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Lightwave Communications SUPERCOM and DIALER Lightwave's Asynchronous Communications Systems "Lets You Talk to the World" Manual Lightwave October, 1986 P.O. Box 16858 Release 1.0 Tampa, FL 33617 Copyright 1986 All Rights Reserved This manual may only be distributed as one file on the Lightwave Communications distribution diskette. Such duplication and distribution is authorized without compensation as long as the diskette is a duplicate of the Lightwave Communications distribution diskette. This manual may also be distributed in printed form as long as a copy of the distribution diskette is attached. All other distribution is strictly prohibited. Page 2 Table of Contents Introduction (What is Lightwave Communications?) . . . . 3 What is Shareware? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Lightwave Communications Requirements . . . . . . . . . . 6 Configuring SUPERCOM For Your System . . . . . . . . . . 7 Starting SUPERCOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The SUPERCOM Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Installing DIALER on Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The DIALER Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Paying For and Obtaining the Next Release . . . . . . . . 16 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Page 3 Introduction SUPERCOM is an asynchronous communications package. It allows your IBM PC (c) or compatible to communicate with other computers around the world. The key to this communication is having an asynchronous card and a modem. Today you can obtain both these hardware functions on a single short card for your PC. DIALER is an electronic phone dialer. It maintains a list of names with associated phone numbers. It can look up an unlimited number of names and instantly dial the correct phone number associated with that name. It uses the asynchronous communications functions of your IBM PC (c) or compatible to accomplish the dialing. In DIALER, the first name, last name and phone number may each be up to 30 characters long. There is no limit on the number of phone numbers you may maintain with DIALER. (You would run out of disk space long before you reached the limits imposed with DIALER.) With the 30 characters available for phone numbers, you can use DIALER to maintain national as well as international phone listings. SUPERCOM allows your PC to communicate over telephone lines at speeds of up to 9600 bits per second. Anywhere in the world where there is a telephone a modem "speaking the same language" as your modem, you can communicate with it. SUPERCOM and DIALER are designed to be as simple to use as possible. In fact, you may not need to read this manual to get started. However, we advise that you at least go through the manual, especially the sections on configuration and installation, and keep a printed copy handy while using the systems. If you are working for a corporation or university then you are aware of the difficulty in getting management approval for an expensive piece of software. Lightwave Communications is built to put some competitiveness into the software market. Lightwave Communications is very inexpensive and rivals many communication packages in power and it beats nearly all in speed. Lightwave Communications is also easy to use and to learn. In addition to cost, availability is also key to your success. You may freely make as many copies of the distribution diskette of Lightwave Communications as you like. Often it is illegal to make copies of our competition's packages. Lightwave Communications is instantly available to everyone in your group as well as Page 4 everyone in your company and everyone you know. Lightwave provides support to those that pay for their copy of Lightwave Communications. One advantage to paying for Lightwave Communications is the access to our help line. Our technical support staff will be more than happy to answer all your questions. We will even answer your questions about our competitors (fairly too!). We can point you in the right direction to find other tools from other companies to satisfy your needs. Oh yes, our technical support number is available twenty-four hours a day, nearly every day of the year. Quite nice for those often sticky communication problems. Paying for Lightwave Communications will also get you the upgrade to the next release, delivered to your front door. We are constantly looking out for your needs. If you print and fill out the file SUPPORT with your requests for additional features, we might well be persuaded to add them for you. We certainly want to keep improving Lightwave Communications. Last, but not least, is speed. This is one of our pet peeves concerning many systems available today - they are just too slow. Many departments have switched to more powerful micros, such as the IBM PC AT (r), to offset slow software. Well, Lightwave Communications will run on those, too, but it does not have to. Lightwave Communications is fast, very fast, compared to most communication packages in existence today. Spend some time to do a benchmark of Lightwave Communications against any other system. We think you will be pleasantly surprised. All of the above are benefits to be gained from using Lightwave Communications: you drastically cut your costs (a hero maker in many a department), better availability to your software, easy to learn and use - cutting training time and costs and increasing productivity, access to the help line, the next upgrade, and much more speed. We at Lightwave hope you will like our latest brainchild, its speed and ease of use, and will want to upgrade to our next Lightwave Communications! Page 5 What Is Shareware? Shareware is a software distribution and marketing concept. In shareware, it is believed: that people will pay for something they find useful, that most software costs too much, that copy protection schemes can be frustrating and that software users want to support software authors while not necessarily the software middle men. Lightwave Communications is distributed under the Shareware concept. You receive the software first, from whatever source that may be, and pay only what you think the software is worth. You are free, and encouraged, to share copies of the Lightwave Communications distribution diskette with others. Lightwave Communications is marketed under the shareware concept. We prefer to think of Lightwave Communications as living software: software that continues to develop and get better, more powerful. We believe Lightwave Communications is a useful tool as it is, but can be improved. However, support for living software must come from someone. In shareware this support comes from you - the user. Most software that is distributed on the shareware principle offers additional features for your payment. Lightwave Communications is no exception. If your contribution meets or exceeds $45 you will receive: a copy of the Lightwave Communications distribution diskette for the latest and/or next release (you will receive both if the latest release is 1.0), access to the Lightwave help line, and our very sincere thanks for supporting us in this effort. We guarantee to provide enhancements to both SUPERCOM and DIALER with your payment. We further guarantee to provide at least one other communications package with your purchase. Page 6 Lightwave Communications Requirements In order to use Lightwave Communications you will need some specific hardware and software. For hardware you will need: an IBM (r) computer or compatible with at least 128 kilobytes of RAM, and a monitor. Lightwave Communications should run on many different brands of computer, (it has been tested on several), but we just cannot guarantee that it will run on your particular machine. DIALER has a higher probability of running on compatibles than SUPERCOM. Lightwave Communications will run on the IBM PC jr, PC, XT, and AT (r). The jr will require 192 kilobytes of memory as it uses some of the available program memory for the display. You will also need one asynchronous communications adapter. This is usually a separate card purchased for your PC. Contact your dealer for more information. SUPERCOM will support two adapters if they are in your machine. DIALER must have the asynchronous card configured as communications port number one. Finally, for hardware, you will need a modem. The modem must be Hayes Smartmodem (c) compatible. SUPERCOM will support speeds between 1200 and 9600 bits per second. DIALER must have a modem that supports 1200 bits per second either as the main speed or a fallback speed. Lightwave Communications will run in a system with either a color or monochrome monitor. For software you only need DOS version 2.0 or higher, (including 3.0 and 3.1). Page 7 Configuring SUPERCOM For Your System The first time you start SUPERCOM you will be asked several questions concerning your particular hardware and your wishes for display parameters. This section will help you decide what those parameters should be. SUPERCOM will tell you that the configuration file was not found, then begin configuring itself to meet your needs. The first question asked will be your monitor type. SUPERCOM can be configured to run on either a monochrome or color monitor. If you have a color monitor, you can select the colors you want for display. SUPERCOM can use any of the sixteen colors defined for color-graphics systems. If you have a color monitor you will be asked for a number to represent the colors you desire. You will be asked to select both a foreground color and a background color. These numbers are the display attribute numbers as defined for the IBM PC (c). These colors are: 0 black 8 darkgray 1 blue 9 lightblue 2 green 10 lightgreen 3 cyan 11 lightcyan 4 red 12 lightred 5 magenta 13 lightmagenta 6 brown 14 yellow 7 lightgray 15 white If you are unsure of what colors to select, do not worry - you may change them later. For now, we suggest yellow (number 14) on a blue background (number 1). This seems to be pretty easy on the eyes for long term viewing. Do not worry too much about the selections you are currently making. Every one of them can be changed at a later time. Further, communications rate, parity, data bits, stop bits and echo can be selected on a per-call basis. Lots of flexibility built in here. After the question(s) for display, you will be asked which communications port you wish to talk over. This is a hardware selected port due to the fact that your PC can support two asynchronous ports at the same time. Normally, port one is the port that is used. Next, you will asked for the communications speed in bits per second. Most modems on the market today run at 1200 bits per second. If your modem supports higher speeds, such as 2400 Page 8 or 4800 bits per second, then by all means use those bit rates. After selecting speed you find a request for parity. Most bulletin boards currently support the XMODEM file transfer protocol. This protocol requires no parity so you may want to select none. The same is true for the next question, data bits. XMODEM requires 8 data bits, as will most other file transfer mechanisms. The number of stop bits can be set to 1 or 2, but 1 is nearly always the number used. For echo, most types of communications links will repeat the characters you are sending them back to you. This helps in error detection as you can see what you are typing in through their "eyes." Therefore, echo will usually be no. If you start communicating with another machine and cannot see what you are typing, then echo should be yes. Finally, you have to select whether to dial via pulse or tone. This is determined by the type of phone line you have installed to your computer. Pulse lines are generally a little cheaper than tone lines, but dialing time is longer. After you have answered the question for dial mode then SUPERCOM will tell you that it is saving the configuration for your next session. Page 9 Starting SUPERCOM Getting SUPERCOM fired up will probably be one of the easiest things you do today. The only file you need in the computer to use SUPERCOM is the SUPERCOM.COM file. SUPERCOM will create SUPERCOM.CFG the first time you type in SUPERCOM. When you add numbers to the dialer selection, the file SUPERCOM.DIA will be created. So, all you have to do to get started is type in: SUPERCOM and you are ready to go! Once you have configured your SUPERCOM, you can request help by hitting the F1 key. To exit SUPERCOM, hold down the shift key and press F10. Page 10 SUPERCOM Functions When you press the F1 key for help, you will see a display "pop up" of the function key definitions for SUPERCOM. What each of these options are is expounded upon here. F1 toggles the help screen on and off. The data currently on your screen is preserved. F1 may be requested at any time excluding a SUPERCOM prompt for more information. F2 through F4 are used for file transfer. By utilizing file transfer you can capitalize on work already accomplished by others and provide the fruits of your labor to others. Memos, messages, letters, and large volumes of data can all be sent using file transfer. F2 begins action to send a file. SUPERCOM will prompt you for the file name you want to send. If the file exists, then SUPERCOM will send that file down the link AND display it on the screen at the same time. When sending a file, it is important that the other side be ready to receive the file. You can prepare for this reception by giving the other side commands before initiating the file transfer. F3 is used to receive a file. If you do not already have a file open for capture, then SUPERCOM will prompt you for the name of the file that you want to save the data in. If the file already exists, then you will have the option of appending to the end of the file or overwriting it. After you have specified the file, then any characters that come across the asynchronous link will be displayed to you AND saved in that file. F4 is used to end reception of a file. After you have captured all the data you want in the file, press F4. If you have a file open, then it will be closed and capture will no longer occur. F5 is used to start SUPERCOM's dialer. With the dialer of SUPERCOM, you can contact other computers around the world. You can also store names and numbers of your most frequently dialed connections so that they are readily available, and easy to dial, in your next session. After pressing F5, you will see the SUPERCOM DIALER screen "pop up." The data already on your screen is preserved. You have several options while in the dialer. You may press any number key, and if that number has an associated name and telephone number entry, then SUPERCOM will dial and attempt to connect to that number. SUPERCOM will set the length of time to wait for a connect based on the length of the Page 11 telephone number specified. Six seconds per digit are counted. If it takes any more time to connect than this, then there must be a problem with establishing the link. If you connect you will be returned to the previous screen with a message of CONNECTED and the date and time. SUPERCOM will also tell you if the other side does not answer. The letter 'A' is used to tell the dialer that you want to add an entry. SUPERCOM will select the next screen position not used to add the new selection. You will be prompted for the name of the entry; any characters, up to 30, may be entered. Then you will be prompted for the number. All characters except the comma and whole numbers are ignored except for calculating timeout. The comma tells your modem to wait 1 second before dialing the next number. Use the comma in places where your phone may be slow, like in getting an outside line. i.e: 9,988-5033 Next you will be asked for bits per second. This selection is provided in case this communications link will be at a speed different than normal and your modem supports variable speeds. Then you will be asked parity, data bits and stop bits. It is important that these match the other computer you want to talk to. For most bulletin boards in the United States the selections will be: None, 8, 1. Finally, you will be asked if you want echo. If the other computer will echo your characters back to you, then say no. If it will not, then say yes. After you have made all the selections for this entry, SUPERCOM will tell you that it is saving the changes to disk. If this is the first time you have added an entry to the dialer, it will create the file SUPERCOM.DIA. The letter 'R' is used to tell the dialer that you want to revise an entry. SUPERCOM will ask you which entry you want to revise. If that entry exists, then SUPERCOM will ask you for the information for each field in that entry. Change your entries as you wish. 'M' is used to tell SUPERCOM that you want to manually dial. SUPERCOM will ask you for the number that you want to connect to, then use the communications parameters LAST IN EFFECT for this link. In most cases, that will be the default values. The default parameters will be restored whenever you exit the dialer. 'D' is used to delete an entry from SUPERCOM's saved numbers list. SUPERCOM will prompt you for the number you want to delete. If that number exists, then SUPERCOM will ask you if you are sure. If you answer yes, then that entry will be deleted from SUPERCOM.DIA. Page 12 'X' is used to exit the dialer. Normally, you will enter the dialer and make a connection request. When you are connected, you are automatically returned to the on-line mode. If you do not connect, then you can exit the dialer by pressing 'X'. After you have pressed 'X', then the default communications parameters are restored. Once back to the on-line mode, you can select F6 to change the system defaults. You will be asked the same series of questions that was asked of you when you first started SUPERCOM. You may make any changes that you wish. After you have made your new selections, SUPERCOM will ask you if you want to make the new selections active for this session. If you are currently connected to another computer and elect to accept the new parameters for this session, you will be disconnected! F7 is used to answer the telephone when another computer calls you. After you bring up SUPERCOM, whenever someone or something dials your phone number, you will see the word "RING" appear on your screen. If you suspect that it is another computer, you can ask SUPERCOM to answer the line by pressing F7. Then, your computer can talk to the calling computer. F8 is used to hang up the line without exiting SUPERCOM. If you are finished with one communications session and want to do another, then press F8 to disconnect this session so you can go on to another. F9 is used to change the communication parameters while on-line. You will have to select bit rate, parity, number of data bits, number of stop bits, and echo. You can make all these changes while remaining connected to another computer. This feature is handy if you want to connect to another machine, but are not sure of it's communication parameters. You can go ahead and dial the other computer, then play with the parameters until the link works. To exit SUPERCOM you must hold down the shift key then press F10 (shifted F10). SF10 will close any file open for file transfer, disconnect any on-line communications, close the asynchronous port and exit to DOS. Page 13 Installing DIALER On Your System DIALER is prepared for use just as it is in computer systems. It requires NO configuration and will run on both monochrome and color monitors (textcolor of white). Additionally, DIALER is well designed for hard disk systems. DIALER, as a system, is comprised of four programs and one data file. The programs will ALWAYS search for the data file under the ROOT directory of the current drive. For users of hard disk systems, this provides an added "goodie" - you can be anywhere in the directory structure of your hard disk and use DIALER. If you have a hard disk and do not have a directory where you keep your utilities then do these steps: 1) make a directory for utilities: CD \ MKDIR UTIL 2) edit the autoexec.bat file under the root directory and include a PATH statement for your utilities: PATH C:\UTIL You will have to reboot your PC to get the new path information available to DOS. Now that you have a utility directory established, DOS will search this directory for programs to execute if it cannot find them under the current directory. Therefore, by placing the four programs: DIAL.COM, DIALSHOW.COM, DIALADD.COM, and DIALDEL.COM in the utility directory they are accessible from any directory on your hard disk. ALL of the DIALER programs look for the file "\DIALFILE" which is the file DIALFILE under the root directory. Page 14 The DIALER Commands Each of the four programs that are part of DIALER is a separate command of the DIALER system. Their command syntax is: DIAL <firstname> <lastname> DIALADD <firstname> <lastname> <phonenumber> DIALDEL <firstname> <lastname> DIALSHOW DIALER treats capital letters the same as minors - it will capitalize all entries (except phone number) as they are typed by the user. Therefore, do not let case be a consideration when using DIALER. DIAL is used to make the phone calls. When invoked, it will check to see if the DIALFILE exists. If it does, then DIAL will look up the firstname and lastname. If the name is found then DIAL will attempt to dial the associated phone number. DIAL will inform you of any conditions it finds along the way - such as a name not being found or inability to open the asynchronous port. When DIAL finds the name it will tell you to pick up the handset (from the phone) and to wait until ringing has started. Once the ringing has started, (you can hear it through your modem speaker), pressing any keyboard key will connect you. Another nice touch on DIAL is to use the DOS F3 command. If, after you attempt a call you find the line busy or no one answers, you can instantly re-dial the number by pressing F3, then ENTER. F3 is the command to DOS to repeat the last entry. An instant re-dialer! DIALADD is used to add more entries to the DIALFILE. The DIALFILE should not exist before invoking DIALADD the first time through. If the file does not exist, then DIALADD will create it and let you know that it has done so. The three parameters on the command line for DIALADD specify what to put in the DIALFILE. DIALADD will check the file before the entry to make sure you are not adding the same name twice. If the name already exists, you can delete it with DIALDEL. DIALDEL will first check for the existence of the DIALFILE. If it is found it will search through the file looking for the name you have specified. When found, it will ask you if you really want to delete that entry. A yes answer will command DIALDEL to delete that name from the DIALFILE. Use DIALSHOW to view all the entries in your DIALFILE. It first checks to ensure that the DIALFILE exists. If it does, Page 15 then DIALSHOW will start at the top of the file and work through to the end of the file. DIALSHOW will stop every 23 entries to allow you time to look at the display. Continue viewing entries by hitting any key. Page 16 Paying For and Obtaining the Next Release Now comes the part we all hate to discuss. Money. You probably obtained Lightwave Communications by paying a disk duplication fee or got it for nothing from a friend. (Any other way is a violation of our license and copyright and is illegal!) You may continue to use Lightwave Communications without paying us a dime. However, we believe that most people will pay for something they find useful. We dislike copy protection schemes and there are none in Lightwave Communications. We are certain that you will want to see Lightwave Communications grow and be supported. It costs very little to help us with this effort. AND, you get something more in return for your dollars. If your contribution meets or exceeds $45 you will receive: a copy of the Lightwave Communications distribution diskette for the latest and/or next release (you will receive both if the latest release is 1.0), access to the Lightwave help line, and our very sincere thanks for supporting us in this effort. We guarantee to provide enhancements to both SUPERCOM and DIALER with your payment. We further guarantee to provide at least one other communications package with your purchase. We need your funds to keep improving our software. We make very little money on our shareware, but will always be there to support you. Print and fill out the file SUPPORT and send it to the address below with your check. If you happen to be working for a company and are considering Lightwave Communications as your communication package of choice, then we have two additional options available to you. First, you may order Lightwave Communications using a valid purchase order. Second, if you want more than one person to get complete support for Lightwave Communications, including access to our technical help line, we have volume discounts. If you like the Lightwave Communications product, and would like to incorporate Lightwave Communications into an existing or future product, then Lightwave has software licenses. Mail for Lightwave Communications may be sent to: Lightwave P.O. Box 16858 Tampa, FL 33617 Page 17 Concluding Remarks We at Lightwave think Lightwave Communications is a great system. However, this system will only get better through your input, both in the form of suggestions for improvement and in financial support. For those of you that have written to us with your suggestions and financial support for our other software in the past, we wish to give you our sincere thanks. We hope that we are satisfying some need for our users and that we are encouraging the learning and spread of computers.