Shareware Communication Software - The 3 Big Ones

The brain behind the brawn

It is the software that makes a powerful PC, and things aren't any different on the data communication front. While your modem may be the latest and greatest, with a zillion bits per second and industry-strength data compression, it is going to sit there on your desk quietly occupying space and being thoroughly unproductive, unless you tell it to do something useful. And to tell it something, you need to be able to talk to it. You do that with datacommunication software. Now, before I set out, I have to apologise to the Macintosh, Unix and Amiga users out there - I am going to talk strictly DOS and Intel-based PCs here. Not that there aren't any great packages available on your platforms - it is just that I have enough trouble keeping up with the PC side of things.

Long ago and far, far away...

When I stepped into this facinating world of communications, the de-facto communcation software in use was good old Crosstalk. It was great - you could talk to the modem and through it to other modems and you could transfer files. It wasn't sold here, but in those days nothing was, so my copy was pirated. Sure, things took time. Crosstalk wasn't the easiest software to use, and the file transfer protocols it supported weren't state-of-the-art, but it was functional. Crosstalk supported Xmodem, Kermit and a proprietory protocol, plus half a dozen terminal emulations, but that was it. But it worked, and for a long time, I couldn't think of using anything else. I had a short romance with PC-Talk - a shareware comms package written in BASIC, but we soon parted company. If you are a student of ancient history, pick it off your nearest BBS. What really was the issue here was that I didn't know what makes a good communication package, since at 1200 bps, you weren't really asking questions. As I progressed, though, things began to take different hues. One does begin to ask questions when you use a 2400 bps modem, but can transfer files at effectively 1200 bps. One starts asking bigger questions when you just got to see drab screens with no colour and sound. And one really sits up when your software starts bombing at high speed. So I set out to find something better.

Evolving feature greed

What was I looking for ? Well, ease of use was obviously a major factor, but I was also looking at speed, reliability and features. One of the first features I looked for was support for a variety of file transfer protocols. Xmodem and Kermit were too slow and under-featured. What I wanted was support for faster protocols, which allowed me to transfer more than one file to my machine in one swoop, without having to supply all the file names again this side. Ymodem Batch had just made an appearance, and it just had to be there. Then I wanted this new-fangled thing called ANSI graphics, that allowed the remote host to clear my screen and change colours on my terminal. This meant that my dream package had to have terminal emulation support, and I wanted lots of emulations. I also wanted support for scripts, so that I could automate some aspects. I finally found DataStorm's Procomm 2.4.2 - a shareware comms package that covered my wishlist pretty nicely. For a while, it was a marriage made in heaven. Procomm and I were a perfect team, until I got my first 2400 bps MNP modem and started having crashed file transfers when my serial port was set to 9600 bps. Investigation showed that the issue was flow control, and Procomm 2.4.2 didn't have any settings for that. I dug around and finally got an updated version - 2.4.3 - which supported hardware flow control and also this high-speed protocol called Ymodem-G Batch. This was 1988 or thereabouts. A year or two later, I was getting greedy. I wanted more - much more. In particular, I wanted Zmodem, that wonderful file transfer protocol that was as fast as Ymodem-G batch, but as robust as a Sherman tank. I also wanted a more powerful script language, external file transfer protocols, scroll back, a Host Mode, etc. So I coughed up some money, and got myself my first legal comms package - Procomm Plus 2.0. By now, I was deep into the development of a communications host, and wanted something industrial strength and standard that I could use for testing my Mona Lisa.

End of a romance

Procomm Plus 2.x, even today, is one of the best known comms packages, and with good reason. PCPLUS (as it is known) has everything but the kitchen sink, but you can write a script to fix that. It has Zmodem, hardware flow control, a functional host mode, a built-in editor, and much more. The script language is powerful, very much like C in some aspects, very much like BASIC in others. For a long time, PCPLUS was my favourite battle-axe. I (for a short time) played with the idea of writing something like this myself, but the sight of PCPLUS is an awe-inspiring one - not a very easy act to follow. And as time progressed, I found myself in a quandry.

Going the ShareWare way...

For one, more people were getting into communications. They needed software, and I hated the idea of them using pirated stuff. PCPLUS in India costs a phenomenal (and completely unreasonable) Rs.8000++ - the combination of a short-sighted customs policy (recently rectified) and a seemingly greedy local vendor. Few people (if any) bought it here - they pirated it. The other problem was that of specialisation. There were certain communication scenarios where even Procomm Plus was useless. For example, non-MNP modems. There were plenty of these obnoxious curses on mankind around, and there were a lot of people who deemed datacomm in India unfeasible because of the junk they saw on their screens. The other angle of specialisation was Compuserve. I was getting very deep into this, and saw Dollars flowing like speeches during an election campaign. I needed something that got me up to speed, and that didn't cost too much because I wanted others to have it, too. So I set out to find myself yet another datacomm package, but this time there wasn't any one package that could handle all these factors. Finally, things settled down to three packages.

General Data Communcation

The pirated software angle was solved when I came across the mmmmarvellous Telix 3.21. This amazingingly feature rich package had everything that Procomm Plus had, plus an absolutely great Host mode (a fully functional BBS !) and, unlike Procomm Plus 2.0, it didn't have a problem talking at speeds higher than 19200. It was "commfortable" even at 115200 bps ! The script language was compilable, so there was no speed loss because of interpretation, and it was so much like C that one could learn it in a jiffy (if one knew C). For those who (rightly so) thought of C as a language fit only for nerds and corporate job hunters, there was another script language called SIMPLE that lived up to its name. And Telix is shareware, meaning that you can try it before you pay the ridiculously low registration fee of $39 (or about Rs.1200). It was freely distributable, came with a whoppingly detailed manual, and was simply great. PCPLUS was banished from my hard disk forever, and I recommend use of Telix for all general communcation activities. Pick it off my BBS (COM forum, TLX321-1.ZIP, TLX321-2.ZIP, TLX321-3.ZIP and TLX321-4.ZIP) or any BBS near you. Use it, love it, pay the shareware fee - the authors deserve it.

Software for Non-MNP Modems

Yes, these terrible pieces of equipment actually still exist. Non-MNP modems are those modems that have either been bought a long time ago or were recently sold by some corrupt, uncaring cheat who conned the customer into buying them on the basis of the customer's ignorance of such matters. Since error correction (MNP or V.42) is necessary for communication in India, there had to be some way of getting around this, and the answer is Odyssey 2.0. Ody (as it is affectionately called) is a regular communications program with a twist - it provides software-based MNP if your modem doesn't have error correction. It is very well equipped with all the things one needs for communication, including Zmodem, terminal emulators and a script language. Our editor PKR swears by Ody, even though all his modems have built-in error correction ! One potential problem, though - Ody (like all software MNP emulators) used the public domain MNP2 error correction standard. Recently introduced high speed modems (like the ZyXEL, for example) no longer implement this protocol because it is obsolete - locking out non-error correcting modem users with Ody. Also, Ody (when emulating MNP) does not work very well on long distance lines. Ody, like Telix, is shareware, so you can try-before-you-buy. It is available on most BBSs.

Compuserve Communication

Compuserve is the place to be connected to (as many of my articles must have told you), but it is expensive. The longer you stay on, the more money you spend. If you use regular communication software like Telix, you'll find yourself piling up a massive bill in no time flat. Along comes a knight in shining armour, in the form of Steve Sneed and his OzCIS 2.0. OzCIS is a communication program that is dedicated to Compuserve-usage. It needs at least a '286 based machine with 2MB of FREE RAM, but once you get it up and going, you won't know how you have ever lived without it. OzCIS takes all your "orders" from you before it connects to Compuserve, then goes online and rips through the requested actions and logs off before you realise what has happened. My Compuserve bill dropped so fast that I, in sheer awe, went and registered my copy of OzCIS twice because I felt that the $20 asked for was far too little. This software miracle requires that you use a MNP/V.42 based modem, so make sure you have one. You also (of course) require a Compuserve account and preferably an INET account. To use OzCIS on INET you need a special script which you can pick off my BBS, but you cannot get OzCIS from there. Steve has (very rightly so) prohibited distribution of OzCIS via BBSs, though you may take a copy from a friend or download it from Compuserve or order it from him directly. The reason why he does not allow distribution via BBSs is because BBSs tend to strip things down to the bare minimum to save download time, causing support havoc if a vital file is missing. And OzCIS is BIG - the ZIP file alone crosses 1 MB ! For file transfers to and from Compuserve, OzCIS uses only the CIS B+ protocol, which is found only on Compuserve and is specifically designed to work with it. It isn't as fast as Zmodem, but does have crash recovery and auto-download/upload.

Winding up

Check your hard disk and see what you are using for communications. If you don't have any of the above programs, make sure you get them. All three are highly recommended for their intended purpose, and will serve you well. Notice that I didn't cover any Windows-based programs. That has a reason - Windows isn't really meant for communications - it tops out at 19200 bps terminal speed (which is far too low these days) and is highly unreliable to boot when it comes to servicing COM ports. Stay clear of anything under Windows until things become more stable (such as a new version of Windows) or until you switch to OS/2 2.1 (which is a communicator's heaven).