Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!unido!gmdzi!strobl From: strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms Subject: Re: Win 3.0 & high speed modem use Keywords: uart,hst,frontdoor Message-ID: <3145@gmdzi.UUCP> Date: 23 Jul 90 22:27:18 GMT References: <26a1d32f-20comp.windows.ms@oneb> <3124@gmdzi.UUCP> <26a6a40f-20.2comp.windows.ms-1@oneb> Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, F. R. Germany Lines: 115 kmcvay@oneb (Ken McVay) writes: >>It is not a bbs (yet ;-), but I use MS-Kermit 3.01 under Win 3 >>in enhanced mode. I can run it in the background or in a window >>without problems. >Many thanks for your comments, Wolfgang, but I'm still looking for a >solution....alas, my Win3 hasn't arrived yet, so I can't fiddle on my own, >but what little email I've seen (typical response: "Windows 3 communications >sucks - let me know if you figure it out.") I've received has failed to >offer any answers. In addition, after many discussions with sysops on the >dos side (Fidonet, etc) with similar problems, I'm almost (but not quite) >ready to give the idea up entirely without even trying, and stick with >DESQview.....however, given the rave reviews Win3 is receiving, and the >public clamour for the almighty GUI, I'm going to keep hoping.... The question is whether you like or need a GUI, or just have the need for a multitasking operating system. Windows is a new single user operating system on top of MSDOS, which inherits just the file system but not much else. It can run old MSDOS applications quite well, if you have a 386 and enough memory, but that's not its primary purpose. DESQview is a time slicing system on top of MSDOS, in the spirit of TowView. Its main purpose is to give you the ability to run more than one MSDOS application concurrently, whithout consuming too much CPU cycles. Then there is OS/2. It's a real OS with a much better resource management than DESQview, Windows or MSDOS. It's support for old MSDOS applications is nearly nonexistant - at least if compared to what DESQview or Win3 deliver. So you have to start from scratch. >Here's more information about the present setup - perhaps it will suggest >something to someone out there (Microsoft has been silent about high speed >background communications, unless I've missed something)... >I run two systems - both run bulletin boards, one runs ms-dos 4.01. The dos >system is a 286 (20MHz) with a USR HST 14.4 modem and 16550 UART - the modem >routinely hits 1680+cps with other similar systems. The system uses a mailer >called FrontDoor as the 'frontend' and a Canadian bbs (Maximus) for human >callers. The buss is locked (via BNU 1.7) at 38,400 baud. The motherboard >carries two megs of RAM. >I can run DESQview 2.26 by changing the CMOS setup a tad and rebooting, but >it doesn't leave me quite enough (about 100k) to do anything useful....and, >as a consultant, I'd be better off replacing the motherboard with a 386 than >adding a RAM card and more RAM to the 286..... It depends. If you use Windows applications and nothing else, a fast 286 with enough extended memory may be the cheapest and fastest solution... >I have ordered Win3 to familiarize myself with it (I already have Word for >Windows) and to see if I could get the mailer (FrontDoor) to run under it, >in the background. I usually do this with DESQview, but DV isn't all that >friendly, and isn't as attractive as the GUI appears to be....since most of >my clients are small businesses, being able to offer my product (the mailer, >and wide-area networks) in the GUI environment would be an attractive plus. "in the GUI environment". Just beeing able to run something in a window isn't enough. Most standard DOS applications need a major rewrite for running them under a GUI. This is mainly because old applications are data driven, whereas new applications are user driven. >Except that I can't find anyone who has been able to do it, or even offer >encouragement...and I can't believe, in this day and age, that a company >with the resources Microsoft has would be unable to provide the >functionality that Quarterdeck has built in to DV for years. >I suppose I could wait patiently for someone to develop a bbs under Win3, or >a mailer, but if it comes to that, Win3 will end up where 2.11 ended up - on >the shelf, gathering dust....that would be a real shame, given the promise >shown, don't you think? Hm, yes. But there is a difference. Windows V 2 had at about 300 K of free space for applications. Under Windows 3 you can use up to 16 MB of memory for your application, even if you don't own that much real memory. >Did you have problems getting your setup working? How fast is your modem? >What sort of environment does it run under? Would you be interested in >getting a copy of FrontDoor to play with? (The non-commercial version is >freely distributed) No, but this may be because I am using a slow (1200 baud) modem on my private machine (a 386/25 with 4MB and a 150MB Wren III). Someone in my PC group has a Trailblazer on a HP Vectra RS/25, so I tried Kermit (the old version 2.32/a, because it was installed there) under Windows 3.0 (German version). The Trailblazer communicates to the HP with 19200 baud. I created a PIF file for Kermit, which fixed Kermit in memory. Then I called one of our unix systems which is connected to an inhouse pad which has a few Trailblazer lines, using the Trailblazers PEP mode. I could not get an effective baud rate of more than about 4000 baud, either using long packets or using the Kermit support of the Trailblazer - perhaps the inhouse pad is to slow. I tried to slow down the Kermit file transfer by running PCTOOLS system info and a Basic program computing sin(x) in the foreground, but this didn't change anything - I got the same througput. >How high is up? >A final note: I've been told that the comm driver supplied with Win3 needs >to be replaced, and that there's a shareware version floating around that >apparently helps with high speed modems.....anyone heard anything about that? Are you sure that this isn't an information belonging to Windows V 2? Wolfgang Strobl #include