19200HST By Joseph Sheppard Sysop, The Ledge PCBoard (818) 352-3620 WHAT IT DOES: ------------- 19200HST is a utility program written with Turbo Pascal 5.0 using routines from Prokit by Samuel Smith. 19200HST is released as a free program. No donations are requested for it's use. The authors are not responsible for any damage that might be caused by the use of this program. Please use this program at your own risk. The purpose of 19200HST is to aid owners of USRobotics Courier HST modems in setting up for optimum speed. This program is designed for callers only. Although I run my BBS with the settings from 19200HST, I would recommend that Sysops follow the instructions for their specific BBS package on modem settings. Registered PCBoard sysops have a similar program called PCBMODEM that should be used instead of this program. This program will lock your serial port at 19200. This setting may only be effective on 286 and 386 systems. Some multi-tasking software may not be able to handle this setting. If you find that you are having trouble with aborted downloads after running this program then you should probably go into your terminal program and type AT&F followed by the ENTER key to reset the modem to it's factory settings. Using these settings along with protocols designed for error correcting modems such as DSZ's Ymodem-G and Xmodem-1K-G or Qmodem's version of Ymodem-G I have achieved file transfer speeds in the 1100 - 1150 cps range on a regular basis using both 286 and 386 systems. HOW IT DOES IT: --------------- 19200HST starts by giving the suggested dipswitch settings, which are as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- UP UP DN DN DN UP UP DN UP UP These settings will do the following to your modem: 1 UP - DTR is controlled by software 2 UP - Send verbal result codes 3 DN - Result codes are displayed 4 DN - Local echo of commands is suppressed 5 DN - Auto Answer Suppressed 6 UP - Do not force carrier detect 7 UP - Single phone line connection (RJ-11) 8 DN - AT command set enabled 9 UP - Hang up when escape code is sent 10 UP- Load from NRAM in power up It then will reset your modems internal NRAM settings to the original factory defaults. Next it sends the following settings to the modem's non-volitile memory: ATS7=60E0M0X7 S7=60 - Number of seconds modem waits for carrier E0 - Local echo off M0 - Speaker Off (can be overidden by putting M1 in your modem program's initialization string) X7 - Result code option (OK, CONNECT, RING, NO CARRIER, ERROR, CONNECT, NO DIAL TONE, BUSY, NO ANSWER, RINGING, VOICE) Once this string is received it sends the following additional settings: AT&H3&R2&S1&B1&K0&W &H3 - Hardware and software control &R2 - Received data output to terminal on RTS high &S1 - Modem controls DSR &B1 - Lock port at speed setting (19200) &K0 - Disable data compression (override with &K1 in modem initialization string) &W - Write these settings to non-volitile RAM (NRAM). After running this program, you should go into the setup portion of your modem program (Qmodem, Procomm or whatever) and change the modem initialization string to ATZ followed by whatever character that program uses to send a carriage return (Qmodem uses a { Procomm uses a !). DATA COMPRESSION? ----------------- The HST has a setting for "Data Compression". 19200HST turns this off because I've found that when the HST tries to compress a file that is already compressed, such as an .ARC file that it will slow the transfer down considerably. Text Files and compiler listings that are not compressed will go at blinding speeds, but in the real BBS world it's rare to find files in the download sections that aren't in some sort of compressed form. If your application finds you downloading mostly un-compressed files then you may want to put &K1 in your modem initilization string. Otherwise, leave it alone and you will see a marked increase in performance. TIPS 'N' TRICKS: ---------------- If you want to overide any of the NRAM settings that I have written in the program, you can either do by placing the replacement commands in the modem initialization string, or by going into the terminal mode of your modem software and typing those commands followed by AT&W. It is highly recommended that you use a high performance protocol driver such as DSZ by Chuck Foresberg. The registered version of DSZ includes YMODEM-G and Xmodem-1K-G protocols which should yield the highest possible CPS ratings under this setup. The current versions of many popular modem programs have built-in versions of Xmodem-1K-G (called Ymodem-G in some versions) which will yield excellent speed, but won't allow batch mode downloading that true Ymodem-G from the DSZ program features. Zmodem will give 1000-1100 cps on properly configured systems. Zmodem is featured in non-registered versions of DSZ that are available on most BBS systems. Avoid using Xmodem, Ymodem, WXmodem, Kermit, Jmodem or other protocols that rely on software error checking when you are connected to another HST at the fixed 19200 bps rate. These protocols will give you between 400-900 cps. One reason I wrote this program was that I see people night after night calling with HST modems improperly configured and getting transfer speeds of 400 cps. SUPPORT: -------- As stated above, this is a free program. You will probably use it once, then throw it away and forget all about me. That's fine, but at least when you call my BBS at 19200 you won't be getting 400 cps! Updates to 19200HST are always available on my BBS, The Ledge PCBoard, which is listed at the top of this file. Although you can't download from my file directory on the first call, you will be able to open the SUPPORT door and download any of the programs that I've written, or any third party programs (such as DSZxxxx.ARC) that are mentioned in this file. My support door DOES have Xmodem-1K-G (Ymodem-G) so if you are looking for a place to test...come on!