TFPCX Version 2.73 (21 March 1999)

                       by Henk de Groot, PE1DNN

              Based on TFPCX 2.21 by René Stange, DG0FT
                    Based on TF27b by NORD><LINK




Preamble
  In 1997 DG0FT published his work under the GNU General Public  License
  and  stopped  maintaining  the   code.  Although  this  TFPCX   worked
  reasonably it was not suitable for  use with DAMA stations.  The  work
  used an  old version  of TheFirmware  by NORD><LINK.  In the  next few
  years the Dutch  packet network will  be converted to  use DAMA. There
  are still a lot of stations using TFPCX and therefore it seems to be a
  good idea to exchange the TheFrimware version in TFPCX for the  latest
  version, which is TF27b.

  There is an alternative to TFPCX  which is TFX by DB7KG. But  they are
  not quite  the same.  Strong benefit  of TFPCX  is the possibility  to
  use different modems at  the same time (different  independent ports).
  Some of  the modem implementations  of TFX are  better but for  others
  the TFPCX implementations are  better. Also exchanging this TFPCX  for
  the existing older TFPCX will  be easier and will  encourage people to
  switch to the newer version - which will be necessary for DAMA.  So  I
  think there is room for both products.

Legal rambling

  The legal status of this product  is a bit strange. Both the  ALAS and
  the  GNU  General   Public License are applicable. This work  shall be
  seen  as  an  aggregate  work   as  defined in the GNU General  Public
  License.  The source code is distributed in such a way that both parts
  are  clearly  distinguishable - therefore we don't allow or deny  any-
  body's  right.  Both  parts   can  be  treated according to their  own
  license.  The resulting executable  has to follow ALAS since  that one
  poses  the most restrictions.  Since the source code is  independently
  available  in  un-merged  form  this does not deny anybody the use  of
  the  part  which  was   under  GNU  GPL control. Before you  burn your
  fingers  to  put  me  right   -  it is highly questionable if the  GNU
  General  Public  License   is applicable to TFPCX anyway; it  contains
  a  big  portion  of   NORD><LINK's  TheFirmware and violates the  ALAS
  license  which  was  applicable   for  it. Anyway this is the  current
  situation  and  if  you   want  to  know  more, read  both LICENSE.DOC
  and ALAS.TXT and contact your lawyer.

  73s Henk, PE1DNN                              Apeldoorn, 21 March 1999

Changes from Version 2.72:

- TFPCX 2.72 was used to test all the changes from version 2.71. TFPCX
  2.73 consolidates all the changes and is a stable release version.

- Removed the Poll/Final bit from the last infoframe transmission,
  causes "bumper-QSO's" and did not help much otherwise.
  Retained '-SB' switch

- Updated the documentation. Changes with respect to version 2.71 (last
  stable release) are annotated by a | in the first column.

Changes from Version 2.71:

- Added -SB switch. To be used on bad links. It adds an RR+ after the
  last I frame transmission. This increases the probability that the
  link-partner will notice the poll since RR frames are smaller than I
  frames and therefore more likely to be received okay.

- Added Poll/Final bit to the last I frame transmission before expecting
  a response from the link-partner.

- When using DAMA slottime is fixed to 10 (100 ms) on KISS ports.

- Corrected error which caused DAMA violations.

- Corrected an error when using DAMA with KISS. The KISS TNC's Persist
  value and Slottime were not being set to appropriate values for DAMA
  operation. Fixed this.

- New "modem": BPQ. Now you can establish a link over Ethernet using a
  FTP software packet-driver.

- Added a switch for frame-sammler. The framesammler in TF27b (and thus
  TFPCX) is not safe when you link-partner uses a Maxframe of 7. Default
  the frame-sammler is now off. To switch it on supply the -SR flag.
  Note that if your link-partner uses a Maxframe of 7 you might loose
  data without noticing it. For lower Maxframe values this is safe.

- Updated the documentation. Changes are annotated by a | in the first
  column.

List of files

  README.TXT     This file

  LICENSE.DOC    License  for KISSINIT  and partly  applicable to  TFPCX
                 GNU General Public License (in English)

  ALAS.TXT       License for TFPCX (since  ALAS is a subset of   GNU-GPL
                 ALAS  is  applicable  -  read  more about  this  in the
                 Preamble)

  TFPCX.EXE      Program (for a 8086/8088 processor)

  TFPCX286.EXE   Program (needs al least a 80286 processor)

  TFPCX.TXT      Documentation of this version of TFPCX

  TFPCX.INI      The example initiation  file for configuration of   the
                 parameters.  Will  only  be  read  when  the  option -F
                 is   present   when   starting   TFPCX.   It   contains
                 settings  for  4  ports  and  should  be  edited before
                 use.

  SETKISS.EXE    Program to activate and deactivate the KISS mode in
                 a TNC (independent from TFPCX).

  SETKISS.INF    Information about SETKISS.EXE

  TF27DOC.LZH    This documentation for TheFirmware TF 2.7b is for
                 a major part applicable for TFPCX. It contains
                 the basic information for TheFirmware and the
                 commands which are not described in the TFPCX
                 documentation (in German).

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