Australian PC World - Backup conflicts with fax

Backup conflicts with fax

I helped a friend install Windows 95 on his business PC; we also installed Winfax Pro 7.0, which is running 24 hours for fax send and receive. He also uses a DOS-based backup program which backs up his work PC at night and then sends the backup over modems to his home PC for storage.
Unfortunately when the DOS program tries to access the com port to send the backup, it cannot find it because Winfax Pro has it open (however he can access the Internet using MSN while Winfax is still loaded). I was wondering if you knew of a fix or workaround for this. We have tried using System Agent to unload and reload Winfax Pro whilst the backup is transmitted, but he receives faxes from around the world at all hours and we didn't want to interrupt a fax transmission using System Agent.
- Bill Sheehan

In Windows 95, Microsoft introduced TAPI or Telephony Application Programming Interface as a means of allowing different programs to share communications devices (eg com ports and modems). This is particularly good if you have a fax server. Unfortunately pre-95 programs are not TAPI compliant and so cannot negotiate for access to the com port.
The only answer is to use a TAPI compliant package to send the backup file. One solution could be if he has Windows 3.11 or Windows 95 on his home computer you can configure that computer as a Remote Access Server. Using System Agent you should be able to schedule the office computer to dial-up, log onto and copy the backup file to the home computer.
- Roy Chambers

Category: Win95, Communications, Windows 3.x
Issue: Feb 1997
Pages: 160