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- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!crcnis1.unl.edu!unlinfo!vporguen
- From: vporguen@unlinfo.unl.edu (victor porguen)
- Newsgroups: comp.archives.msdos.d
- Subject: ZIP to ZIP!
- Date: 31 Dec 1992 06:14:59 GMT
- Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln
- Lines: 57
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <1hu353INN2pc@crcnis1.unl.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: unlinfo.unl.edu
- Keywords: ZIP Telecommunications UART File-transfers
-
- Writes Timo Salmi (ts@uwasa.fi):
-
- > I would like to turn to another question, which relates to the
- > Telix host mode (hostplus). Does anyone know how to make it work
- > over a direct connection (two PCs connected via a cable). I have
- > not (yet?) found it covered in the hostplus documents, and
- > experimenting has not been successful.
-
- I don't think the Telix Host Mode is intended to manage a direct
- PC-to-PC link. It is intended to manage a modem, for incoming
- calls. It controls the line with modem commands and relies on
- modem signals and responses.
-
- > Procomm plus (I have 1.1A), incidentally, has a setting to enable
- > a direct connection, and it works.
-
- Yes. And several other programs can be used in that way, too. For
- example, you can use the Jmodem external protocol program as a
- self-standing PC-to-PC file transfer utility. Especially v1.20, a
- 5 KB executable written is assembly. Later versions, rewritten
- in C, and are slower and bulkier. It should also be possible to
- use DSZ in the same way. And several other programs.
-
- > So does laplink over the same cable.
-
- Yes, Laplink is intended SPECIFICALLY for that purpose.
-
- > This obviously means that the problem is with the Telix hostmode.
-
- It is not a problem, actually, the Host+ doesn't appear to have
- that feature, and there is no good reason why it should. Most other
- Host Modes do not have it either. They are meant to work with
- modems, not directly over a cable.
-
- If you need a direct, PC-to-PC file-transfer program, there's
- nothing better, faster or cheaper than ZIP, by Meyer. It is a superb
- utility. It will squeeze all the speed the PC UART can accommodate
- using a simple null-modem cable. ZIP dates back to 1987 or so. The
- latest issue is v1.6, dated November 1992. (The name trademark
- predates Katz', by the way).
-
- Meyer's ZIP demonstrates that you can indeed write comm software (in
- assembler) that can drive the PC port to its maximum speed, up to
- about 115,000 bps on a direct connection, without need of any stupid
- "buffered UARTS" (16550). It incorporates its own error-
- correction protocol and even has a Server mode. Gosh, you can even
- adjust its menu colors!
-
- (Next time somebody tells you that you need to install a
- 16550 buffered UART in your computer in order to stop having
- "lost characters" at 14,400 bps, tell him to go take a look
- at Meyer's ZIP program to learn how to write efficient serial-
- port management software that doesn't loose characters at
- 115,000 bps through a plain UART! )
-
- ZIP is free for personal use. And so is Jmodem.
-
-