4.0 The mailbox (Overview)


This programme allows several different levels of remote access.
For you it allows you to read and write data. We know this is not
a new idea, but what is new is that we offer it in one programme.
By this stage you maybe beginning to understand  that CoMa is
truly a "communication manager".

With the integrated Z-modem you can download and upload data, and
using the "mail" function messages can be left for other people in
the mailbox.

The inbuilt terminalprogramm alows you to connect to any mailbox or to
configure your modem by using the AT-commands.

At first some words about the mailbox:

	Password in CoMa

As we said there is several different levels of access, and these
are:

* The User

You can set up for yourself with your own "supervisor" password
full access to all levels in your computer.

* Guests

Remote access can be given to "common" users via the password
"guests". They are restricted to the allocated folder, but this
folder may contain several sub-folders.

* Friends

You can set up a separate folder for a person of your choice, to
which they have their own  password. Again, access is restricted
to this single folder, but it may contain sub-folders.

	Password in CoMa Professional

This function is greatly extended in CoMa Professional in which
you can create

*unlimited "friends" folders

with unlimited passwords. The mailbox is fully useable in this
version for business and personal use.

	The terminalprogramm

You don't need to use any other programm to configure your modem or to
connect to any mailbox. Just use CoMa's own terminalprogramm.


4.1 Parameter "Mailbox"


Select, from the dialogue box parameter "General"  the menupoint
"Connect". From this select the required operation mode in the
pop-up-menu, either fax&data or voice&fax&data.

 	Parameter "Mailbox"

You find this dialogue box by clicking on the entry "parameter"
in the pull-down-menu and selecting "Mailbox".

You receive a dialogue box in which all relevant preadjustments
for the mailbox can be made.

	Supervisor Password

Select a password, for yourself, which should not be easy for
anybody else to find out! (should anybody find out, just think of
the damage or embarrassment they could cause) The password can
contain all special characters but no control symbols/characters!

Now follow the adjustments of the various paths. Pathadjustment is
the same as everywhere in CoMa. (Click on the path and the file
selection box appears and you can adjust the path- you have read
this handbook before, havn't you?)

	Greeting Text

Under greeting text you can create a path for a text file which
will be used to greet your callers.

	Timeout

The time you enter here will be the time after which a connection
will be disconnected if no activity is taking place. This avoids
the telephone line (and your computer) being blocked, and also
saves your caller a potentially large bill.

	Password Friends, Friend Download

You can define a password and a special folder (Friend Download)
to which only certain people have access. This folder can branch
into several sub-folders, but the user will not be able to get
into higher levels. A switch of the partition is not possible
either.

	Password Guest, Guest Download

We have provided the password "Guest" for access to a special
folder for guests. Because this password is quite common for
access for guests you should not change it. If you want to let
only a selected circle of friends have access go ahead and change
it. In this case no advice for guest access will appear after
login.

	Upload

Enter a path for your files sent to you, i.e. entered into your
computer from "outside".

	Mails

This path serves for saving electronic mail which a caller has
left with the function "mail".


4.2 Tips for the Sender Modem


You have to make some adjustments for the modem that accesses your
mailbox if you work with CoMa Voice.

Due to the answering machine announcement starting before data
exchange, the preadjusted time for recognition of the carrier tone
is not sufficient in most cases. The modem reports "No Carrier"
after 30 to 60 seconds normally and disconnects. If you calculate
the time for the start of the computer, the answering and the
negotiation of the connection paramters you will find that at
least 60 seconds are necessary. We recommend therefore to adjust
the "Wait for Carrier Detect" to 90 seconds. This should eliminate
all problems.

According to the standard Hayes command the register to change
this time is at S7.

Please check in your handbook if the register S7 is fixed. Then
you can set your register permanently to 90 seconds. The best
solution is that you enter a terminal programme like Z-Term and
send following commands:

ATS7=90		<Return>

AT&W 		<Return>

AT&V		<Return>

After entering the first two commands the modem will write "Ok" on
your monitor. The total configuration has to be reported back by
the modem after the last command. We are only interested that the
value 90 appears in the register S7 "active profile".  


4.3 Commands in the Mailbox


CoMa offers a number of commands to work in the mailbox. Strong
differentiation has to be made between access of the supervisor or
guest (or friend). The supervisor has access to all levels of the
computer, the deletion of files and much more is possible which
the guest should not be able to do.

The guest should only access one folder for "Upload" or
"Download". It is possible for more sub-folders to be contained in
this folder, but the guest cannot leave the folder "Guest". You
enter the path for this in the dialogue box parameter "Mailbox".
The same applies to access for "Friend".


Access for Guests

help or ?		delivers an overview of all possible commands of this 		
			mini mailbox

ls or dir		shows all files available

show			"file name" shows ASCII-file, file name is for the 
			name of file to be displayed

cd "file name"		change to sub-folder

login			new login with new password

get "file name"		starts download of "file name" via Z-modem

cd..			one folder level higher (only in the
			folder made available for guests)

md FOLDER		creates a new folder in this path with the name 
			FOLDER

exit			exit the system

deutsch                 the mailbox output is switched to German

english                 the mailbox output is switched to English






commands for the Supervisor

cd "path name"			change to different folder

calls				display of entries in the "calls list"

delete "file name"		delete files

cp "source" "Destination"   	file copy (file name and path have to
			   	be entered completely) 

rename "old"_"new"		change name of file

rmdir "FOLDER"                  erases an empty folder

Pay attention: If the filename uses blanks the filename has to be
written in ""!

The commonly wildcards(*) can be used for entering the file
names.

If you want to enter a file with Z-modem into the CoMa mailbox it
will be recognised by CoMa automatically and the data receive will
be activated immediately. The file will be saved under the path
for "Upload".

	The "P-mail" function

A caller can leave a message for the supervisor using the command
"mail". This text file will be saved in the path "mails" and
marked in the calls list.

The text file will be displayed by  a double click on the entry in
the calls list. The entry in the calls list also gives the name of
the caller used at login.

	The Chat function

If you are present at the time a guest tries to access, and due to
his inexperience (or other causes) is having problems, you are
able to go "on-line" and give help. In modern language this is
called "chating"!


4.4 Three ways to login the Mailbox


There should be no problem for a modern modem to create a connect
to CoMa Mailbox. Every modem should send a data-calling-tone and
everything works automatically. If this is not the case you have
to trick the modem to make a data-connect. (Do you like the
politicians word "should"? and the "trick" analogy applies as
well.) The main condition for this is that you have activated
data-connect in the pop-up-menu "Connect".

We will now show you two tricks which work with bad hardware as
well:

1. Recognition of silence

You call the mailbox with a modem and the answering text is played
to you first. After that CoMa records for 7 seconds. If silence is
not recognised during this time CoMa tries to make a data-connect.
It is absolutely necessary that the Register S7 is configured
correctly for this otherwise the time to detect the data carrier
is not sufficient. Furthermore, the modem has to be able to detect
the silence cleanly.

2. Manual  access with DTMF key 9

You call the mailbox with a telephone and press key 9 when you
hear the answering text.  CoMa interrupts the announcement and
tries to make a data-connect at once. You have to switch the
connection to the modem quickly after pressing 9.

This normally functions  very well if you have called up your
terminal programme and entered the string ATD. After CoMa
interrupts the announcement you  press the return key and the
modem will take over the connection and build a connection to the
mailbox.

Automatic connection with the data-calling-tone

The most commonly used modem types, amongst others all modem types
with BZT, send a data-calling-tone when making a data call. If
your reception modem recognises the tone and reports to CoMa the
announcement will be interrupted and the programme tries to make a
data connect at once.

Problems with the data-calling-tone

This functions only from firmware 6.11 for ZyXEL modems! The
transer to data mode does not function at all for Creatix LC 144
VF in the firmware 1.4. The firmware 1.5 from June 94 upwards does
not have this problem any more. A further problem that can happen
with receiving modems (e.g. USRobotics Sportster) is that the
data-calling-tone is unrecognised. In this case no data-connect
can take place. There are two solutions, the first is apply rule 2
above, the second (and best) is get a better modem.



4.5 Extensions of the mailbox in CoMa Professional


We received a large number of requests for extension to the
mailbox of CoMa which threatened to burst the size of a
mini-mailbox as well. We also thought that the new functions would
only be useful for a number of customers. Unfortunately the
worldwide rule for this is, exclusive service costs exclusive
money, and we are not a charity!

What does one get for ones money with CoMa Professional?

You can create unlimited access allowances secured by passwords. A
separate folder (area) can be defined for each client. Several
clients can use the same folder as well, if you wish to do so.

The folder of clients can contain several sub-folders. Higher
levels in the computer cannot be accessed.

	Creating a folder sturcture

All folders for your clients or friends have to be located on the
hard disk in the directory "Friends Download" marked in the
dialogue box "parameter mailbox".

Only the supervisor has access to areas outside this folder. We
have called the folder "Friends" in the displayed example.

You can create a sub-folder for every client in the folder friends
and only this client will have access via his password. The
sub-folder for the clients can contain unlimited folders again.

	Define password and folder for clients

First you have to enter the name of the client in the number list.
Surname<christian name, so that the name can be sorted
alphabetically.

Click on "Insert" and the name will be entered.

Open the window "Number" and activate the new entry with a click
of the mouse key.

Select the entry "Edit entry" in the pull-down-menu "numbers".

You will receive the shown dialogue box. You can add a remark to
the entry and associate a group, you also have the possibility to
add the password and the folder to which this client has access.

You have to create the folder from the desk top first unless you
have got the possibility of a modern file selection box which
offers this function.

The greetings entered under "salutations" are displayed to the
caller after login and recognition of the password.

All files entered by the client will end up in the folder defined
in the field "Upload" under "parameter Mailbox".

An example for the folder structure:

Here you see the structure of a folder for the client SOFTBEAR.
After login with the password the caller will see three folders,
orders, news and programme, after entering the commands "dir" or
"ls".

FRIENDS\
	 \SOFTBAER 
	 	\ORDERS 
		\NEWS 
		\PROGRAMME

The command "cd News" will lead him into this folder and he can
see the directory with "ls" or "dir".

The command "cd Friends" leads to error message "access denied".
The password of the client SOFTBEAR has no access rights for this.

4.6 The Terminalprogramm

CoMa includes a terminal-window for two reasons:

* To allow the modem to be re_configured if necessary

* To log on to any mailbox

To open this window click on the button "Terminal" in the main dialog
of CoMa.

Everything you write in this window will be sent to the modem at once.
If you want to login to the mailbox of SOFTBŽR Germany you have to
type: 00493062709459 If you press the RETURN-button your modem will
dial the number and connect to our mailbox.

The better way to connect is to use the numberlist. Add the number of the 
desired mailbox into the numberlist. Here are telephone- and faxnumbers and 
datanumbers. With a double-click on the datanumber you let CoMa start dialing 
this number. You can also activate the entry with a single click and choose 
the function "Dial Data" from the pull-down-menue "Numbers" or press the 
button ctrl + E to start the dialing.

After the connection is astablished CoMa opens the terminal-window and
you are asked for your identification.

You see, connecting to a mailbox can be very easy! And by using the
macros it becomes quite simple!

Use GAST as password and typ in your name. Then you get displayed the
contents of the mailbox and the overview of the mailbox commands.

If you went into our mailbox to get the newest version of CoMa you
have to change the directory into the folder "Mac". Type "cd mac" and
you see the contents of this folder on the screen. In our example you
find 3 other folders and 3 files. The files with *Update* include only
the new programm. The file CoMa_Mac_4.0.1.sit.bin includes the hole
archive. In our pictured example we downloaded the hole archive. We
used an abbreviation by typing the shortcut * in the name of the file.
If you use the star as wildcard, the filename ahead of it will be
ignored.

If the transmission starts via Z-modem-protocoll a dialogue box shows
all relevant data about it.

If you leave the mailbox use the command "exit". The mailbox will cut
the connection and you see the mention "NO CARRIER", this means that
the modem has gone "on hook".

	Uploads

The first part of this chapter showed you how to get files from a
mailbox, but you may want to sent the other way too.

There are two possibilities for uploading data to the mailbox in the
pull-down-menu "Terminal".

	Z-Modem Upload

After you click on this command the file select box apears and you can
choose the file to be sent.

The transmission protokoll will be Z-modem.

	ASCII Upload

If you want to send a ASCII-textfile to the terminal-window of the
mailbox you have to take this entry.

You can write the text offline and after the connection is established
you can sent the hole text at once.

	The macros

To make it easier for you to connect a mailbox CoMa has 8 free
defineable macros. You can use them to give in your password etc..

The dilaogue to give in the macros is under Parameter "Macros".

	The CRLF-command

If you log in a mailbox, every entry must be ended with the
return-button. The macros in CoMa use the "vertical Line" (|) to do
this.

	The break-command

To give the mailbox enough time to read the entry and work with it,
you can add a pause of 0,5 seconds to the macro. We use therfore the
"~"-sign. If necessary, you can put several breaks in a line to get a
longer pause.

	Hang Up

To disconnect immediately you can use the entry "Hang Up" in the
pull-down-menue (Ctrl+H).