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Text File | 1994-10-25 | 22.4 KB | 524 lines

---*--- WINTALK - a Microsoft Windows (tm) talk client/server Version 1.1 FreeWare from ELF Communications ---*--- Contents: ========= 1.0......Introduction 2.0......Installation 2.1......On Names and Addresses 3.0......Usage 4.0......Configuration 5.0......Known bugs 6.0......Troubleshooting 7.0......About ELF 1.0 Introduction ================= WinTalk allows Windows users who have the WINSOCK DLL installed on their system to participate in real-time conversations with remote users, using the popular Unix "ntalk" (and its older cousin, "talk") protocol. The program acts as both a talk client and server, responding to remote talk requests with a pop-up "ring" dialog, an auditory ring, or both. WinTalk is provided as FreeWare, and thus you may freely distribute it providing 1) the distribution is *not* for profit, and 2) all files are included and unchanged (including this doc file). ELF Communications takes no responsibility for the results of using or misusing this software. Please see the end of this file for the full text of the disclaimer under which this software is provided. If you have comments or questions, send email to "wintalk@elf.com". I'm working hard on other projects, so don't be surprised if replies take a while. ************************************************************************** ** If you are having troubles with gethostname() or gethostbyname(), ** ** please read the "On Names and Addresses" section in this file ** ** *before* sending email. ** ************************************************************************** 2.0 Installation ================= To install WinTalk, simply transfer the wintalk.zip file to your system, and unpack it using pkunzip or a similar zip decompression tool (as you've probably already done if you've gotten this far :)). You will find several files: README.1ST - The readme : please read first! WINTALK.DOC - This file WINTALK.EXE - The actual program CTL3D.DLL - Microsoft's "3d" control DLL BWCC.DLL - Borland's Custom Control DLL DINGDING.WAV - The initial "ring" sound IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A SOUND CARD, and you wish to have auditory alerts of talk requests, you will want to get the PC speaker driver, available at ftp.cica.indiana.edu, or one of their mirror sites. Look for a self-extracting archive called SPEAK.EXE, in the win3/sounds directory. Transfer the "dingding.wav" file to your WINDOWS directory, so WinTalk can find it; if you plan to use another sound for WinTalk's "ring", or no sound, this is not necessary. You must have versions of both BWCC.DLL and CTL3D.DLL in your path. If you don't already have them, copy the versions distributed with WinTalk into your WINDOWS directory. You must also have a WINSOCK.DLL that operates with your windows TCP/IP networking stack. For more information on this, please contact your network vendor. You may now run WinTalk via the Program Manager's File->Run menu command, or use File->New to create an icon for WinTalk in an appropriate Program Manager group. I'd recommend placing the WinTalk icon in the "startup" group under Program Manager - this way, you will always be able to receive talk requests if you so desire. 2.1 On Names and Addresses =========================== (Feel free to skip this section IF you already understand the DNS, and your PC has a DNS-registered hostname. If you are seeing "gethostname()" or "gethostbyname()" errors, PLEASE read this section) The most common problems using WinTalk (by far) involve configuring DNS (Domain Name System) names for your PC. This section explains a little about the DNS, and what you need to have set up for WinTalk to be happy. Any host on a TCP/IP network is identified by 32-bit number called an IP Address, which is often written as four numbers separated by periods : for instance, "192.48.232.17". This number is very useful when machines need to talk to each other, but not so nice for humans to deal with. This is where the DNS comes in. The DNS is a network directory service, translating names such as "frobozz.elf.com" into IP addresses. Many winsock applications can get by just using your machine's IP address, but due to the particulars of the TALK protocol as implemented on most Unix systems, this is not the case with WinTalk. Hence, you need to have a couple of things configured correctly before you can use WinTalk. First, your machine must know its hostname for WinTalk to successfully start. Please refer to the documentation included with your networking stack (Trumpet, PC/TCP, NetManage, PC-NFS, etc...) to find out how to do this. If you do *not* have a hostname configured, WinTalk will start up with a messagebox that says: ["Couldn't get my hostname!"] Now, your hostname can live on your local machine (in your network stack's configuration), and it can (and should) also live on a DNS server. The DNS server will be queried for your name when you try to talk to someone on a unix machine - so if your PC is not registered on an appropriate DNS server, you will *not* be able to talk to anyone running Unix talk!! If you try, you will see the "Target machine does not recognize us" message in the status bar of your talk window. Also, some implementations of the winsock DLL (Trumpet, for example) will query the DNS server for your IP address when WinTalk starts up. In this situation, if you aren't registered, WinTalk will fail with a messagebox reading: ["Couldn't get host info!"] To register your machine in the DNS, you need to talk to your system administrator. The specifics vary from machine to machine. (In some cases, winsock users will be connecting to the internet via a SLIP connection which gives them a *variable* IP address; it can change every time they call their host systems. In these cases, you'll be fine *if* every possible address is associated with a name. If this is not the case, and for some reason your sysadmin does not want things set up that way, you're out of luck...) Please make sure you're correctly registered in the DNS before writing to wintalk@elf.com about gethostname() or gethostbyname() problems. 3.0 Usage ========== Getting Started --------------- When you start WinTalk, the talking-smiley icon will appear at the bottom of your screen. This icon indicates WinTalk is up and running, listening for talk requests directed to your PC. The default configuration is to announce any talk request received by your PC, for any user, with a sound and a dialog box. See "Configuration" below for information on changing this and other options. The first time you run WinTalk, it will ask you for a username. This name will be used as the default "from" name in your talk requests. So if you entered "Milo" and your PC was called "bloom-county.frobozz.com", a foreign user would see a talk request from "Milo@bloom-county.frobozz.com" when you talked them. Local usernames can also be used to filter incoming talk requests - see "Configuration" below. Initiating a Talk ----------------- To start a talk session with someone, click once on the WinTalk icon, and select "Talk..." from the menu. A dialog will appear asking who you'd like to talk to (this defaults to the last address you talked, and any of the last 50 talk destinations can be selected by clicking the down-arrow), and who the request should appear to be from (this defaults to the first username in the "local users" list, and any of the configured usernames can be selected by clicking the down-arrow). You can use any name you like in the "from" field; it does not have to be one of your configured usernames. You may also select which protocol (old or new talk) you would like to use. NTALK is the modern Unix standard, and should do for talking to most systems. If you are trying to reach someone on a machine running SunOS, or on a pre-4.2BSD system, try old talk instead. Answering a Talk ---------------- When a remote user tries to talk you (with either NTALK or old talk), and you have the "Dialog" option enabled (see "Configuration / Announcement Styles" below), a pop-up dialog will appear indicating who is trying to reach you. You will be asked whether to Accept, Refuse, or Ignore the request. If you Accept, a new conversation window will appear, and you will be connected to the calling party. Selecting "Refuse" will dismiss the dialog, and the foreign user will be informed that you are refusing messages. If you choose "Ignore", the dialog will be dismissed, and the foreign user will see the "Ringing your party again..." message until they decide to cancel the talk. If the "Dialog" option is disabled, or as an alternative to dealing with the pop-up, you may select the "Answer..." option from the WinTalk icon menu when you hear the ring sound. This will bring up a list of all active talk requests, and allow you to act on any or all of them. Simply select the request you'd like to deal with, and the press the "Accept", "Refuse", or "Ignore" buttons (see previous paragraph). Talking ------- Once you initiate or accept a talk, a talk window will appear, and the progress of the session will appear in the status bar. If you're initiating, WinTalk will retry for 1.5 minutes before timing out on a talk request - you may close the talk window at any time to cancel the request. Normally, though, you'll see the "Waiting for your party to respond...." message. Once your party talks back at you, the status bar will read "Connected!!", and you may begin typing to your friend. If you're answering, you should see the "Connected!!" status almost immediately. At this point, you will be able to see what the remote user types, and whatever you type will be sent to them. You may use the standard Windows copy and paste commands to copy text to and from WinTalk. When you "Paste" into the talk window, the text will be sent across the network connection as if you'd typed it. WinTalk will automatically format your text to fit the window size of your talk window. This can cause strange-looking screens on the remote side, since most Unix systems don't have automatic formatting. You can remedy this with the "Auto-wrap" feature of WinTalk. Just enter the width of the remote user's screen, and WinTalk will automatically insert line breaks where appropriate to keep your text neatly formatted. The status bar reminds you of the current auto-wrap setting, and you may set a default remote screen width in the configuration dialog (see _Configuration_ below). NOTE: WinTalk will automatically detect if the other party is also running WinTalk, and turn off auto-wrap for that session if so. The menu also allows you to bring up a "window style" dialog to change the look of an ongoing conversation; the fonts, colors, and orientation of the text windows. Click "Apply" to try out the changes you make in the current talk session *without* changing the defaults, and "Set Defaults" to save the changes in the wintalk.ini file - all future talks will then begin with the new settings. See "Using the Window Style Dialog" in Configuration, below. Hitting ^C during a conversation will close the talk connection without closing the window - this is useful if you still wish to scroll back over the stored text. Alternately, closing the window (by either double-clicking the closebox or selecting File->Exit) will automatically close the connection. Muting ------ If you are busy with work, or are leaving your PC for a while, you may wish to temporarily disable WinTalk's announcement facility. To do this, simply select "Disable" from the icon menu. The WinTalk icon will change from the "excited" smiley face to the "sleeping" smiley, to remind you that talks are currently being refused. While in this state, anyone who tries to talk you will get a message reading either "User is refusing messages" or "User is not logged in" (see "Configuration" below). To reenable, simply bring up the icon menu and select "Enable" (pretty intuitive, huh?). The icon should pop back to the "excited" smiley face. 4.0 Configuration ================= Selecting "Configure..." from the WinTalk icon menu will bring up the configuration dialog. This allows you to set defaults for the various options available in WinTalk. The options are: Local Usernames: ================ Use the self-explanatory "Add" and "Delete" buttons to change your list of local usernames. When "Local Users" is selected in the request filtering section, WinTalk will only accept requests for the users in this listbox. Requests for others will be rejected with a "not logged in" message. Default Protocol: ================= Defines which protocol (NTALK or Old-talk) will be the default for new talk destinations. WinTalk will remember the protocol setting you use for each destination in your pick-list, however. Ring Sound: =========== The .wav file which will be played if you have the "Sound" announce style switched on. Request Filtering: ================== You may choose to have WinTalk announce no talk requests (foreign users will be told you are refusing messages), all talk requests regardless of username, or only talk requests for the usernames in the local username listbox. Even if WinTalk is configured to announce no incoming requests, you will still be able to make outgoing talks (and the WinTalk icon will change to a sleeping smiley to remind you that all requests will be refused). Announcement Style: =================== When a talk request is announced, you can choose how you'd like to hear about it. WinTalk can play a "ring" sound, pop up a dialog, or both. You may select both options, but at least one must always be active. Default Window Style: ===================== Pressing the "Edit" button will bring up the same Window Style dialog you use during a talk session, except the "apply" button will be disabled. If you like the look of the "mini" talk window in the dialog after playing with the settings, press the "Set Defaults" button, and your changes will be saved. Using the Window Style Dialog: ------------------------------ The Window Style dialog shows you a miniature mock-up of the talk window. You can click the "switch orientation" button to try out the other window layout, the "choose font" button to select a new font, or the "edit colors" button to change the text & background colors. When you click the "edit colors" button, a color palette will appear, and the "local" window in the mock-up will be highlighted with a thin dotted line. You can switch the highlight to the "remote" window and back by left-clicking on the mock-up windows. The color of the currently selected window can be changed by clicking any of the palette colors - if you LEFT-click, the text color will change. If you RIGHT-click, the background color will change. Clicking the "edit colors" button again will make the palette disappear. When you are satisfied with the look of the mock-up window, click "Apply" to apply the settings to your current talk session *without* setting the defaults, or "Set Defaults" to save the current settings for all future talk sessions. Clicking "cancel" will close the dialog without saving your changes. Default auto-wrap: ================== This allows you to set a default screen width for foreign users. If you frequently talk to people using 80-column displays, it's a good idea to set this to 75, so you don't have to worry about your text running off the edge of their screen. WinTalk shuts off auto-wrap automatically when it connects to another WinTalk (v1.1 or later). Message on disable: =================== When you select "Disable" from the smiley-face icon menu, users who try to talk you will see one of two messages - you can choose which one by pressing the appropriate radio button. The first is "User is refusing messages", the second is "User is not logged in". This can help to indicate whether you are away from your desk or busy. 5.0 Known Bugs =============== Known Bugs ---------- * Some fonts do not default correctly, and will revert to "System" across WinTalk invocations. * WinTalk does not work well with Sun Select's PC-NFS winsock implementation...you'll see an "Error #10050" box every time you try to initiate a talk. The problem is being researched. * WinTalk seems to have problems with the Novell and Microsoft winsock stacks - we've just gotten a copy of Novell, and I haven't yet tested either. Version 1.1 may solve the problems (if they were due to stack size, for instance), and it may not. We should be getting Microsoft's TCP/IP in a week or two, and I'll see what I can do about these problems. 6.0 Troubleshooting ==================== (this section is pretty minimal for now, but will be expanded) 1. "I get a 'Control Socket Bind' error when I start WinTalk!" This usually is associated with error #10048, ADDRINUSE. This means that some other program has already grabbed a UDP socket on the TALK or NTALK port. To solve this, consult your network stack's documentation or support people, and turn off their talk daemon. 2. "WinTalk won't start, it complains about my hostname/host info!" Please read Section 2.1 - On Names and Addresses. If you're still having trouble, send email to wintalk@elf.com, and don't forget to include: * Which winsock / network stack you're using (with version #) * Windows version # * WinTalk version # 7.0 About ELF ============== Founded in 1992, ELF Communications is a small, employee-owned company dedicated to bringing the finest new networking software to people who use the Internet. Our products are designed to be open, easy to use, and powerful without being too expensive for personal use. Through our software and activities, we strive to help the Internet be a medium for honest communication and a source for increasing world freedom and community. We are currently working on several commercial projects which we hope to release some time in 1994. They include: an intelligent "majordomo" to assist in common email and news reading tasks such as subscription maintenance and anonymous FTP-ing; a realtime multimedia conferencing system supporting file sharing, moderated discussions, and shared sketchboards; and a graphical information browser to assist in reading news, email, or file systems. --- The next product I am working on is ERIS, the conferencing system mentioned above. It will support such features as: - Realtime multi-user communication over its own protocol or Unix TALK (and IRC in later versions) - Sounds and graphics - Shared sketchboards - A flexible "filtering" system for deciding which incoming calls to tell you about, refuse, or send to an "answering machine" - Persistent "Conference Rooms" for discussions and the storage of archive files, whiteboards, etc. - Computer-assisted discussion moderation (floor passing, voting) - Automatic conversation logging for meeting minutes ...not all necessarily in version 1. If this sounds interesting to you, send email to "eris-info-request@elf.com", and I'll add you to the list for upcoming announcements. This product is still a ways off, so don't expect mail about it anytime soon.... Enjoy! --Gub (Glen Daniels, ELF Communications) March 3rd, 1994 APPENDIX A: THE SILLY BUT NECESSARY DISCLAIMER THAT OUR LAWYER MADE US INCLUDE ------------------------------------------------------------------ BY ACCEPTING THIS SOFTWARE PRODUCT THE USER AGREES TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS DISCLAIMER. DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER WITH THE USE OR INSTALLATION OF THIS SOFTWARE PRODUCT WITHOUT FIRST READING AND UNDERSTANDING THE TERMS STATED BELOW. The version of WinTalk (Version 1.1), Copyright (c) 1994 by ELF Communications, Inc., provided herewith, is hereby distributed as so-called "freeware". By that term, ELF Communications, Inc., intends to distribute this software product without the reservation of any proprietary or other economic rights. Each user may, in turn, distribute this software product to other users without obtaining the permission of ELF Communications, Inc,; provided only that (i) no user may distribute the software product, either by itself or in conjuction with any other product or device, in exchange, either directly or indirectly, for profit, the intention of profit or any other economic considerations, without the express written permission of ELF Communications, Inc., which said permission may be conditioned, withheld or delayed at its sole discretion, (ii) each copy so distributed by a users includes this "WINTALK.DOC" file and (iii) the copy so distibuted has not been altered, modified, impaired or damaged. Any user who distributes this software product in violation of these specifically reserved conditions shall be liable for any and all claims, losses, damages and liabilities resulting therefrom. ELF COMMUNICATIONS, INC., HEREBY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OF IMPLIED, MADE WITH RESPECT THERETO, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ELF COMMUNICATIONS SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY TO ANY USER OR ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL OR ENTITY CONNECTED OR RELATED TO ANY USER FOR ANY CLAIM, LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND OR NATURE WHATSOEVER ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH (I) THE DEFICIENCY OR INADEQUACY OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT FOR ANY PURPOSE, WHETHER OR NOT KNOWN OR DISCLOSED TO THE USER (II) THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT OR ANY FILES, DATA OR COMPUTER SYSTEMS RELATED THERETO OR USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH; (III) ANY INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF SERVICE OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE, OR ANY FILES, DATA OR OTHER COMPUTER SYSTEMS; (IV) ANY SOFTWARE FAILURE; OR (V) ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, SALES, BUSINESS, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR SPECIAL LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND OR NATURE RESULTING FROM THE FOREGOING EVEN IF ELF COMMUNICATIONS, INC., HAS BEEN INFORMED OR ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Congratulations on making it to the end of the disclaimer!! Now go have fun with WinTalk!