Throughout the menus of MODEMCFG.EXE, you may use the arrow keys to move in a given direction, Tab and Shift-Tab to move right or left, Home, End, PgUp and PgDn to move up or down, or press the first letter of the menu item to move to the next item beginning with that letter.
A menu will be shown from which you should select the manufacturer of your modem. If your modem manufacturer is not one of the options, se- lect generic, or contact deltaComm to have it added. Under each manufacturer is a list of their modems. Again pick the ap- propriate modem.
You will be shown a list of the settings for the modem itself, includ- ing any switch settings if known. Please write down the switch set- tings as you will need them later. When asked if you wish to configure your modem, answer by pressing the 'Y' key. MODEMCFG will ask you for your comm port as well. Please refer to your modem manual for this in- formation.
If all goes well a successful configuration message will be shown. If there is a problem, insure the proper comm port is specified and try again. If the problem persists, contact deltaComm.
A similar setup procedure will take place for TELIX.CNF, the configu- ration file for Telix itself. MODEMCFG will only change the values pertinent to the performance of the modem in existing configurations. Any existing color values or preferences will be left intact. If TELIX.CNF does not exist, MODEMCFG will create it.
The exit screen of MODEMCFG contains final instructions on how to make
best use out of the setup that has been written for you. Please make a
note of these for later referral.
You are now ready for your first Telix session.
To start the Telix program type the following while at the DOS prompt: Telix [O][Q][B][D] [Sfilename] [Cfilename] [Ffilename] The letters in the square brackets are optional command line switches affecting what Telix will do upon start-up. The square brackets should not be entered. The order and case of the options does not matter but they must be separated by at least one blank.
Specifying the 'O' option upon start-up tells Telix that you are al- ready online (connected to a host systems), and that it should not try to initialize the modem.
The 'Q' option in the command line chooses quiet mode for the current session. When quiet mode is on Telix will not sound any alarms (e.g., when a file transfer is over), no matter what the default setting for alarms is. This is useful for those late night sessions. Any bell characters sent by the remote system are still sounded however.
Specifying 'B' in the command line forces Telix to use the PC's BIOS for all screen write operations, whatever the default setting for screen writes might be. This is useful when you want to run Telix in a multi-tasking environment such as Topview or MS Windows for just one session. Note that Telix is DESQview aware, so you do not have to use this mode for DESQview.
The 'D' option forces Telix to drop RTS during disk writes for those systems exhibiting frequent errors at rhythmic intervals while downloading. This is called slow handshaking.
The 'S' option indicates that a script file (explained elsewhere) is to be run immediately upon start-up. The 'S' should be followed imme- diately (no blanks) by the name of the script file to execute.
The 'C' option indicates that another Telix configuration file than the standard TELIX.CNF should be used. If it doesn't exist, it will be created. In this way, you may have multiple configurations for Telix. The name of the configuration file should immediately follow the 'C', and should include the extension.
The 'F' option indicates that another dialing directory (FON) file than the default TELIX.FON should be loaded at start-up. The name should immediately follow the 'F'. Note that another dialing directory file may also be loaded from within Telix (in the dialing directory screen).
Upon starting, Telix will display a title screen for a period of 25
seconds or until you press a key. Please read the message on the title
screen carefully. After you are past the title screen, you will be in
'terminal mode' unless Telix can't find the configuration file
(usually TELIX.CNF), in which case it will ask you a few questions
about your machine and modem, and then will write a configuration file
for you.
While in terminal mode, pressing the Alt-Z sequence will switch you to a help screen showing you a summary of all the available commands. If the key for a command is pressed while the help screen is still on, the screen will be turned off and the command will be executed.
On the bottom of the help/status screen is some information regarding some current settings and the status of the current connection, as follows (in slightly compressed form).
| Time..10:39:00 Online .... No | Capture...Off |
|---|---|
| Date..06-29-91 | Printer...Off |
| Baud..2400 Terminal .. VT102 | Script....None |
| Port ...... COM1 | Reg. Key..TELIX.KEY |
| Add LF .... Off | Dial Dir..TELIX.FON |
Items included are: the current time and date, the connect status, the
elapsed time for the call in progress, the current communications
parameters, the state of the capture file and printer, the currently
executing script file (if there is one), the current dialing direc-
tory, the current keyboard macro definition file, and a few other
items.
Telix has an optional status line which may be displayed at the bottom or top of the screen (it may be controlled via the Telix Configuration Menu, or toggled on/off by pressing Alt-8 in terminal Mode). The sta- tus line displays the current communications setting such as baud rate and parity, the state of the Capture file, whether or not the printer is on, the currently executing script file (scripts are explained elsewhere), and whether Telix is On-line or Off-line. The following is an example of a status line, and what each section can contain:
| The Status Line example screen display can not be shown in the DOC file format Telix manual, due to width limitations. |
|---|
[Table Of Topics ]
[TABLE OF CONTENTS ]
2.4 Communications Parameters
Pressing Alt-P allows you to change the Communications Parameters. This is the format in which Telix sends data over the modem, and ex- pects to receive it in. After pressing Alt-P a window is displayed with the current parameters at the top, and the options in the rest of the window. To change a value press the letter or number of the set- ting you want.
| Comm Parameters |
|---|
| Current: 2400,N,8,1,COM1 |
| Speed Parity Data |
| A: 300 J: None Q: 7 |
| B: 1200 K: Even R: 8 |
| C: 2400 L: Odd |
| D: 4800 M: Mark Stop |
| E: 9600 N: Space |
| F: 19200 S: 1 |
| F: 38400 T: 2 |
| F: 57600 O: N-8-1 |
| F: 115200 P: E-7-1 |
| 1: COM1 3: COM3 5: COM5 7: COM7 |
| 2: COM2 4: COM4 6: COM6 8: COM8 |
| Choice, or |
There are a number of parameters that can be changed. The baud rate is the speed that you want to communicate at (it should really be called bps rate, which stands for bits per second). 1200 baud and 2400 baud are the two most common speeds in use, and represent about 120 and 240 characters per second, respectively. Baud rates all the way up to 115200 are supported by Telix, however a fast PC is needed for the higher rates (a stock 4.77 MHz XT can handle 9600 and possibly 19200 baud, higher rates need an AT class computer). Parity is a form of er- ror checking. Allowable parities are None, Even, and Odd. Data bits is the number of bits (a bit is a one or a zero in a computer) in each character. Allowable values are 7 and 8. Finally, the number of stop bits parameter can be set to either 1 or 2. The most common format for BBS use is a baud rate of 1200 or 2400, 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit. On many large networks such as Compuserve, the data format used is E71.
The communications parameters menu also allows you to select the com-
munications port you want to use. Note that by default only the first
four comm ports are defined (the last four are duplicates of COM1).
Changing any parameters changes them only for the duration of the cur-
rent communications session. If you want a set of parameters to be the
default when you start Telix, use the Telix Configuration Menu, Alt-O.
Whenever Telix must ask you to select an item from a group of options, it uses the same basic type of menu. The options will be arranged ver- tically for a vertically oriented menu, and next to each other for a horizontally oriented menu. There are two ways to select the item that you want. Each menu option has one of its letters in bold text; press- ing that letter will select the corresponding option. As well, one op- tion in the menu is always highlighted in inverse video. The arrow keys on the PC's keypad will move the highlight up and down or left and right. When the highlight is over the option you want to select, press Carriage Return, or Enter.
While using Telix, you will often have to enter a string of charac-
ters, for example a filename, or a list of numbers to dial. Telix
gives you full editing powers when you enter a string. As you type
characters, you may use the Backspace key to delete previously entered
characters. The Left and Right arrow keys allow you to move back and
forth in the string to edit what you have entered. By default, any
characters you enter overwrite any that are already there. Pressing
the Ins key will place Telix in insert mode, and any existing charac-
ters are pushed ahead as you type. Pressing Ins once more places you
back in overwrite mode. Home and End place the cursor at the
beginning or end of the string, respectively. Finally, pressing the
Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right arrow keys allows you to move back and forth
in the string by increments of a word.
In quite a few instances while using Telix, the user must specify a string to be sent out over the modem port. Sometimes this string must contain characters which can not be printed on the screen, for exam- ple, control characters, and even pauses. There has to be a way of in- dicating these special characters, and it is done through the use of special characters called translation characters. When these transla- tion characters are encountered in an output string they are trans- lated into other characters. The default translation characters are:
^ when this character is encountered in an output string it will make the following character a control charac- ter. For example, ^A will send out the code for Con- trol-A. A few common control characters are ^M, which is the Carriage Return character, ^J, which is the Line Feed character, and ^[, which is the Esc character. To send out the ^ character itself, use two ^ characters, as explained above.
~ when this character is encountered it will make Telix pause for 1/2 a second. Note that the only way to send a ~ character out is to use the sequence ^~ using two ~ characters in a row will simply make Telix pause twice.
There is one thing to keep in mind. These characters are only trans-
lated on strings sent out to the modem, for example, the dialing pre-
fix, the hang-up string, a keyboard macro, the modem initialization
string, and a few other cases.
To exit the Telix program, press Alt-X. Telix will ask you if you re-
ally want to exit. Press 'Y' to confirm the exit, 'N' or Esc to return
to Telix.
If Telix detects that you are still on-line (connected to another com-
puter), it will also present a third option, 'Hang-Up'. If this option
is selected, Telix will make sure that the connection is broken before
exiting.
This document was prepared by Alexandros Belsis