Many of the Telix program's features can be customized, including things like the screen setup and the communications parameters. Default values for these parameters are stored in a file called TELIX.CNF, which is the configuration file. When starting up, Telix will automatically read this file. The first time you use Telix, this file is created for you with some standard default values. Pressing Alt-O while in terminal mode brings up the Telix Configura- tion Menu, which allows changes to these default settings. ÉÍÝÝConfigure Telix ÞÞÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º º º Change which default settings? º º º º Screen and color º º Terminal Options º º General settings º º Modem and dialing º º Filenames and paths º º ASCII transfers º º Protocol options º º Kermit transfers º º Comm port setup º º Write changes to disk º º Exit º º º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ The first seven options are parameter areas, the last two deal with leaving the Configuration Menu. Screen and Color Settings The fist selection on the Configuration Menu allows you to set the screen and colors default settings. After choosing this option you will be shown a menu listing the various parts of the screen displays (e.g., menu foreground colors). If you pick one of these items you will be allowed to scroll through the possible colors for it by using the arrow keys. When you have selected the right colors, press Return. If you want to leave the colors menu without selecting one press the Escape key. Another setting on the 'Screen and colors' menu is the 'Screen write mode'. If you select this option you will be asked how you want Telix to write to the screen. This depends on the video adapter present in your system. The first option is a direct screen write. This is the fastest mode, and should be used if you have a monochrome adapter, an EGA adapter, or another video adapter that never gets snow. The second option is a direct screen write with port checks. This method is slightly slower. You should use this method if you screen shows snow on it or it flickers while executing the DOS 'dir' command. One card with which you should use this is the color/graphics adapter. Don't use this option if your video card doesn't need it, as it may interfere with communications. The final method is a screen write with BIOS calls. You should use this method with applications like Topview or DoubleDOS. This method is quite slow however. You do not need this mode to run Telix under DESQview, since Telix is DV aware. Another selection on this menu is 'Default screen size'. This allows you to pick an alternate default screen size of 80x43 or 80x50. These modes require an EGA or VGA card. Also, many EGA cards do not support 80x50, while some VGA cards do not support 80x43. When you have finished choosing the colors you want, select the 'Keep changes & exit' option if you want to keep the color changes you have made, or the 'exit' option if you want to discard them. Terminal Options Selecting the second option of the Configuration Menu shows a number of settings related to Telix operation while it's in terminal mode. Some of these affect other areas of Telix, too. To select a setting to change type the letter beside it. Telix will then allow you to change the old setting. Press the Esc key at this point to exit without changing anything. Options include: A: Communications parameters. These include baud, data bits, parity, and stop bits. Note that this will not change the current settings, only the defaults the next time you run Telix. B: Communications port. This can be COM1 through COM8. This change will not be effective during this session, but will take effect the next time you run Telix. C: The terminal Telix emulates: Allowable terminals are "TTY", "ANSI-BBS", "VT102", "VT52", and "AVATAR". D: Status Line Location. Telix allows a status line to be displayed at the bottom or top of the screen. The status line shows some useful informa- tion. This option controls whether Telix displays the status line at the bottom or top of the screen, or not at all. E: Local echo. This controls whether or not Telix should echo on the screen any characters you type while in Terminal mode. This is usually off for BBS use. Local echo on is often also called Half Duplex, while local echo off is called Full Duplex. F: Add line feeds. This controls whether or not Telix should add line feeds to incoming Carriage Returns characters while in terminal mode. If you are connected to a remote system and lines are overwriting each other, this should be on, otherwise it should be off. G: Strip high bit. Telix can strip the high (most significant) bit from incoming data bytes while in terminal mode. This is sometimes useful because it allows the high/parity bit of incoming text to be ignored. H: Received backspace destructive. This setting controls how Telix treats incoming backspace characters. If backspace characters are destructive, the cursor backs up over the previous character and erases it, otherwise the existing character is not erased. I: Backspace key sends. Normally, Telix sends Backspace when the Backspace key is pressed, and DEL when Ctrl-Backspace is pressed. This option allows these settings to be swapped. J: XON/XOFF software flow control. This controls whether or not Telix should use XON/XOFF software handshaking while in terminal mode and during ASCII file transfers. This should usually be on. K: CTS/RTS hardware handshaking. Hardware handshaking is used with high speed modems and null modem cable links to regulate the flow of data. If the modem supports Hardware handshaking this should be on. If a null modem cable is being used and these signals are valid over the cable, this should be on. L: DSR/DTR hardware handshaking. Hardware handshaking is used with high speed null modem cable links to regulate the flow of data. If a null modem cable is being used and these signals are valid over the cable, this should be on. Often a null modem cable will allow one type of hardware handshaking to be used, but not the other. M: Compuserve Quick B transfers. Compuserve Quick B transfers are initiated by Compuserve, which sends a special character. When Telix detects this character while in terminal mode, it starts the transfer. This option allows the feature to be disabled. N: Zmodem auto-downloads. Telix can detect the packet from another computer sending files using the Zmodem protocol, and automatically begin a Zmodem download on the local end. This option allows this feature to be dis- abled. O: Answerback string. Some systems require you to send an identification string when an ENQ (Ctrl-E) character is received. You may define such an 'answerback' string here. If this string is empty, nothing is sent. As well, note that the answerback string is not sent if Compuserve Quick B transfers are enabled. General Settings The third option on the Configuration Menu allows you to change some general default settings. They are: A: Sound (on/off). If this is off Telix will not make ANY sounds. B: Alarm sound (on/off). If this is off Telix will not make ANY alarm sounds. Telix will still beep when it receives the bell code from the remote host, unless the sound option is also off. C: Keep aborted downloads (on/off). If this is on, Telix will keep files which were aborted during a download. Otherwise Telix will delete these files. D: Show free space for downloads (on/off). This setting controls whether or not Telix will display the free space on the disk when you start a download. The option to turn it off is provided because the display takes a few seconds for large hard disks. E: Quick Dial Bar (on/off). When you press Alt-D to access the dialing directory, Telix normally first displays the Quick Dial Bar at the bottom of the screen, which allows you dial entries without having to view the dialing directory. If you would rather go directly to the dialing directory when you press Alt-D, set this option to Off. F: Confirm Hang-up (on/off). Setting this option to on will cause Telix ask for confirmation before hanging up, when Alt-H is pressed. G: Usage Log (on/off). If this option is set to on, Telix will open the standard Usage Log "TELIX.USE" whenever the program starts up. Otherwise the usage log must be manually activated if needed. H: Scroll-Back buffer size. This setting controls the size of the Telix Scroll-Back buffer (in kilobytes). Changes to this setting take effect after you save the changes to disk and restart Telix. I: Capture file buffer size. This is the size of the disk buffer that Telix should use for the Capture file when it is opened. Values from 0 to 4 Kilobytes are allowed. A larger buffer size means the disk is accessed less often. J: Date format. This is the format that Telix should use when displaying dates. Allowed formats are MMDDYY, DDMMYY, and YYMMDD. K: Date separator character. This is the character that Telix will print between parts of the date when displaying a date. The default character is the hyphen (-). L: Time format. This is the format that telix should use when displaying the time. Both 12-hour and 24-hour formats are allowed. M: Time separator character. This is the character that Telix will print between parts of the time when displaying a time. The default character is the colon (:). N: Enhanced keyboard support. This option allows you to turn off Telix's support for the enhanced (101) keyboard. This should normally be left on, unless there seems to be a keyboard problem. O: Shell: 16550 buffer on. This option allows you to specify whether the buffer on the 16550a comm chip should be left on or off during a DOS shell. If it is installed in your PC, Telix normally recognizes and enables the buffer on this chip at all times, for greater efficiency, but there are still a few comm application that users might want to run from the shell which can not handle the chip with the buffer turned on. Modem and Dialing settings By selecting the fourth option of the Configuration Menu you get a screen of default settings that Telix uses to control the modem and its output. The default configuration that Telix comes with is set up for Hayes compatible (100%) 1200 baud modems. These modems use the 'AT' command set. By changing these settings Telix can work with almost any modem. The parameters are: A: Modem initialization string. This string will be sent to the modem when Telix first starts. Different modems might need different strings. The default string is set up for Hayes compatible modems. It is: ATZ^M~~~AT S7=45 S0=0 V1 X1^M 1. AT The modem attention code. 2. Z Resets the modem to default state. 3. ^M Sends the terminating Carriage Return character to the modem. 4. ~~~ Pauses to give the modem time 5. AT The modem attention code. 6. S7=45 Makes the modem wait 45 seconds for a connection. 7. S0=0 Disables Auto answer. 8. V1 Makes the modem respond with words. 9. X1 Makes the modem give extended result codes. It is important that if your modem supports a higher 'X' value, you use that instead. For example, on a Hayes 2400, 'X4' enables BUSY signal detection. 10. ^M Sends the terminating Carriage Return character to the modem. B: Dialing prefix 1. A Dialing prefix is what Telix sends to the modem before dialing the number. For example, 'ATDT' for Hayes compatible modems. There are three dialing prefixes allowed, and in the dialing directory you may chose which one to use for each entry. One possible use for this is if your modem support MNP, to define two prefixes which turn MNP support on and off, thus avoiding the delay when you call a system that doesn't support MNP. C: Dialing prefix 2: D: Dialing prefix 3. E: Dialing postfix. This is the string Telix should send after the number when dialing. On Hayes compatible modems this is a Carriage Return character (^M). F: Connect string. This is the string which the modem sends upon getting a connection. e.g., 'CONNECT' G: No connect strings. These are up to four strings which the modem sends when it has failed to make a connection while dialing, for example 'NO CARRIER', 'BUSY', etc. H: Hang-up string. This is the string Telix should send to the modem to make it hang up. The default string works for Hayes compatible modems and is: ~~~+++~~~ATH0^M 1. ~~~ Pauses Telix for 1 1/2 secs. 2. +++ Puts the modem into command mode. 3. ~~~ Pauses Telix for 1 1/2 secs. 4. AT The modem attention code. 5. H0 Tells the modem to hang up. 6. ^M Sends the terminating Carriage Return character to the modem. Before sending this string to the modem Telix always tries to hang-up the modem by a faster way that works with MOST modems. This is done by turning off a special signal called the DTR (Data Terminal Ready) line on the RS-232 port. If dropping the DTR makes the modem hang-up then the hang-up string is not sent to the modem. I: Auto Answer string. This is the string that Telix should send to the modem when the Host Mode is enabled. This string should allow the modem to automatically pick up the phone when it rings. J: Dial cancel string. This is the string Telix should send to the modem to cancel the current dialing attempt. On most modems all that is necessary is a Carriage Return character, "^M". K: Dial time. This is the amount of time Telix should wait for a connection while dialing. This should usually be set to be greater than the amount of time the modem waits for the connection. L: Redial pause;. This is the number of seconds Telix should wait between attempts while redialing. M: Auto baud detect (on/off). If this option is on and Telix dials a number, the program will check the modem connect message for a baud rate indica- tion. If the baud is different than was specified for the entry being dialed, Telix switches to the new baud rate. This option only works with Hayes compatible modems. This option must not be enabled when you have told the modem to maintain a constant or locked baud rate between the computer and the modem, as is often done with high-speed, error correct- ing modems, or modems supporting MNP (e.g. USR HST, Hayes V-Series, etc.). Filenames and Path Settings The fifth option of the Configuration Menu allows you to change several filename and pathname defaults. They are: A: Download directory. This is the disk directory in which Telix should save files which are downloaded (received). You can override this by giving a full pathname when prompted. B: Upload directory. This is the disk directory where Telix should look for files to be uploaded. You can override this by giving a full filename when prompted. C: Script directory. This is the directory in which Telix should look for script files when trying to execute them. You can override this by using a full pathname in front of the filename when specifying it. This is the directory you need to copy TFIG.SLC into. D: Default Capture file. This is the name Telix should use when opening the capture file. The user can override the default, CAPTURE.CAP. E: Default Usage Log. This is default name Telix should use when opening the Usage Log. The user can override this. F: Directory program. This is the name of the disk directory program that Telix should run when you select the 'Files directory' command. If you do not specify a program here Telix will use an internal routine that also displays the amount of time it will take to transfer each file in the directory. An example of a program you could specify here is 'dir/p', which would use the DOS dir command with pauses at each page full, to display the directory. G: Screen Image file. This is the file that Telix should save screen images (generated with the Alt-I command) to. the default name is TELIX.MSG, you can override this and use another name. H: Editor name. This should be name of your editor, including the extension of the name (EXE, COM, or .BAT for batch files). For example : C:\QEDIT.EXE The indicated file must either be in the current directory, in a directo- ry included in the DOS Path, or the name must include the full path. You need to set this parameter only if you want to run your editor using the Alt- A, Run Editor command. ASCII Transfers The sixth option of the Configuration Menu allows you to customize Telix ASCII file transfers to your needs, so that Telix may work with almost any system. The options are: A: Strip high bit during transfers (on/off). If this parameter is on, the high (most significant) bit of each character sent for uploads, or received for downloads, is stripped. This can be used to ignore parity. The upper 128 characters in the IBM extended ASCII character set are then converted to the lower value. B: Remote abort character. This is the character which when received during an ASCII upload or download, is taken to mean that the remote end wants to abort the transfer. One possible value might be 24 (Ctrl-X). C: Local echo. If this is on, Telix will echo characters locally while uploading. This should normally be off. D: Expand blank lines. If this is on, when Telix is sending a file and it encounters a blank line, it will add a space to that line. This is very useful for systems that assume a blank line means "end of file", or for uploading a message on most bulletin boards. E: Pace character. This is the ASCII value of the character that Telix should wait for before sending each line. If this value is 0, Telix will not wait for any character. F: Line Pacing. This is the amount of time (in 1/10 seconds), that Telix should wait before sending each line. This delay is often not necessary, but for some BBS's, it's essential. G: Character pacing. This is the time delay (in milliseconds [1/1000]) that Telix should wait between each character. As the PC's hardware clock does not have enough resolution, this is a software loop based delay. There- fore, a value of 1 here will delay a 4.77 MHz XT approximately 1 milli- second, and faster PCs for a proportionally smaller time period. H: Upload CR translation. This is what Telix should do with Carriage Return characters when uploading ASCII files. The three options are: 1. Do nothing 2. Strip them 3. Add a Line Feed character at the end I: Upload LF translation. This is what Telix should do with Line Feed characters when uploading ASCII files. The three options are: 1. Do nothing 2. Strip them 3. Add a Carriage Return before each one J: Download CR translation. This is exactly the same as setting E (above), but applies when downloading ASCII files. K: Download LF translation. This is exactly the same as setting F (above), but applies when downloading ASCII files. Protocol options The seventh item of the configuration Menu allows you to configure external protocols, as well as a couple of other settings. An external protocol is simply a file transfer protocol that is implemented outside of Telix. You specify the name of the protocol, the key used to select it on the file transfer menu, and define how it is to be called. Items 'A' through 'D' are the definitions for the four external protocols allowed. When you select a definition to edit, Telix will ask a series of questions: 1. Key: This is the key that should be pressed to select this protocol when the file transfer menu is displayed. 2. Protocol Name: This is the name Telix will display on the file transfer menu for this protocol. 3. Upload Filename: This is the name of the DOS batch file or Telix script file to call when the user selects an upload using this protocol. 4. Download filename: This is the name of the DOS batch file or Telix script file to call when the user selects a download using this protocol. 5. BAT or Script: This controls whether the above two filenames are DOS batch files or Telix script files. 6. DL Name: This option controls whether or not Telix should ask for the name of the file when performing a download using this protocol. In many protocols, the sender passes the name of the file(s) to the receiver, so Telix shouldn't ask for the download name. Other settings on this page are: E: File xfer disk buf. size This option allows you to set the size of the disk buffer used by telix during file transfers from 1k to 10k (kilo- bytes) in size. A larger value is more efficient with floppy disk systems, while a smaller value can get around problems with disk control- lers or Extended memory use on some hard-disk systems. F: Relaxed Xmodem timing. This option controls whether or not Telix should use relaxed timing when performing an Xmodem transfer. When calling some services, this option must be turned on because they can not tolerate strict timing. G: Filename guessing. This option controls Telix's use of filename guessing. When you selected a file transfer to be performed, telix can often guess the name of the file to be transferred, based on your past keystrokes. This option may be turned off here. As well, you may specify that Telix gives only guesses which it is almost certain are filenames, or gives its 'Best try', which may include guesses with extra characters which are not necessarily part of the filename. H: Zmodem receive crash recovery. When an aborted Zmodem transfer must be resumed, this option should be turned on. While this option is on, if a file being downloaded using Zmodem already exists on the disk (and is shorter than the file the sender has), Telix will tell the sender to send only the bytes needed to complete the file. This option should be used with care. The possibility exists that a file with the same name but different contents exists on each system, in which case you do not want only some of the data transferred. I: Zmodem send crash recovery. When this option is on, during a Zmodem upload of files, Telix will try to tell the sender to resume aborted transfers. This option should be used with care, as some systems do not support crash recovery, and will behave unpredictably. J: Allow Zmodem 32 bit CRCs. You may turn off the use of 32 bit CRC error checking (still quite reliable 16 bit CRCs are used instead), to get on the order of a quarter to a half of a percent speed increase in Zmodem transfers. K: Zmodem window size. Zmodem normally sends data in streaming mode, never pausing unless the other side requests a resend due to an error being detected. In some environments, a pause for acknowledgments can be more efficient. The window size (in kilobytes) is the maximum amount of data the protocol should seed before waiting for a reply. A value of 0 indicates streaming mode should be used. L: Zmodem file type. This option allows you to specify whether the file being transferred with the Zmodem protocol is 'Binary', 'ASCII', or 'Either'. Binary means that Telix will make sure no end-of-line conver- sion is done on files received or sent. ASCII means that on a download, as long as the other side doesn't override this, Telix will assume the file being received is a text file and will make sure the end of each line has a Carriage Return followed by a Line Feed, by adding the CR if the file has only LFs at the end of each line. An ASCII setting when sending will make Telix tell the other system to do end-of-line conversion, although the other system may override this. Finally, a setting of Either (the default), will make Telix assume the file is binary, unless the other system indicates otherwise. DO NOT use a setting of 'ASCII' for file that are not ASCII text files, as binary files will be corrupted by this option. Kermit Transfers - CAUTION! The eighth option of the Configuration Menu allows you to configure Telix's implementation of the Kermit protocol to your needs. The options will not be described here, due to the fact that the Kermit protocol is relatively complicated, and if you must change one of these parameters, you should already know what it means. Comm port setup - CAUTION! The ninth option of the Configuration Menu allows you to define the communica- tions ports. Telix supports definitions for 8 comm ports. By default, the first four comm ports are defined to the standards for COM1 through COM4. The last four comm ports are by default duplicates of COM1. For each port you may define the base address (in hexadecimal) of that port, as well as the interrupt request number (IRQ) to use. Unless you are absolutely sure about your information, do not play around with these values! Wrong values could cause unexpected and possibly disruptive results. Saving Changes and Leaving Once you have chosen your default options you can save them by selecting the option 'Write setup to disk'. If you want to keep any changes just for the current session, then exit the Configuration Menu using the 'Exit' option.