BGFAX is a small, and powerful send/receive fax program that can work on its own, or together with BBS or FidoNet mailer software. It's small enough to fit on a tiny Palmtop computer, and powerful enough to send hundreds of faxes per day. It is the only fax program that comes with a DOS, OS/2, and Win32 (95/NT) version in the same package. Development started in 1993. Have you had a hard time getting in contact with me? My e-mail address and phone numbers have changed! New e-mail address: bgfax@blkbox.com New voice telephone number: +1-281-893-9320 New BBS/FAX telephone number: +1-713-507-9620 (33600 and ISDN) See our site on the world wide web: http://www.blkbox.com/~bgfax/ You can grab the fully functional shareware version of BGFAX from the web! Changes between BGFAX 1.70 and BGFAX 1.60 SAT 1 MARCH 97 ========================================= ============== This 1.70 release has been in the works since June of 1996! Numerous bugs have been fixed and numerous features have been added. More than 130 changes exist between 1.70 and 1.60. We will only list the major changes in this file. To see the itemized list of all changes, open your web browser and load http://www.blkbox.com/~bgfax/info/new160b.txt Version 1.70 introduces the new BGFAX32.EXE, 32-bit console executable for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Works great with Wildcat 5. See WC5.TXT. Also, introducing POLYFAX.EXE the easy to use fax broadcasting program. See POLYFAX.DOC for more details. Remember that you should only send faxes to people you have a prior business relationship to, otherwise you can face a fine of up to $500 per incident (in the United States). The Win32 version will need a new serial number ($10 upgrade) if you bought BGFAX *before* August 1, 1996. The DOS and OS/2 versions will still work with your existing serial number (once you re-run the registration procedure.) ___________________________________ Changes in BGFAX (DOS, OS/2, Win32) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. BGFAX can now send faxes in a one-step process instead of the two-step (MAKEFAX first, then BGFAX). The old way still works. Now, you can simply do "BGFAX /SEND filename phonenumber" where filename no longer has to be a FAX formatted file. BGFAX will read the first two bytes of the file, and if it does not detect a TIFF-F, QLII, or ZFAX signature, it will shell to MAKEFAX.EXE (or MAKEFAX2.EXE if you are running BGFAX2.EXE). If you want to pass MAKEFAX parameters such as whether to use high resolution, etc., use a dash ("-") in front of any commands on the BGFAX command line that you want to be passed to MAKEFAX. e.g., bgfax /send hello.txt 555-1212 /c1 -sp /sp:2 -hr The above would first shell MAKEFAX.EXE with the following parameters -SP -HR, and then would send the output fax file forcing Class 1 (/C1) mode and starting on Page #2 (/SP:2) (BGFAX32 will still shell to the DOS MAKEFAX.EXE since it works very well under Windows 95.) 2. Class 1 now supports SUPERFINE resolution. (About 400 dpi, double that of "high" resolution.) Superfine support has been tested with my handy, dandy Murata M920 fax machine which supports the R8*15.4 addition to the T.30 standard that was added in March of 1993. As far as I know, no other fax program (shareware or commericial) can use Superfine mode--so you'll be limited to fax machines made around 1994 or later that use Superfine. Superfine requires Class 1 mode to be used, since Class 2 and 2.0 do not support superfine. Also, it requires either TIFF-F file format. 3. BGFAX /SEND mode now allows manual dials from telephone with a phone number of "MAN" ... BGFAX /SEND filename.fax MAN This will cause BGFAX to use the dial string defined by MS= in the BGFAX.CNF file rather than the normal DS= dial string. The defaults will be MS=ATX1DT The "X1" is the standard Hayes-compatible modem command which tells the modem to only use some response codes--the main effect for BGFAX's purposes is that it shuts off dialtone detection in the modem. This is useful if you want to send a fax where you have to call VOICE first, and then they tell you to hit your "START" button to begin sending the fax, after you already have to dial through a voicemail jungle, or a calling card touch-tone nightmare. Process: (a) Send using... BGFAX /SEND filename.fax MAN BGFAX will prepare to send and ask you to hit any key to begin (b) With your voice phone, which should be connected to the back of the modem, dial the telephone number (c) After going through the voicemail jungle, when you here the voice tell you "Press your 'start' key now to send the fax, then hit any key... 4. New command line switch: /SM:nnn_xxxx_yyyy Shell-to-Mailer mode (DOS version only) See BGFAX.DOC for more information. 5. BGFAX now honors and frames when sending in Class 1 mode. If the remote fax device gives BGFAX a frame after sending the document, BGFAX will retrain, and then RE-SEND the page. (RTN means the page was received, but was of "unsatisfactory" quality--probably too much line noise). BGFAX will NEVER send the same page more than two lines, though, even if another is received after the re-sent page. If an frame is encountered, BGFAX will simply retrain, then go on to the next page. (RTP means the page was received, was of "acceptable" quality, but we should probably retrain anyway--probably a small hint of line noise was detected, enough to throw off a dozen scan lines out of 1000, but not enough to cripple the received image.) 6. BGFAX/2 and BGFAX32 send mode now supports use of /HW switch. (Hardware flow control) 7. Two new executables are included, FAXDOWN.EXE and FAXDOWN2.EXE. These are useful for people running BGFAX in /HOST mode under OS/2, Windows, or DesqView, and, for some reason (such as dialing your internet provider), you need to shut down the node. You can run the FAXDOWN.EXE if you are using DV, Windows, or OS/2, or the FAXDOWN2.EXE if OS/2. These programs will send the shutdown command to BGFAX and then wait for BGFAX to actually finish shutting down. (BGFAX must be in idle /HOST mode waiting for a call, or FAXDOWN will never terminate.) You can abort FAXDOWN by pressing the key. FAXDOWN is multitasker friendly and will release the approximate timeslice back to the OS while waiting for BGFAX to shut down. "FAXDOWN" (or "FAXDOWN2") without any parameters will cause BGFAX (or BGFAX2 or BGFAX32) to exit with an errorlevel of 0. If you need to make BGFAX exit with a different errorlevel (for automation purposes), do "FAXDOWN nnn" where "nnn" is the errorlevel. (e.g., "FAXDOWN 45" will make BGFAX shutdown and exit with errorlevel 45.) The FAXDOWN.EXE must be in your main BGFAX directory or it will not function correctly. ____________________________________ Changes in fax viewer VIEW.EXE (DOS) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. VIEW.EXE now supports the old Hercules video modes (720x352), use a /HERC switch to use it (VIEW /HERC). This is useful for people using old computer equipment, and for those using OS/2 or Windows in a dual-monitor environment. 2. Added tagging feature to VIEW so that batches of files can be tagged for printing at once. (Press to tag a fax at the fax file listing screen.) When you press Ctrl-Enter to print, VIEW will ask you for confirmation on whether you really want to print all tagged faxes. If no faxes are tagged, it will print the currently highlighted. 3. New feature in VIEW.EXE. At the file listing screen showing all the fax files, you can press Alt-M (or Alt-R) for the Move/Rename feature. You will be prompted to enter a new filename. You can also stick in a new path in front of the filename (i.e., "\SAVE\FAXES\1996\TEST1.FAX") 4. The Alt-S function in VIEW.EXE (shrink, squeeze) for all modes has been rewritten in assembler. Alt-S now functions 2 to 5 times faster than the previous version. On 486 and Pentiums, you probably will not be able to notice much of a difference, but on older 386s and slower machines, the difference is quite evident. 5. VIEW.EXE will now create a "DODCX.BAT" file when doing FAX -> DCX conversions. (Version 1.60 added the DOPCX.BAT, but it was brought to my attention that a DODCX.BAT would be useful as well so that you can pass the actual filename to your OCR applications.) _________________________________ Changes in MAKEFAX (DOS and OS/2) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Rewrote about 50% of MAKEFAX to use a faster algorithm for converting ASCII to fax format. The new MAKEFAX runs twice as fast as the previous version. In later versions, the new alogithm can be easily converted into assembly to provide even better speed. Took me about three weeks to make the drastic change, so I hope the extra speed is worth it. 2. MAKEFAX now creates TIFF-Class-F formatted files instead of ZFAX formatted files. This allows BGFAX /SEND mode to bypass the "analysis" phase that occured before BGFAX would send the fax. On slower computers, the analysis phase could sometimes take a LONG time, so this modification should be helpful to our Palmtop friends. 3. MAKEFAX changed so that it honors TAB character expansion. It mimics the behavior of laser printers and DOS, where the next tab will occur on the next character position whose's modulo 8 = 1. (9, 17, 25, 33, etc.) 4. MAKEFAX.EXE has new switch /LM:nn for "Left Margin". The default is a left margin of "zero" (technically not "zero", but the same margin that all previous versions of MAKEFAX have used.) MAKEFAX hello.txt output.fax /LM:10 Would, when converting ASCII files to FAX format, indent each line of text 10 spaces over. 5. MAKEFAX.EXE has new switch /A4 for metric A4 paper size This simply tells MAKEFAX to use 69 lines per page instead of 66 lines per page when converting ASCII to FAX. (/A4 is equivilant to PL:66) #############################################################################