by Charles Brabham N5PVL
This article describes the setup of a Win95 computer with FlexNet. The computer used for this is a 33Mhz 486dx, with 16MB RAM , VGA, and a 420MB HD.
In this particular setup, the FlexNet driver in the Win95 computer will run a single port, a 19200kb fulldup serial KISS link to another machine running DOS and FlexDigi. The second machine handles all the Radio ports.
In your case, it may be better to substitute the driver for your TNC instead of the KISS link driver shown here. All other particulars should be the same as shown.
I started off with a new install of DOS 6.12 and Win95 on a freshly formatted hard-drive.
The first thing to do is to get a copy of the software at the FlexNet web-site:
FlexNet Home Page
http://www.afthd.tu-darmstadt.de/~flexnet/
The Flexnet page has information about the FlexNet E-mail support list, the Win95 version of FlexNet, and there is also a link called "Downloading Information". Click this and when it comes up, read the information there carefully, then go on to the "Directory Page".
PC FlexNet is modular in design, which means that you only use the program modules needed for your particular setup. This results in a smaller, easier to expand and modify suite of program modules rather than having one large, bug-prone and hard to de-bug program that "does it all".
From the Directory page, download the following files:
PCF.LZH
This file contains the kernel, as well as several utilities used for setting up and operation. It also contains the docs.
KISS.LZH
This is the KISS driver module for a serial link to another computer. It is not intended for use with KISS TNC's.
BCT.LZH
This is a nice packet terminal, a port of the BayComTerm program to FlexNet.
FLEX95.LZH
This contains the software for incorporating FlexNet into Win95.
After downloading the files, create a new directory named C:\FLEX , and decompress the files "PCF.LZH", "BCT.LZH", and "KISS.LZH" into the new directory using the LHA.EXE file compression/decompression utility. The command is: LHA E [filename.lzh] as in: LHA E PCF.LZH
One general rule in a FlexNet Win95 installation is that you should first get FlexNet operating properly in MS-DOS mode before trying to get it to work with Win95.
Once I had Win95 up and running to my satisfaction, I went to the START button, and chose SHUT DOWN, then RESTART IN MS-DOS MODE.
Soon, I was looking at a blank screen with a C:\ prompt.
At this point, there isn't much left to do. A batch file FLEXUP.BAT must be created which will call and load the program modules, then set the station parameters. This is a good time to become familiar with the docs.
Don't panic! The first half of this file is in German, but halfway down, the entire thing is repeated in English. What I do is put FLEXNET.DOC into a text editor and delete the German part, then save the file.
There is an example batch file in FLEXNET.DOC which will work for my purpose with very little modification, so I cut 'n pasted that part of the docs into FLEXUP.BAT, then modified it to look like this:
LH FLEXNET 80 if errorlevel 1 goto end LH KISS 2 if errorlevel 1 goto error FLEX FSET mode 0 19200d 19.2kb, fulldup FSET txd 0 0 TXDELAY at 0 ms. for the serial link. goto end :error FLEX /u :end
That's it. The batch file uses the FSET.EXE utility to tell FlexNet what speed to transmit at, and set the TXDELAY to suit the link.
All other TNC parameters such as FRACK, PACLEN, MAXFRAME, RESPTIME, PPERSIST, and so on, are all automagically adjusted as you operate by the software, so you don't have to worry about them.
This would be a good time to look carefully at FLEXNET.DOC, being sure that you understand what each line of the batch file does.
In theory, you should now be able to set up the config file "INIT.BCT" for the "BCT" terminal program, and then use BCT to test the software and be sure all is well. Once you have FlexNet working in MS-DOS mode, you are ready to get it going with Win95 as well.
Unpack the file FLEX95.LZH" into a temporary directory, using the LHA.EXE program again. You will get the following files:
AXROUTE.DLL
FLXAPI32.DLL
FLXPARMS.DLL
FLXTRACE.DLL
MSVERT.DLL
FLEXNET.VXD
FLEXCTL.EXE
All of these except FLEXCTL.EXE should be moved into: C:\Windows\System\
FLEXCTL.EXE should go into: C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\
At this point, you should use the EXIT command to leave MS-DOS mode and return to Win95. Once Win95 has come up, edit the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file for Win95 to call up the "FLEXUP.BAT" file, like this:
CALL C:\FLEX\FLEXUP.BAT
Now you should restart Win95. When you do, the FlexCTL panel should appear onscreen, then minimize itself into the right corner of the Win95 TaskBar. To test the interface, right-click the desktop and choose "New" from the menu that appears. From "New", choose "Shortcut", and when asked for the Command Line, enter: C:\FLEX\BCT.EXE
This will allow you to test the interface with "BCT". It should work just as well as it did in MS-DOS mode.
"BCT" is, sadly, the only decent term program that interfaces directly with FlexNet. There are, however, a number of programs that are designed to work with the WA8DED command set that the "TF-Emulator", TFEMU.EXE will allow you to interface to FlexNet. These include "Super Packet", "Graphic Packet", "F6FBB BBS", and others.
To use one of these, TFEMU.LZH should be downloaded from the FlexNet web site as described above, then decompressed in the C:\FLEX directory. Finally, TFEMU should be called from within the FLEXUP.BAT file, as shown below:
LH FLEXNET 80 if errorlevel 1 goto end LH KISS 2 if errorlevel 1 goto error FLEX FSET mode 0 19200d 19.2kb, fulldup FSET txd 0 0 TXDELAY at 0 ms. for the serial link. LH TFEMU -b=0x8000 TFEMU with 8k buffer specified goto end :error FLEX /u :end
Good luck, and have fun!