rackland@csis.dit.csiro.au (Ross Ackland) (05/15/91)
I have been using a lowcost fax card (Nichetek ATFAX) for some time now and have found the file transfer facility particularly useful. These cards cost about AUS$300 (from Taiwan) which makes 9600 baud file transfer quite cheap. Also, I have been able to obtain the driver interface to this card (running under DOS) to allow me to develop my own user interface. It has calls like: send_fax, poll_for_incoming_fax, send_file, poll_rec_file, etc... I now want to add a facility to allow the cards to be used in a Bulletin Board setup. The driver interface will need to be enhanced to allow for things like connect_request, connect_accept, send_packet, receive_packet, clear_request, and appropriate flow control for the V.29 half duplex interface used by the fax card. So, a user with one of these cards could send/rec faxes as well as dialing up a private BBS to get mail, upload/download files etc. Before I put my driver interface enhancements to the manufacturer I thought it would be a good idea to post this on the net. Are there existing low cost cards that already have this facility? Am I heading towards a low cost WAN, but going about it the wrong way? Could someone suggest a starting point for a protocol specification to be used for the driver interface (eg variation of NetBios, IP, X.25) ?? Any ideas or suggestions welcomed! Ross Ackland ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet : rackland@csis.dit.csiro.au Voice : +61-6-2750911 Fax : +61-6-2571052 Physical : CSIRO Division of Information Technology, GPO Box 664, Canberra ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~