Vfast Technical Reference Manual Page 1 vFAST v1.5 Copyright 1993-94 (c) International TeleCommunications All Rights Reserved Introduction vFAST was designed specifically for v32, v32bis, and vFAST modems. You should not attempt to use vFAST with a 2400 baud modem unless your modem is error correcting. The reason, a single error could produce a resend request for as much as 8192 bytes. It COULD be as little as 256 bytes but the risk of 8192... well that is up to you. vFAST needs ONE of the following: 16550 Uart Intelligent Digiboard (2, 4, 8, or 16 port). Intelligent Stargate. Intelligent Arnet. If you don't have one of the above, well try and see. You MIGHT be able to keep up but I doubt it. vFAST is just what the name implies, a vERY FAST protocol, it'll run circles around Zmodem. vFAST uses DUAL 16 bit CRC's to protect data. Each SHORT block of data has a 16 bit CRC and every 8192 bytes has another 16 bit crc. In short, CRC's inside of CRC's. Just as effective as one single 32 bit crc but has much less CPU overhead. vFAST has RESTART recovery for aborted transfers as well as SKIP for files you ALREADY have. You can ABORT a transfer by pressing ESC. Again, to keep CPU overhead low, we only check the keyboard every 8 to 16K, depending on the status of the RX/TX buffers, so there may be a short delay between the time you press ESC and the program acknowledges the ESC. Once you see the acknowledgment, nothing may appear to happen for upwards of 10 to 12 seconds. vFAST is attempting to clear out the RX buffer and phone lines before exiting, to prevent garbage from spraying all over your screen. Vfast Technical Reference Manual Page 2 Hardware Requirements You need a 386, 486, or Pentium processor. vFast will NOT run on a 8088 or 80286 micro processor. Command Line Switches vFAST supports the following command line switches: -Tx Use Timeslicing when you cannot send or receive anything. x is the TYPE of time slicing. Valid TYPES are: D Desqview O OS-2 W Windows If you use OS-2 or Windows Time Slicing, you must have have DPMI turned on. -Bxxxxx xxxx is the connect baud rate. -Pxxx xxxx is the serial port, 1-4 if using the standard internal driver. -Lxxxx xxxx is Serial LOCK rate, 9600 - 115200. -S Start Sending files. Fnames is the names of the files to send. Each name should be separated by a single blank space. If Fnames is prefixed with an AT sign, @, vFAST will ASSUME Fnames is the name of a SEND control file. E.g. -S @C:\TERM\SEND.CTL SEND.CTL would be a text file listing the files to send, one per line. Drive, path, and DOS wildcards supported. This must be the LAST command line switch used. -D The TYPE of serial driver to use. Valid are: D Digiboard S Stargate A Arnet The default is the internal (Standard DOS type serial ports) highspeed serial driver. Vfast Technical Reference Manual Page 3 -N*N If you're running vFAST as a protocol driver with Osiris XLT, include this switch. -R Begin Receiving, must be the LAST command line switch used. -K Disable Keep Aborted Transfers. The default it to keep all partial transfers. If you use this driver as an external protocol driver for a BBS you'll want to include this on the command line. -U This tells vFAST to place all files you receive in THIS directory. This feature is ONLY available if you register vFAST. -! This tells vFAST to pull the callers name from DOOR.SYS, DOOR1.SYS, DOOR2.SYS, etc. This file must be in DOOR.SYS format and you must supply the full drive, path, AND filename. E.g. -!C:\PCBOARD\DOOR.SYS NOTE: This feature is only available in REGISTERED mode. -W This allows you to redirect the log file to any drive, directory, and file. You must supply the full drive, path, AND filename. E.g. -WC:\PCBOARD\JOHN.LOG NOTE: This feature is only available in REGISTERED mode. -C Lets you reconfigure the IRQ and BASE address for the serial port. IRQ and ADDR are in BASE 10 format. E.g. -C3,744 Command Lines For Sending And Receiving The minimum command line for RECEIVING a file would be something like this: vFAST -B -L -P -R How you pass the parameters will vary depending on your terminal software or bbs software. Check the documentation that came with your terminal or bbs software for specifics. Vfast Technical Reference Manual Page 4 Assuming your BBS/Terminal requires batch files and passes baudrate in %1, port number in %2 then you might use something like this: vfast -B%1 -L57600 -P%2 -R The minimum command line for SENDING a file would be something like this: vFAST -B -L -P -S Notice, and this is VERY important, the space between -S and . If you forget to put a space there, nothing will happen. How you pass the parameters will vary depending on your terminal software or bbs software. Check the documentation that came with your terminal or bbs software for specifics. Assuming your BBS/Terminal passes baudrate in %1, port number in %2, and the name of the file in %3, then you might use something like this: vfast -B%1 -L57600 -P%2 -S %3 Examples of how to install vfast.exe with Osiris XLT Example of an Osiris XLT Rcv cmdline: VFAST -B*B -L*L -N*N -P*P -K -R Example of an Osiris XLT Send cmdline: VFAST -B*B -L*L -N*N -P*P -S @*U Sample Batch Files For BBSes The requirements are clearly outlined above. If you need help installing vfast do not ask us. You should contact the people that designed your BBS software. We will only answer questions directly related to vFAST itself. Shareware vFAST is shareware. Meaning you can use it for up to 30 days without registering it. When you finish your download, or uploads, the shareware version will pause for 10 seconds. Registering vFAST removes this delay and enables the -U switch. vFAST Order Form Send $15.00 (US Currency) to: International TeleCommunications 302 W. Mckinley Poplar Bluff Mo. 63901-6372 United States Of America Register To (___________________________________) A registration key will be placed on our BBS at (314) 686- 0120 in file area #15. The key will be password protected so only YOU can download it. To reach this area, press F at the MAIN menu. When you reach the file area, press A then enter 15 and press RETURN. What Password do you want to use? (________)