
I have worked up another comm possibility for Windows for those who have
certain kinds of problems here and there.  No need to rush into this one,
but it is worth a try in stubborn cases.

Stop and think a minute:  it's Windows that cobbles up our commo due to its
tricky design and stubborn way of handing things.  So what if we deny
Windows any access to the COMport in question, period, and let the tried
and true DOS techniques do the work?  It's easy!

Go into your SYSTEM.INI files and "rem" out with a semicolon, the COMxIrq=n
setting, like this:

;COM3IRQ=4     ; If you don't have such a line, fine; no problem.

and then set a new IRQ as follows:

COM3IRQ=-1     ;  Use your COM#, of course.

That's right!  A "-1" turns off that port so that Windows cannot see or
control it.  It's out of the action altogether!  I did not change my PIF
file under this scenario.  (Use PIF's as suggested elsewhere in this file.)
Now when you set the IRQ to -1, sit back and meditate upon the fossil
driver settings from your DOS days....where the full FIFO buffers could be
used along with larger Tx and Rx buffers.  That's it in a nutshell:  set
your 16550 UART's FIFO's back to 14 or 16, and Tx=512  Rx=1024 or something
comparable, and voila!  Pure, golden comms without the Windows influence.
Oh, and be sure to turn off any watchdog that you may have had watching the
port, like BNU's TM-WIN, for instance.  Since Windows ain't watching the
port, that extra effort won't be needed.  You should retain TAME, of
course.

SIDE EFFECTS
=============

Right off, I have noticed only two side effects and I can't explain one
yet. Say you have everything up and running fine, and you unload FrontDoor
for whatever reason (ALT+Q) to go back to Win's Program Manager.  Now let's
say you fire up the PIF for FrontDoor again.  You may find that the modem
will fail to initialize and FD will S.O.S. out and drop you off at Program
Manager.  Derned if I know why this happens, but the cure is to unload
Windows back to DOS, and then reload Windows, followed by an execution of
the FrontDoor PIF and all will be well.

Obviously, the other side effect is that Windows native comm apps will not
be able to run from that port.  But since we all run FrontDoor, this may
not be much of an obstacle: FD has a great telecom program built in.

CONCLUSION
===========

I was able to easily obtain thruputs of 2200-cps at 19.2-kbps by this means
with no sign of faltering.  It is worth recommending to others who need
help with a problem that does not gain immediate understanding and
solution.  At worst, it is a temporary stopgap measure to get someone up
and running a node out of Windows, that otherwise ran fine under DOS.

OTHER NOTE
===========

The new Microsoft Add-On Windows For WorkGroups (p/n 207-651-v311) is now
available, and even if you don't have a LAN, this new version 3.11 is a
better Windows than Windows 3.1.  WFWG v3.11 features more powerful 32-bit
file operations and a lot of code developed for the coming DOS 7.0 and
Chicago.  The December issue of Windows Sources, pg 103, tells more, but
the bottom line is that WFWG 3.11 will be the best Windows around until
Chicago (4.0) gets here in mid '94.  WFWG 3.11 retails for $69.95 but is
routinely available for $49.95. I don't have a feel yet for how this
upgrade will handle commo.

Bill
