Open Access User Group Meeting - 7 April 98 Q & A + News Internet access in rural areas Wal Shand, whose company has been supplying small satellite dishes for many years, briefed the group on some clever technology that he is looking at for speeding up Internet access in rural areas. Apparently the system uses the ordinary phone line for sending data (keystrokes) to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and a satellite system for returning the data (web pages) to the user. Since the phone systems in some areas still limit modems to about 2400 baud the satellite system can make a dramatic improvement. Printing from Open Access/DOS under Windows 95. Our web ste has a web page devoted to WIN95. The meeting ran through a range of tips for solving printing problems. Here is the list in approximate order of prioroty: 1. Ensure that, under Open Access, the Printer Definitions that you are using (Main Options / Utilities / Printer Parameters) have a valid "Form feed sequence" such as (12). Otherwise OA will just send a string of line feeds to "eject" the page and WIN95 won't understand this. 2. Make sure WIN95 is set up to "capture" the printer port. This is needed so that it can intercept print requests from DOS programs. In WIN95 go to Settings / Printers. Right click on the appropriate printer and select Properties. On the "Details" form click on "Capture Printer Port". Pick a printer from the drop-down list (or use the long printer name convention "\\computer\printer"). Pick a port (eg LPT1) from the drop-down list. Select "Reconnect at logon". 3. [tip from Lindy Kidman] Reduce the WIN95 printer buffer time (the default of 45 seconds is too long). In the SYSTEM.INI file change the value to 10 at two locations (or try adding these lines if they don't exist): [network] printbuftime=10 [IFSMGR] printbuftime=10 4. If these tips fail to work (ie pages are lost) then try turning the WIN95 print spooler off - in the WIN95 printer properties form click on "Port Setttings" then deselect "Spool MS-DOS print jobs". Also you can try clicking on "Spool Settings" and select "Print directly to the printer" (this will also affect you WIN95 print jobs). You can also try changing the spooler protocol from "EMF" to "RAW". Another tip is to try connecting the printer to LPT1.DOS rather than LPT1. The first time you try something be patient - WIN95 can sometimes take minutes to locate network resources and respond to a command. Naming Printers in WIN95 Keith found by trial and error that it is better to restrict printer names to not more than 8 characters under WIN95. Otherwise some odd things can happen if you delete a printer and add another one with a similar name. Sharing Directories under WIN95 For OA to work in the WIN95 network environment you will need to "share" directories on the "file servers" (any other PC of interest) and, on the PC running OA, you will need to "map" those shared directories. To share a directory on the current PC: start Windows Explorer, locate the directory of interest, right click and select "Sharing". Choose the options that suit your needs (eg password protection and sharing sub-directories). To share the complete hard disk "share" the root directory and allow sharing of sub-directories. To Map a network drive from the PC running Open Access: start Windows Explorer, select Network Neighborhood [US spelling], locate the computer and drive, right click and select "Map Network Drive", select a drive letter from the drop-down list and select "Reconnect at logon". If possible, use consistent drive letters from each OA "station" (for example, I prefer the use "N" for the main file server and every PC which is an OA station has the file server mapped as "N"). Now you have "mapped" the networked drives and "captured" the network printers you are ready to install/configure Open Access Network (Netbios version - do not use the Netware version under WIN95 if you are using the Microsoft network system). The Open Access "stations" will need to be configured so that the Searching Order includes the mapped drives and the Printer Parameters will need to point to the correct port (LPT1 or LPTx- in the latter case the user will be asked to confirm the port number for each print job). Other WIN95 Tips If you are unsure of options available click the right mouse button. It seems to be the repository for anything the software writers thought was a good idea but couldn't find a place to put it (excuse the grammar). Under Windows Explorer "left-click dragging" a file from one directory to another can either copy it or create a shortcut there is some logic to it somewhere! To have more control "right-click" and drag. This presents the options Move (default), Copy or Create shortcut. To delete a file without sending it to the recycle bin use Shift Delete. [Keith's "Send to" tips pending] [Keith's Findfast tip] [Keith's start menu tips] Avoiding Word Macro Viruses As well as having an up-to-date virus scanner, you should consider the following strategies to reduce the risk of a Word Macro Virus infection. 1. If using Office 97, under Tools / Options deselect the box for automatically running macros when a document is loaded. Also set "Macro Virus Protection" on. 2. Set "Word Pad" as the default viewer when opening DOC files from Windows Explorer or your web browser. Mail Merging over the network with Word for Windows If a mail merge document is to be used from several PCs and not just the the local PC then consider specifying the full network pathname for the merge data file. For example, instead of c:\docs\merge.dbf use the network name for that PC such as \\computer1\drive_c\docs\merge.dbf. In this way the merge data will always be found on the correct PC. Exporting OA Spreadsheets to Excel Option 1: From anywhere within Open Access File_convertor Spreadsheet FMD>WKS and enter the source and target names. This creates a spreadsheet in Lotus 123 format which can be directly opened by Excel. Note, however, that dates will probably be wrong. Option 2: Within the OA Spreadsheet select to bring up the advanced menu. Select Integrate and create an OA database out of the data. Now select File_convertor Database DF>dBase and enter the source and target names. This creates a dBase III file which can be directly opoened by Excel. Notice: Users should not act solely on the basis of the material contained in this document. Items contained in this document are presented as possible solutions to problems but do not constitute advice. In particular, no assurance can be given that the possible solutions will work in every situation or that loss of data will not occur. Always back-up data before trying to rectify a problem.