unload CTRES from memory *before* you choose the Service and Rate. When CTRES first pops up, you can unload it by pressing the F10 key. CTRES can also be popped up with a 'hot key' while you are still connected. This is useful for changing Rates 'on the fly'. For instance, if you are moving from one area in a Service that is charged at a certain Rate to another area in the Service charged at a different Rate, you would want to take a second or two to assign the time spent on the first rate, and then let CTRES remember the time forward from that for the next Rate that you will choose. This lets you keep very accurate totals. The 'hot key' is ALT-CTRL-C. This means that you hold down both the ALT and CTRL keys, and while you are still holding them down, you press the letter 'C' on the keyboard. Since CTRES must be loaded into memory for it to pop-up when needed, you will need to always remember to type CTRES at the DOS prompt before you execute your communications program. Or you could do it the easy way. Just put the line CTRES in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This will make sure that CTRES is loaded into memory at all times. You just need to make sure that CTRES.EXE is located in a directory that is in your PATH statement. If you are unsure about this item, just put CTRES.EXE on the root directory of the drive. That is, the name of the file would be \CTRES.EXE. My AUTOEXEC.BAT file is listed below to give you an idea of what it might look like. echo off path c:\;c:\dos;c:\dfedit;c:\bat;c:\norton; prompt $p$g ctres cls -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thats all I think I should put in this Readme file. The file CT.DOC contains the entire descriptions of all the functions of CONNECT TIME and how to use them. Hopefully, you won't need to refer to it often. I have made every effort to make these two programs easy to use. Please let me know how I've done! Richard Tuley 11/11/88