
REMOTE OFFICE GOLD CLIENT

  RELEASE NOTES
  VERSION 2.0.0
  12/21/94

CONTENTS

  1.  NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 2.0

  1.1   X.25 SUPPORT

  1.2   CLIENT SCRIPT FILE PROCESSING

  1.3   NEW WINDOWS USER INTERFACE

  1.4   ABILITY TO DIAL IN TO NETWARE SERVER FROM WITHIN WINDOWS

  1.5   REMOTE CONTROL INTEGRATION

  1.6   REMOTE EXECUTION GUARD

  1.7   ABILITY TO CUSTOMIZE LOGIN ICONS

  1.8   BANDWIDTH ON DEMAND

  1.9   INCLUSION OF NETWARE LOGOUT, CAPTURE, AND MAP UTILITIES

  1.10  ABILITY TO NOT LOAD STAMPEDE BRIDGING PROTOCOL

  1.11  ABILITY TO SET A TCP/IP INTERNET ADDRESS

  2.  KNOWN PROBLEMS WITH THIS RELEASE

  3.  RUNNING THE REMOTE OFFICE CLIENT

  4.  OPERATING CONSIDERATIONS

  5.  DOCUMENTATION of ADDED FEATURES

  6.  WINDOWS 3.1 CONSIDERATIONS

  7.  ASSIGNMENT of ETHERNET ADDRESSES

  8.  TROUBLE / TECH TIPS

  9. NULL MODEM PINOUTS

  10. MODEM LIGHTS


1. NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 2.0

1.1  X.25 SUPPORT

  If an Eicon card or other NABIOS inteface exists on the client,
  Remote Office can interface to this by selecting Eicon/Nabios as the
  modem type when defining a COM port.  You can also connect to an
  X.25 service such as SprintNet or InfoNet by using the 'TTY'
  interface in the interactive login screens.

  X25 CLIENT Setup

  If the client is talking to NABios, it must define a Port referencing
  the Eicon Modem record.  The only information required is the
  EICONPORT= number in the Answer field.

  A Phonebook record is setup with optional DTE/Facilities
  information defined in the Phone #  and optional NUI information
  defined in the CallBack number field.


  Example phone#:  3110212001235,0100
  This represents a 13 digit DTE address with 2 bytes of facility
  info indicating 'reverse charging' appearing after the ','.

  NUI is entered in the following form: Code,NUI,Password where:
        Code=Indicates X25 provider
        0=General X25
        1=AT&T FTS2000
        2=Brittish Telecom
        3=US Tymnet
        4=US Telenet
        5=TelePac
        6=Datax-p
        7=Datanet 1
        8=IberPac
        9=DCS

        Example CallBack#:  1,ThisIsATTFTS200Nui,Password

  Note: Using NAbios when running in a Windows For Workgroups
  environment may have problems due to a conflict with the Int 5C
  interface (NetBios).  Roffice can support the use of an alternate
  interrupt by specifying a command line option. To use Int5A instead
  of Int5C when envoking roffice.exe enter ROFFICE NABIOS_INT=5A


1.2  CLIENT SCRIPT FILE PROCESSING

   You can specify a script file to be read during a login.  The
   script file is read once the login phase enters TTY mode.  You
   can create script files using any ASCII text editor.  See the
   on-line help or "Login" or "Add Phonebook", or "Modify Phonebook".


1.3   NEW WINDOWS USER INTERFACE

   The Remote Office Windows user interface has been completely
   revised.  It now features "big buttons" and more icons.  It
   is now possible to specify a "batch" file that executes in a
   minimized DOS box immediately after logging in as well as
   just prior to logging out.

1.4   ABILITY TO DIAL IN TO NETWARE SERVER FROM WITHIN WINDOWS

   A new parameter called "VLMIPX" in the NET.CFG file is
   automatically installed.  This enables VLM to load quickly
   even though the a Remote Office connection has not been
   established.  Then a Remote Office connection can later
   be established from with Windows.

1.5   REMOTE CONTROL INTEGRATION

   We have integrated a first-rate remote control function into
   the product for NetWare users only.

1.6  REMOTE EXECUTION GUARD

   A program called "exeguard.exe" is now executed from the
   "ROSTART.BAT" file.  This program displays a warning message
   when an attempt is made to load an execuatble program over the
   remote link.

1.7  ABILITY TO CUSTOMIZE LOGIN ICONS

   The Remote Office Windows program "wroclint.exe" will now
   accept phone-book records as a command line parameter.  This
   makes it possible to create icons for specific phone-records.

1.8  BANDWIDTH ON DEMAND

   Our "autoreconnect" feature has been greatly improved such that
   if a modem connection is lost either because of an inactivity
   timeout or because of a communication line problem, the
   connection will automatically re-establish itself the next
   time a network request is made from the client.

   If TTY mode was specified for the login process, Modem Lights will
   display a "RECONNECT" button or "RECONNECT" menu item.  This allows
   you to initiate the reconnect process.  If you are not running Windows
   when the connection is lost, the autoreconnect will not occur.

1.9  INCLUSION OF NETWARE LOGOUT, CAPTURE, AND MAP UTILITIES

   These programs are now copied as part of a NetWare client
   install.

1.10  ABILITY TO NOT LOAD STAMPEDE BRIDGING PROTOCOL

   If dialing in to a (non-Stampede) PPP router, you may choose to
   not load the Stampede bridging logic thus saving about 2K of
   memory on the client.

1.11  ABILITY TO SET A TCP/IP INTERNET ADDRESS

   If you use Ftp (PC/TCP or OnNet), NetManage (Chameleon) TCP/IP,
   Novell Lan Workplace, Dec Pathworks, or Wollongong Pathways,
   Remote Office will automatically set the TCP/IP kernel with the
   internet address specified at Remote Office login time.

   For the case of Lan Workplace, the first number of the
   "ip_address" statement of your net.cfg must match your
   the first number of your router's IP address.

   To disable the dynamic setting of IP addresses feature
   enter the command "ro cfgch setip=255".


2. KNOWN PROBLEMS WITH THIS RELEASE


3. RUNNING A REMOTE OFFICE CLIENT

   NDIS Driver

     The following illustrates what should be specified in your
     protocol.ini file:

     [PROTMAN]
         drivername = PROTMAN$
         dynamic = yes

     [NDROF-E]
         drivername = NDROF-E$

     [PROTOCOL_DEPENDENT]
         drivername = "protocol_dependent"$ (e.g. NETBEUI$)
         bindings = NDROF-E

     The NDROF-E provides an NDIS MAC interface into ROFFICE.  The
     Lan Operating system transport protocol binds to the NDROF-E
     MAC driver.

   ODI Driver

   The following illustrates what must be specified in your net.cfg
   file:

      # define ODIROF-E as board #1
      #
      Link Driver ODIROF-E
         frame ETHERNET_802.3
      ;   frame ETHERNET_802.2
      ;   frame ETHERNET_II
          vlmipx ETHERNET_802.3

      Protocol IPX                           Protocol IPX
         bind #1                             bind #1

      Entries following a "Link Driver .." or "Protocol .." line
      must be indented at least 1 space.

      ODIROF-E provides an ODI MAC interface into ROFFICE. IPX binds
      to the specified frame type defined for ODIROF-E.

  FTP - Packet Driver

    A file called PKROF-E.EXE provides a packet driver interface into
    ROFFICE.EXE.  No special configuration is required.

  Putting it all together for the client:

    After having defined your interface to the modems and defined the
    hosts that you will dial into, refer to the ROSTART.BAT file
    file which was created for you at system installation time.

    In general terms you would do the following:

      1. Execute ROFFICE.EXE
      2. Execute either ODIROF-E, NDROF-E, or PKROF-E.
      3. Execute transport protocol (e.g. IPX, NETBEUI)
      4. Bind if necessary
      5. Do "RO LOGIN" to set up communications with the host
      6. Run LAN/OS

    If you have any questions on a particular LAN OPERATING system,
    run "ROSTART HELP", and it will give detailed information for the
    configuration that you have installed.


4. OPERATING CONSIDERATIONS

  It is important to consider that Remote Office acts as an actual node
  on the network, and that all traffic generated by the client will
  actually be sent across the telephone link.  Therefore, we highly
  recommend that special consideration be given when planning for login
  scripts.  It is vital that scripts be designed to run applications off
  of the local drive, not the server.  For instance, when running in a
  Netware environment, if the login script were to perform a capture
  command, the entire CAPTURE.EXE program would be transferred across
  the telephone link to the local CPU.  This adds unnecessary overhead
  to an already slower process.  Instead, it is preferable to configure
  the script to execute it from the client drive.

  Application planning is also an important consideration.  In keeping
  with the above discussion, you would not want the remote client to
  load applications from a network drive.  Again, this adds unnecessary
  traffic on the wire. The server should be used as a data repository,
  accessed by an application loaded off the client's local drive.


6. DOCUMENTATION of ADDED FEATURES

  Additional login script commands have been added.

  Using any ascii text editor, create and save your script file in the
  Remote Office directory.  The script commands are not case sensitive.

      SEND Syntax:       SEND xxxxxxxx
                         xxxxxxx is the data sent to the host.
                         A carraige return (hex character 0D), is
                         automatically sent after the data unless
                         the CR_TOGGLE is OFF.

      PAUSE Syntax:      PAUSE nn
                         nn is the number of seconds to pause before
                         reading the next script command.

      PROMPT Syntax:     PROMPT xxxxxxxxx
                         xxxxxxxxx is displayed.  Script file
                         processing is suspended until a carraige
                         return is received from the keyboard.  All
                         characters received from the keyboard are
                         sent to the modem.

      MATCH Syntax:      MATCH string
                         Script file processing is suspeneded until
                         "string" is received from the host.

      PPP Syntax:        PPP
                         Ends TTY mode immediately.  Starts PPP mode
                         and resumes the login process.

      HEXSEND Syntax:    HEXSEND XX
                         Converts the hexadecimal string XX to binary
                         and sends the number to the host.

      CR_TOGGLE Syntax:  CR_TOGGLE
                         By default a carraige return is appended to
                         the data in the SEND command.  This command
                         prevents a carraige return (hex value 0D)
                         from being appended to the data sent to
                         the host.


      Example script file:           Description:

      MATCH  login:                  Wait for host to send "login:"
      CR_TOGGLE                      Do not append carraige return
      SEND gdorworth                 Send the characters to the host
      CR_TOGGLE                      Next send, append carraige return
      MATCH  password:               Wait for host to send "password:"
      SEND  xxx                      Append carraige return and send
      PROMPT Enter ID                "Enter ID" is displayed, wait for
                                     keyboard input
      HEXSEND  FF                    Send the number 255 to the host.
      HEXSEND  1B                    Send the number 27 to the host.
      PPP                            End tty mode, resume the login.

7. ASSIGNMENT of ETHERNET ADDRESSES

  On the client machines, Roffice generates a random address at
  installation time.  The first six digits of this address will
  begin with 02,6f,6f.  You may change the address by using the
  "RO CFGCHANGE" function on the host or client, or by using the
  interactive RO utility under SETUP, REMOTE OFFICE LOAD OPTIONS.

8. WORKING WITH WINDOWS 3.1

  A virtual device driver called VROF.386 is provided with Remote
  Office.  VROF.386 greatly improves I/O to a serial port by
  interfacing to the port using 80386 instructions.

  VROF.386 is automatically loaded when Windows loads in enhanced
  mode.  You can disable VROF.386 using the command
  "RO CFGCH VROF386=NO" before roffice.exe is loaded. If VROF.386
  loads, no changes are required for your system.ini file.

  If you choose not to run VROF.386, then when running in enhanced
  mode, make sure that "device=vcd" is in your "system.ini" file.  If
  going into a  DOS box, you must make sure that "COMxAutoAssign=0",
  'x' indicating the port Remote Office is connected, is set
  in your "system.ini" file in the "[386Enh]" section. This can be
  accomplished either with a text editor or by going into the control
  panel's 386 Enhanced section and  choose 'Never Warn' for the
  corresponding COM port.  This prevents Windows from displaying
  warning mesages in a DOS box while Remote OFfice is communicating.

  It may be necessary to set your baud rate to 19,200 or below when
  running Windows 3.1 in enhanced mode.  Microsoft recommends this
  unless you have 16550 serial ports on your computer (most computers
  are not equipped with 16550s).


9. TROUBLE SHOOTING / TECH TIPS

  DO NOT plan on running applications from a server across the telephone
  link.  This mode of operation is not recommended because of the slow
  telephone link speed.  Applicatons should instead be run from the
  clients own disk drive, and the server used for data data
  storage / retrieval.

  If you experience slowness at login time, check the scripts that might
  be executing to see that they do not load applications from the
  server.  If this is the case, you may wish to alter the scripts for
  remote users to load programs from their local drives.

  It is recommended that network drives be removed from the search path.
  This would help prevent accidental loading of utility programs across
  the link.

  You will find a wealth of command line functionality by entering
  "RO /?" or "RO /HELP".  The most useful commands are "RO FIND" and
  "RO SHOW".  RO.EXE commands may be abbreviated, for example
  "RO F COM1" is the same as "RO FIND COM1".

  Modem String Considerations:  In general, we have set the modem strings
  to maximize echoing of status messages when modem commands are being
  issued.  The following settings are required:

   - The carrier detect signal must be tracked. (Usually  &C1 ).
   - Modem should hang up if DTR is dropped (Usually  &D2 ).
   - Enable RTS/CTS flow control (Usually  &K3)

  We have set the default modem strings to allow the modems to
  negotiate error correction and compression.  This provides the
  greatest degree of interoperability between different modem types.

  If you experience lost sessions on a particular port,  use the "RO
  FIND" command to show statistics on that port.  For example, if you are
  interested in stats for port "COM1", type in "RO FIND COM1" and
  note any transmit timeouts and FCS errors.  FCS stands for
  "Frame Check Sequence" and is analogous to a CRC or block check.  FCS
  errors indicate that characters are being dropped and you may have to
  decrease the baud rate.

  A shortage of either Buffers or DSA can lead  to subtle problems
  that are very easily overlooked.  If you are experiencing problems
  check the Peak Buffer Usage and the DSA available for possible
  shortages.

  If you wish to use a phone card when dialing, simply build the number
  into the dial string when configuring the phone number of the host.
  For many modems, the following characters may be used to facilitate
  credit card dialing:

     ,           Pause about 2 seconds
     W           Wait for a second dial tone
     @           Wait for silence
     !           Issue hookflash

  When running modems and computers off of batteries,  we have found
  that some makes of laptop computers and modems, running with
  batteries that are not fully charged, may have reliability problems
  sustaining a Remote Office session when running at higher speeds.
  If you are having connection trouble, check the battery level or try
  running with AC power.

  If you have a call waiting feature on your phone system, this may
  interfere with your Remote Office connection.  You may elect to
  modify your Modem dial strings (or phonebook records) to turn call
  waiting off by putting "*70" as part of the string.  You could also
  modify your modem hang-up string to turn call waiting back on.


10. NULL MODEM CABLE SPECIFICATION

  The following are the correct specifications for working NULL
  modem cables:

  25 PIN to 25 PIN Cable:

  Pin 2 crossed with pin 3 on the opposite connector
  Pin 4 crossed with pin 5 on the opposite connector
  Pin 6 connected to pin 20 on both connectors
  Pins 6 and 20 connected to pin 8 on the opposite connector
  Pin 7 connected to pin 7 on the opposite connector

  9 Pin to 9 Pin Cable:

  Pin 1 connected to pin 6 on both connectors
  Pin 2 crossed with pin 3 on the opposite connector
  Pins 1 and 6 connected to pin 4 on the opposite connector
  Pin 7 crossed with pin 8 on the opposite connector
  Pin 5 connected to pin 5 on the opposite connector

  9 Pin to 25 Pin Cable:

  Pin 1 (9 Pin Side) conected to pin 6 on the (9 Pin side)
  Pin 8 (25 Pin Side) connected to pin 6 on the (25 Pin side)
  Pin 2 (9 Pin Side) connected to Pin 3 (25 Pin Side)
  Pin 3 (9 Pin Side) connected to Pin 2 (25 Pin Side)
  Pins 1 and 6 (9 Pin Side) connected to pin 20 (25 Pin Side)
  Pin 4 (9 Pin Side) connected to Pins 6 and 8 (25 Pin Side)
  Pin 7 (9 Pin Side) connected to Pin 5 (25 Pin Side)
  Pin 8 (9 Pin Side) connected to Pin 4 (25 Pin Side)
  Pin 5 (9 Pin Side) connected to Pin 7 (25 Pin Side)

12.  MODEM LIGHTS

  A Windows utility, WMLITES.EXE, is available for Remote Office
  clients.  The install program will install wmlites.exe if you install
  the Remote Office Windows client.  WMLITES.EXE simulates the carrier
  detect, send data, and receive data lights on a modem.


