Re: question on Standards for files

[CUTblakeney@home.com (Jeff Blakeney)]

On Tue, 11 Jan 2000 18:01:34 GMT, god23@heaven.org (Bart) wrote:

>I am not quite sure what MUG! is,  A utility of some kind I assume.   next:

MUG! stands for MS-DOS Utilities Graphic !nterface.  It is an NDA (New
Desk Accessory that you access from the Apple menu of desktop
applications) that allows you to format, read and write to/from MS-DOS
formatted disks provided you have hardware that supports this.

The MS-DOS FST that is included with System 6.0.1 can only read MS-DOS
floppies and still requires you to have the proper hardware.

Proper floppy hardware would be a PCTransporter with a PC style 3.5",
PC style 5.25" or an Apple 3.5 Drive attached, a SuperDrive (high
density 3.5" drive) connected to a SuperDrive controller, or a some
kind of SCSI drive that can support 720k and 1.44M floppies (ie. a
floptical or LS-120).

For other drives that are only accessable by MUG!, you need a SCSI
card to connect pretty much any kind of drive up to.  It might even
work with the IDE controllers that are available for the Apple IIs and
IDE drives but I've never heard of anyone trying it.

These options aren't the only way to transfer files but it sure makes
it quicker if you have the right hardware.

>Jeff Speaking as a new (re)convert to the II world who through LOTS of effort
>finally got ADT to work, and it seems the easiest means I have so far found 
>for transfer, and as I have yet to get ANY of the other things to work 
>consistently, that is why my suggestion.  

Well, others here already know my opinion on downloading most of the
disk images that are available on the net right now so I won't go into
that.  Almost everything I download are files (SHK, BXY, BSQ or other
multi-platform formats) and ADT can't transfer those.  In fact, I've
never used ADT.

>Null modem is so far my ONLY option and NONE of the // dial up packages seem 
>to work (I  cannot find a zmodem protocol, and none of the kermit/xmodem ones 
>work).  

I didn't get the SCSI card in my PC, the Jaz or EZ135 drives until
about four months ago.  Up until then, I transfered everything I
downloaded on my PC to my IIgs using a null modem.  I use
HyperTerminal in Windows 95 and pretty much any Apple II
communications program but I usually use Spectrum.

The biggest problem you can encounter here is an improperly wired null
modem cable.  I used to use a modem cable on the PC connected to a
gender gender connected to a null modem adapter connected to a modem
cable on my IIgs.  Unfortunately, this didn't give me hardware
handshaking so I sometimes got errors during transfers.  I have since
made my own cable that goes from my IIgs to my PC's modem cable and
that has helped.

You can still transfer stuff even if you only have the transmit,
receive and signal grounds connected between machines.  You need to
turn off hardware handshaking and enable software flow control
(XON/XOFF) to avoid overflow problems.

If you want to use ZModem and don't own one of the commercial Apple II
communications program, try to find Modem Mgr as it has ZModem
support.

By the way, when you had your machines null modemed together, did you
try typing on both machines to make sure the data showed up at the
other end?  If you don't, then there is a problem with your cabling or
the ports are set to different speeds, data, stop, or parity bits.

If you are still having problems, we'll need more specific information
about how you are connecting your PC to your Apple II, what programs
you are using on each end and what exactly you are doing that doesn't
work right.

>I am just tryin to figgure this thingy out.........

Well, you are sure to find lots of Apple II users that will be willing
to help you figure it out.  :-)

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| Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro on Delphi     |
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