STFax 4 Documentation - Modem settings

7.51 Modem Settings

Device - the serial device to use. Normally 'serial.device' but if you are using a serial card, choose the device relevant to this card. For instance, if you are using a Hypercom 1 card, you would choose 'hyperCOM1.device'.
Unit - the unit of the serial device. If you don't own a multiport card, this will probably be 0.
Rings - the number of rings to wait for before answering. Note that STFax will often take an extra ring to answer the incoming call. For instance, set 'rings' to three and STFax will normally answer on the fourth ring. ie. it waits until the third ring, answers, but by the time it has answered the fourth ring has appeared or even passed.
Also note that:
1. If your modem supports distinctive ring, and you have distinctive ring enabled, in order for distinctive ring to work (ie. for STFax to distinguish between the different ring types), you must set 'rings' to three or more.
2. In the UK, in order to correctly display Caller ID, the ring value should be set to a minimum of '2', in order to obtain and show available Caller ID information.
3. Depending on what you have set for your modem timeout, STFax may take two or three extra rings in order to answer the phone! So, if you have your modem timeout set to 100 and rings set to four, STFax could take six or seven rings before it finally answers the phone. Any longer and you might find your incoming caller has put down their phone, before STFax even answered!
Shared - if selected, the serial port will be opened in shared mode. Use this gadget if you need to share the serial port among more than one program, for example, between STFax and a TCP/IP stack.
An example would be running STFax from WBStartup. You could have STFax running when you boot your system, and answering all incoming calls, but occassionally want to go onto the Internet. Instead of having to quit STFax to go onto the net (ie. to run Miami or Genesis), you would have your TCP/IP stack set to 'shared' (and STFax needs to be set to 'shared' as well) and then start Genesis/Miami in the normal manner. STFax will disable whilst the TCP/IP stack is used.
Please do note that whilst the TCP/IP is using the serial device (in shared mode), STFax will not be able to answer the phone, any phone, whether the phone line is free (ie. STFax answering one line, whilst the TCP/IP stack is on its own dedicated phone line).
Retry - the minimum number of attempts STFax will undertake when trying to dial a number to send a fax.
Redial Delay - the delay between the redial attempts. If the dialed fax number was busy, you could set STFax to wait 120 seconds (2 minutes) between each redial attempt, before it tries to redial the number.
Init - the modem init (initialisation) string for your modem. If your modem isn't listed, try to choose one similar or select 'default', this will work fine in most cases, especially with generic Rockwell modems.
Dial Mode - whether the modem should use tone or pulse mode. In 99% of circumstances, you would always use tone mode.
Dial Prefix - the prefix to use in the dial command. For example, if you need to use the command "ATD0Wnnnn" to dial the number "nnnn", insert "0W" here.
Prefix String - this is a command sequence that will preceed the 'D' in the dial command. i.e. if you enter X3 here, STFax will use the command "ATX3Dnnnn" to dial "nnnn".
Use Class 1 - checking this box will force STFax to use the Class 1 protocol for fax operation. This can be very useful with US Robotics modems: most of them have a defective Class 2.0 support, thus you will get many errors trying to send/receive a fax without setting this gadget.
Few modems actually support Class 2. Only the highest quality (read: expensive) modems support Class 2. The Pace Solo is an example of a Class 2 modem.
Class 2 faxing is generally quicker and more trouble-free. Why? As Class 2 faxing using more internal modem hardware techniques in order to create the link between the local and remote fax machine/modem, whereas Class 1 faxing is 100% software based, so slightly more prone to failure and very CPU intensive.
Max 9600 Baud - if your fax modem supports only Class 1 or you're using the above gadget, you may experience some unknown errors during fax transmissions. In fact, the Class 1 protocol needs a quite fast CPU in order to work correctly at high speeds (a 68020 should be enough even for 14400 bauds, but background tasks can steal too much CPU power from STFax).
Note that some older fax machines cannot operate at higher than 9600 baud. So, as STFax attempts to establish a link at 14400, and most modern fax machines can cope with this or negotiate down to a lower rate, this may cause some initialisation problems with older fax machines that are unable to understand the initial 'trying to see if the remote fax machine will accept a 14400 connection'. If this is the case, and you have some problems with (older) fax machines, select the 'max 9600' option.
DTR Hangup - if you think that STFax is slow during the hanging up procedure, check this box. In order for DTR Hangup to work, the modem must be configured to hang up when DTR drops. Usually this can be achieved with the &D2&Q5 command sequence, but you should check your modem manual to be sure.