Category : Communication (modem) tools and utilities
Archive   : TAPDO541.ZIP
Filename : TAPDOC.10
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10 - TAPCIS Tips
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TAPCIS Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
Practice Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
Emoticons and TLA's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
Getting Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
Upload Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2
Executive News Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2
MCI Mail to CompuServe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2
Line Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-3
Interrupting TAPCIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-3
Aborting Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4
GIF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4
Status Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4
Travel Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5
TAPCIS(tm) Documentation Copyright (c) 1991, Support Group, Inc.
800-USA-GROUP, 301-387-4500
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TAPCIS Tips
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Practice Forum
The Practice Forum is where you can try out the TAPCIS features free of
connect time. Add the forum using the name "PRACTICE" on the
screen, join it using
forum, leaving messages, etc.
While the normal connect charges are waived while in the Practice Forum,
network access charges are not. These charges range from $0.30 to $9.00 per
hour. Check the current rates for your access network.
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Emoticons and TLA's
Users new to CompuServe forums are often confused by a shorthand used by
"regulars." TLA's (Three Letter Acronyms) actually refer to any number of
acronyms in popular use.
BTW By The Way
IMO In My Opinion
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
ROF,L Rolling On the Floor, Laughing
Emoticons are either symbols or words meant to add "body language" to a
message.
make sure the recipient doesn't take it seriously (you were grinning when
you wrote it). The symbol equivalent it ":-)" which you have to turn your
head sideways to the left to see the smile.
We try to avoid acronyms as much as possible, to make it easier for new
users to understand messages. Occasional use of emoticons can help avoid
hurt feelings, but it is probably better to rewrite or not send the message
if you have a doubt about how it will be interpreted.
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Getting Announcements
TAPCIS automatically stores the News Flash announcement as Msg #0 in the
forum message file. The News Flash appears when the sysop of the forum
changes the content of an announcement and flags it to appear on everyone's
next login.
Several other announcements are available but are not captured by TAPCIS.
In particular the New Member announcement when joining a forum is not
stored on disk except in the ONLINE.LOG (if one is being created).
You can request that TAPCIS go online and capture an announcement by
pressing dvanced ser-command
TAPCIS TAPCIS Tips 10-1
ANN;#;T
where "#" is replaced by one of the following numbers corresponding to the
announcement to capture. Then, go
announcement, press the number of the forum and read the announcement.
1 News flash
2 General
3 Messages
4 Conference
5 Library
6 Membership
7 Sysop roster
8 New member
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Upload Descriptions
If you are uploading a file when interactive, you must use the CompuServe
editor to compose and edit the description of the file. If you mess up the
description, the easiest way to edit it is to restart from the beginning.
To clear the current description, type the following at the beginning of
the line when in the CompuServe editor:
/T,P,D999
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Executive News Service
You cannot automate access to the Executive News Service (GO ENS). You can,
however, save time by either capturing the stories to disk or sending the
stories to your Mail box. At $15/hr surcharge above normal connect rates,
reading online is an excessive waste of money.
Sending stories to your Mail box allows TAPCIS to pick them up
automatically. There is a delivery delay between the time you send the
stories and when they are available in your Mail box (1-15 minutes). Use
the command:
Send #,#,#-# 7nnnn,nn
Replace the #'s with story numbers. Separate individual stories with
commas, and ranges of stories with a dash. If you omit the user ID, ENS
will prompt you for the user ID. If you press
login ID.
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MCI Mail to CompuServe
To send a message from MCI Mail to CompuServe, create a message on MCI
Mail, and at the "To:" prompt type addressee's name followed by "(ems)". At
the EMS prompt, type "CompuServe" and at the MBX prompt enter the
recipient's CompuServe ID. Press
finish and send the message as normal for MCI.
10-2 TAPCIS Tips TAPCIS
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Line Noise
A noisy phone line is the enemy of automated communications. TAPCIS works
by playing the role of a semi-intelligent operator. As long as TAPCIS
receives the correct sequence of messages back from CompuServe in response
to its commands, operation will be smooth and predictable.
When line noise interferes, TAPCIS can get confused. Whereas a human might
be able to make sense of the random garbage characters line noise produces,
TAPCIS must assume that certain prompts and prompt characters make it
through properly. And, commands sent by TAPCIS to CompuServe must be
received properly.
If the line is really noisy, you will not be able to use TAPCIS. More
common is a burst of noise that might corrupt a command. If you are
watching, you may be able to get TAPCIS back on track by supplying the
correction yourself. For example, if line noise turns the command "GO MAIL"
into "GO MAL" then CompuServe will respond that the MAL page is empty, and
TAPCIS will stop. If you do nothing, TAPCIS will logoff in about three
minutes. If you type "GO MAIL" then TAPCIS will pick back up again.
A symptom of a noisy phone line is the appearance of ^U's on the screen.
TAPCIS sends a control-U to CompuServe before every command. The ^U tells
CompuServe to clear its input buffer. If any line noise had been received
in the interim, it is flushed by the ^U. CompuServe will not echo the ^U
unless there actually was garbage in the input buffer. If you start seeing
^U's, you have a noise problem.
Solving a noise problem is not easy. First, check the connections to your
modem and the telephone jacks to make sure they are secure. Then, try
calling another CompuServe node, possibly in a nearby city in a different
direction. If the noise appears on one node but not another, note down the
node ID that TAPCIS displays after the STATUS command on logon (TnnXXX),
and then call CompuServe at 800-848-8990 to report the problem. If the
noise persists on both nodes, the problem is either on your premises (the
modem, jacks, wiring, cable, etc.) or in the line between your location and
the telephone company central office. If you can hear the static on the
line, report the problem to the phone company to have them fix it.
Another option if you live in an area served by a CIS M node is to purchase
a 2400 bps modem with "MNP." MNP is an error detecting and correcting
protocol, similar in effect to CompuServe B+, but it works for terminal
communications as well.
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Interrupting TAPCIS
The way to interrupt a CompuServe command without interrupting TAPCIS is by
pressing
long thread which has wandered far off the subject, you could get TAPCIS
back to the Forum! prompt by pressing ^P. If you did this in an R forum,
the entire READ THREAD NEW command would be aborted; the received messages
would be stored on disk. Doing this in the middle of a thread read can have
undesirable effects on your high message number, so use caution.
TAPCIS TAPCIS Tips 10-3
If you want to abort the automated script completely, press
This sends a
are left in terminal mode talking directly to CompuServe. At this point you
could type "OFF" to logoff, or perform any other nteractive functions.
phone.
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Aborting Downloads
Canceling a file transfer is a drastic step. Some protocols (like XMODEM)
allowed for a single character to abort a download. The request to abort
was not error checked, so even line noise could cause a huge download to
abort right before the end.
CompuServe B+ protocol is more robust. The downside is that it can take 10-
20 seconds (possibly more on a busy day) for the abort to be negotiated
between your microcomputer and the CompuServe mainframe. If both computers
are still working properly, the transfer will be aborted. If you were
downloading, you will be asked by TAPCIS whether you want to keep the
partial file.
If either the computers have failed (crashed), it is much harder to predict
what will happen. In a worst case, TAPCIS may keep trying to abort, and
finally give up after 3 minutes and drop the carrier. If your computer
crashes for some reason, CompuServe will drop the connection in 3-5 minutes
on its own, or will drop it immediately if you drop carrier by turning off
the modem (if external) or turning off the computer (if the modem is
internal).
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GIF
CompuServe has designed and implemented a "device independent" graphics
format called GIF. For now, its primary uses have been for color radar maps
(GO COLMAPS) and digitized pictures downloaded from the Picture Forums
(GRAPHSUP, QPICS, and ARTGAL). If you need more detailed information on
GIF, stop by the GRAPHSUP Forum. They have utilities for displaying GIF
files on most computers.
TAPCIS can download GIF files and color radar maps. TAPCIS does not support
online viewing of these graphics (which is really a waste of money anyway;
why not download them and view them offline at no charge?). We've found
that downloading the graphics and then either exiting TAPCIS or shelling
out using
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Status Marks
The markers at the bottom of the TAPCIS main menu show whether there are
messages freshly downloaded and unread (the exclamation mark), activity to
send online (the double arrow), headers to mark (the caret), catalogs to
view (upward triangle), or files to download (downward triangle). TAPCIS
stores these marks in the active parameter file.
10-4 TAPCIS Tips TAPCIS
This works great with the following exceptions. If you change TAPCIS files
outside of the program (reading message files, creating send files,
deleting files, etc.), the status marks will not reflect the actual status
of the files. Also, if you have marks in one parameter file and then switch
to another and do something (like going online) that gets rid of the send
file, if you switch back to the old parameters file, the up and down arrow
will still show.
To update the status, you can press
this has its limitations, too. It will remove any marks for files that no
longer exist. It will also restore marks (like if you have a .QSN file
sitting around).
Note that TAPCIS automatically does a refresh when you switch parameter
files within the program and if you specify a parameter file on the command
line in parenthesis.
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Travel Kit
If you travel with a portable computer, you know how frustrating it can be
to try and connect from hotel rooms. While some hotels are now offering
simple RJ-11 jacks for connecting your computers to their telephone
systems, others require that you almost tear down the wall, strip the
wires, and kludge a connection together (only to find out that you'll have
to go through an operator to connect with CompuServe and pay $1.50 per call
for the privilege).
If you do travel and want to telecommunicate from your room, be sure to
download the file TRAVEL.KIT from Library 3 of the TAPCIS Forum.
TAPCIS TAPCIS Tips 10-5
Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!
This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.
But one thing that puzzles me is the “mtswslnkmcjklsdlsbdmMICROSOFT” string. There is an article about it here. It is definitely worth a read: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/mtswslnk/