Bila Vrana/BILA_VRANA.iso/019A/BGFAX160.ZIP/DOCS/READ.ME

Text File | 1996-06-11 | 21KB | 457 lines

BGFAX's READ.ME file...  Yes, there might actually be interesting stuff here!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This READ.ME text file has special notes for the following configurations:

a. Auto answering
b. Rockwell V.FC and V.34 modems
c. FD 2.02 (free version)
d. Adept-XBBS/2
e. Binkley
f. USR owners
g. Hayes owners
h. ZyXEL owners
i. Supra owners
j. Multitech owners
k. Zoom owners
l. PPI owners
m. PC Logic owners
n. Hornet 28.8 VFC owners
o. DesqView
p. OS/2
q. PC Board for OS/2
r. RPI (Rockwell Protocol Interface) modems
s. Remote Access Shell-to-Mailer mode

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Auto Answer (not Adaptive Answer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One quick note relating to all setups:

   Do NOT use your modem in 'auto answer' mode.  You must make your
   software physically send an answer string to the modem.  Therefore,
   register S0 _must_ be set to 0.  (S0=0).

Any BBS or Fido mailer software that requires the modem answer in AUTO
ANSWER mode is crap.  Most software will send an answer string to the
modem when the modem sends a "RING" response.

AUTO ANSWER mode forces the mode to answer the call whether your software
is ready to answer it or not.  Sysops should never use auto answer.  I am
making this statement because many of the setup help files (*.TXT) for
BGFAX require that the BBS/mailer software send answer strings to the modem.

AUTO ANSWER is not ADAPTIVE ANSWER.  They are two different things.  Adaptive
answering is required for BGFAX to receive both data and fax calls.


Rockwell V.FC and V.34 modems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It should be noted that many of the Rockwell V.FC modems have flawed
adaptive answering.  (i.e., Many true data calls will be misinterpreted
as fax calls.)  You might want to keep an eye out for this.

Many Rockwell V.34 modems suffer from the same flaw.

Supra released firmware in December 1994 that fixed Rockwell's V.34
adaptive answering problem.  (This was done just before the modems started
to ship, so don't worry if you have a Supra.)

Zoom released the 1.309 firmware in October 1995 that fixed Rockwell's
V.34 adpative answering problem.  This was done after tens of thousands of
modems have been sent out.  See the "Zoom owners" section of this file.

I am not aware of any other Rockwell based modem companies that have
bothered to fix (or obtain a fix from Rockwell) on this problem.

How do you know if you have a Rockwell chipset modem?  In terminal mode,
type "AT+FMFR?" to report the datapump/chipset manufactuer.

If you have bought a Rockwell based modem just recently, most likely,
you are using current firmware and the adaptive answering bug is not
present.


FD 2.02 (free version)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I strongly recommend using FD 2.12 rather than FD 2.02.  FD 2.12 is much
easier to set up with BGFAX and works much better.  FD 2.02 can be forced
to work with some modems (such as the Supra), but not all of them the way
FD 2.12 can be used.  Just say "no" to FD 2.02 and get FD 2.12.

I provide excellent help files for FD 2.12 that describe, in detail, what
you have to do to make it work with BGFAX.


Adept-XBBS/2
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adept-XBBS has a box on its config screen relating to whether or not an
"ATO" string must be sent to the modem if it encounters a "DATA" string.
This is a powerful option that has not yet made it to other mailers, but
if you use this option on a modem that does not require an "ATO", you
will force your modem to hangup on all data calls.

Most modems do NOT require the ATO.  Some modems in Class 1 mode require
the ATO.  The Hayes Optima does NOT.

Binkley
~~~~~~~
Make sure that you are using Binkley 2.60 or better.  This 2.60 version
of Binkley fixed bugs in the previous (2.59 beta and below) versions that
prevented Binkley and BGFAX to interact with some modems.

Again, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BINKLEY 2.60 OR BETTER !!!

Some people prefer to let Binkley internally receive the faxes, rather than
using BGFAX to do it.  You can do this, and use BGFAX's VIEW.EXE to view
the received faxes.  It might be necessary to add a /BO switch on the VIEW
command line if you get nothing but bad scan lines when attempting to view
a Bink raw fax file.


USR owners
~~~~~~~~~~
Make sure DIP switch #5 is in the "SUPRESS AUTO ANSWER" position and make
sure the S0 register is equal to 0.

If you plan to use BGFAX to receive both faxes and data calls, be advised
that this will NOT work with the following US Robotics modems...

a. Sportster 14.4K modems (original series) because they does not have
   adaptive answering.  Note that the newer Sportster VI and DSVD 14.4K
   Sportsters should work, because they have both Class 2.0 and adaptive
   answering.  Also, some European versions of the original series
   Sportster 14.4K modems do appear to have adaptive answering, but it is
   unknown as to whether it actually works or not.

b. All Courier modems slower than the 21600 v.32terbo model lack adaptive
   answering.  (This means both Courier 14.4K and Courier 16.8K modems
   will not be able to take both data and fax calls.)

c. The Courier 21600 v.32terbo modem does have adaptive answering and
   Class 2.0 fax, but it works so badly that I do not recommend people to
   use this particular modem with BGFAX.  You can call USR to buy a new
   daughtercard to this modem that will upgrade it to 33600 v.34+.

BGFAX _will_ work with the 28.8K modems (V.34 Sportster/V.34 Everything).
Make sure you are using firmware version 12/02/94.  (Yes, 12/02/94.  It
works slightly better in fax mode than the newer 07/05/95 and 09/26/95
and even the 1996 V34+ firmware).

Ignore anything the USR manual says about fax commands.  Also, it is normal
for the FAX/ARQ light to "blink" when the modem is waiting for a fax call.
The blinking means the modem is in "adaptive answering" mode.  (NOTE: It is
NOT normal to blink when a user is online.  If that is happening, it means
you have a noisy connection.)

If you are using one of the DUAL STANDARD Courier modems, you may need to
put a "B0" in your answer string to make sure the modem is prepared to
answer all types of calls.  See your Courier manual for more info on the
ATB0 and ATB1 commands.

The Sportster DSVD modem has a bug in adaptive answering mode that makes
Class 2.0 adaptive answering behave like Class 1 adaptive answering.  This
means an "ATO" command will have to be sent to the modem when a "DATA"
response is issued.  This makes the DSVD incompatible with any kind of
Fido Mailer (except Adept-XBBS for OS/2).  The DSVD should be capable of
taking data and BBS calls with BGFAX answering "/HOST /ATO" mode, but
not with a Fido mailer.

I've heard reports that the Sporster 28800 (non-DSVD) with firmware having
a Supervisor date of 08/29/95 has a problem receiving faxes when in
adaptive answering mode.  It will behave like the Courier firmware dated
07/05/95 which causes 9600 faxes to be received at 7200, but they aren't
recevied, just null bytes are recevied, so you end up getting empty pages,
which makes these firmware releases useless.

Sportster 288's with firmware 01/11/96 and other dates have a bad habit
of spitting out garbage during Class 2.0 mode.  The garbage will cause
the fax session to fail.

The Courier firmware dated 09/26/95 and the new 01/23/96 firmware, still
have problems receiving from many fax machines in adaptive answer mode.
They will report oddball errors such as +FHS:70 failures trying to
receive faxes from places that used to work with the 12/02/94 firmware.

The Courier I-Modem has many fax bugs in all modes.  It will often drop
characters that BGFAX needs to be able to see when in Class 2.0 mode.
i.e., instead of returning "+FCO", it might return "FCO" or "+FC", but
it is not-predictable what result will occur.  In Class 1 mode, you must
use the modem in numeric-resule code only, because in verbose-result mode
the modem will "go crazy" at the point fax data