Q139543: Infrared Data Association Relnotes.doc File (Part 2 of 2)
Article: Q139543
Product(s): Microsoft Windows 95.x Retail Product
Version(s): 95
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s): win95
Last Modified: 17-DEC-2000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Windows 95
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY
=======
This information is a copy of the information in the Relnotes.doc file included
with the Microsoft Windows 95 Infrared Communications Driver version 1.0.
MORE INFORMATION
================
---------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Windows 95 Infrared Communications Driver
Version 1.0
Release Notes
---------------------------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=================
Road Map for Installing and Using the IR Communications Driver
Step 1. Installing the IR Communications Driver
Step 2. Validating the IR Communications Driver Installation
Printing to an IR-Capable Printer
Exchanging Data Between Two Computers
Step 3. Running Other IR-Capable Applications
An Optional Step: Removing the IR Communications Driver
Notes on Running the Direct Cable Connection Application Over an IR Link
Preparing to use DCC
Making Sure DCC Is Installed on Both Computers
(Optional) Installing DCC
Establishing and Using the DCC IR Link Between Host and Guest
IR Communications Driver Components
IR Adapter Manufacturer Names and Addresses
ROAD MAP FOR INSTALLING AND USING THE IR COMMUNICATIONS DRIVER
==============================================================
You must carry out a three-step process to use the IR communications
driver:
1. Install the Windows 95 IR Communications driver.
2. Validate the installation by using an application to transfer data over
the IR link.
3. Start running other communicating applications over the IR link.
After you install the driver, you can remove it at any time by
running the Windows 95 Control Panel Add/Remove Programs feature.
Each of these steps, including the driver removal step, is presented
in detail below.
Step 1. Installing the IR Communications Driver
-----------------------------------------------
NOTE: You must always remove any previously installed version of the IR
communications driver every time you install the driver. For
example, if you have an earlier (Beta) version of the IR
communications driver already installed you must remove it before
you install Version 1.0. You may also need to remove an installation
of the Version 1.0 driver. For example, if you change the IR adapter
model that is connected to your computer, you must remove the
installed IR communications driver and reinstall it, specifying the
new IR adapter type. Instructions for removing the IR communications
driver are in "An Optional Step: Removing the IR Communications
Driver."
To install the IR communications driver, do the following:
a. Click the Start button and select the Run option.
b. In the Run dialog, open the Setup program (SETUP.EXE) from the Infrared
setup location. After the Setup program copies some files, it starts
the Add Infrared Device Wizard.
c. When the wizard prompts you to choose a manufacturer's name for your IR
device, choose "(Standard Infrared Devices)" if you have a computer
with a built-in device, or choose the name of the manufacturer and the
model of the adapter if you have an IR adapter attached to the computer.
d. When the wizard prompts you to choose the communications port that the
IR device is physically connected to, click the port from the list. If
you are not certain which physical communications port the IR device is
using, make your best guess.
e. When you are done with the wizard, click the Finish button to complete
the IR device installation. The wizard should have briefly displayed
New Hardware Found messages. If the wizard did not display these
messages, then restart the computer.
f. Activate the IR device by clicking the Start button, pointing to
Settings, and then clicking Control Panel. Double-click the Infrared
icon.
g. If you chose the correct port in Step d., the Infrared Monitor interface
screen appears. If you did not choose the correct port, a message
appears telling you that the port you have chosen is being used by
another program. Click OK. When the Infrared Monitor interface appears,
click the Options tab, and then choose a different communications port
(for example, COM1 instead of COM2). Repeat this step until you have
chosen the correct port.
For general information about how to use the Infrared Monitor, click
the Help button in the lower-right corner of the Infrared Monitor
interface screen. To get information about individual items in the
Infrared Monitor interface, such as check boxes, click the
question-mark (?) button in the upper-right corner of the screen and
then click the item you want information about.
The Options tab of the Infrared Monitor interface contains the
following two particularly useful items:
- The Enable Infrared Communication On check box, which enables and
disables the IR device.
- The Limit Connection Speed To option, which limits the link speed the
IR device can negotiate.
You might want to use the Limit Connection Speed To option if an
adapter is attached to a COM port that is using an 8250 UART instead
of a 16550 UART, or if an adapter is connected to a relatively slow
computer (such as a 386 running at 20 MHz). In these cases, you could
use this option to limit the connection speed to 19.2 Kbps.
Step 2. Validating the IR Communications Driver Installation
------------------------------------------------------------
To validate your IR communications driver installation, you can either:
- Print from an application over an IR link to an IR-capable printer.
- Exchange data between two IR-capable computers over an IR link, using a
communications application.
Printing to an IR-Capable Printer:
If you are testing the printing capability of a Windows 95
application over an IR link to an IrDA-compliant printer such as the
HP 5P, then you need to carry out the installation step for the IR
communications driver on one computer and then try the Print option
in an application. Make sure you have the correct printer driver
installed for your IR-capable printer and that you have selected the
infrared printing port (virtual LPT port) as the printer port. If the
application prints on the IR-capable printer, you have validated the
link.
If you have trouble printing, see "Troubleshooting" for more information.
Exchanging Data Between Two Computers:
To validate a link between two computers running Windows 95, you must
install the IR communications driver on both computers. To do this,
carry out the procedure in "Step 1. Installing the IR Communications
Driver" earlier in this document.
Note that the IR devices on the two computers do not have to be made
by the same manufacturer as long as both devices are IrDA-compliant.
For example, you could have a JetEye PC Infrared PC Interface
(ESI-9680) attached to one desktop computer and an Adaptec AIRport
APA-9320 External Infrared Adapter attached to the other desktop and
the IR link will work.
One way to validate an IR link is to run the HyperTerminal
application on both computers and send characters from the keyboard
of each computer over the IR link. HyperTerminal is installed on a
Windows 95 computer as part of the typical installation that is
recommended for most computers. To validate your installation of the
IR driver on both computers, carry out the following procedure:
a. On both computers, click the Start button, point to Settings, and then
click the Control Panel. Double-click the Infrared icon. Then move the
IR devices within 3 feet of each other, and make sure they're pointing
at each other. When the two IR devices discover each other, the message
"Available infrared devices in range" will appear on the Status tab of
the Infrared Monitor interface screen. Make sure Infrared Monitor
reports both IR devices have the appropriate infrared device within
range before you proceed. You might have to realign the IR devices so
they point right at each other, move them closer together, and/or
change the batteries in an IR adapter or plug the AC power into an IR
adapter. For more information, see "Troubleshooting" earlier in the
document.
b. On one of the computers, click the Options tab in the Infrared Monitor
interface and find the information that starts with "Providing
application support on ...". Write down the name of the COM port you
find there. This is the name of the simulated serial port that the IR
link using. The name of this virtual serial port might be COM4 or COM5
and it will differ from the name of the physical communications port
your IR device is running on (which is typically named COM1 or COM2).
c. Run HyperTerminal on the computer for which you have the virtual serial
port name by clicking the Start button, pointing to Programs, pointing
to Accessories, and then clicking the HyperTerminal folder. In the
window that appears, double-click the Hypertrm.exe icon.
d. In the Connection Description dialog box, type a descriptive name (such
as "Direct IR") for the new connection, and then click OK.
e. In the Phone Number dialog box, use the Connect Using drop-down list to
click the "Direct to Comx" entry, where x is the number of the virtual
COM port that you wrote down in Step b. Then click OK. You are ready to
start using HyperTerminal on one of the computers.
f. Repeat steps b. through e. for the other computer.
g. In HyperTerminal on either computer, type any characters at the
keyboard. If the characters you type appear in the HyperTerminal window
on the other computer, then you have confirmed that the IR link works
in that direction. Repeat this step on the other computer. If the IR
link works in both directions using HyperTerminal, you have confirmed
the successful installation of the IR communications driver on the two
computers.
Note the changes in status that are displayed in the Status tab of the
Infrared Monitor interface while you type characters in HyperTerminal.
h. Disconnect the HyperTerminal direct IR connection by exiting the
HyperTerminal application on both computers. When you are prompted to
save the session, click Yes. This saves the direct IR connection setup
information as an icon in the HyperTerminal main folder. You can
double-click this icon to restart one side of the HyperTerminal direct
IR connection.
Step 3. Running Other IR-Capable Applications
---------------------------------------------
Most applications that can communicate over a null modem cable that
is connecting serial ports on two Windows 95 computers should also be
able to communicate over an IR link. The procedure for setting up and
using the IR link in these other communicating applications will
probably be similar to the procedure you use in Step 2 of the
Roadmap, when you use the HyperTerminal application to validate the
installation of the IR communications driver.
An Optional Step: Removing the IR Communications Driver
-------------------------------------------------------
To remove the IR communications driver, including all the files and
registry entries, carry out the following procedure:
a. Make sure the Infrared Monitor (Irmon.exe) is not running. If it is
running, you must restart the computer, or you can close the Infrared
Monitor dialog box, press CTRL+ALT+DEL, click Irmon, and then click End
Task.
b. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click the Control
Panel.
c. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon, and then click the
Install/Uninstall tab.
d. In the list of installed software, click the name of the IR
communications entry, and then click the Add/Remove button. For this
release of the IR communications driver, the entry in the software list
to click is "Infrared Support for Windows 95 Version 1.0."
e. When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Yes. The Infrared
icon will no longer appear in the Control Panel folder
Notes on Running the Direct Cable Connection Application Over an IR Link
------------------------------------------------------------------------
With Direct Cable Connection (DCC), you can establish a direct serial
or parallel cable connection between two computers to share the
resources of the computer designated as the host. DCC can also be
used over an IR link.
Preparing to Use DCC:
The computer that contains the folder you want to share is the host,
and the other computer is the guest. Share a folder on the host,
granting access rights to anyone using the guest computer, by
carrying out the procedure given below.
NOTE: The following procedure is just one of many that could be used to
share files in a folder on the host computer. For example, there is
user-level access control as well as share-level access control. The
following procedure is one of the simplest access control
procedures, which is all that is needed to get you started using
DCC. To get information about all the ways files, folders, and
printers can be shared, use the Windows 95 Help.
a. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
b. Double-click on the icon of the drive that contains the folder you want
to share (for example, double-click on the icon for the C: drive).
c. Right-click on the icon of the folder you want to share and then select
Properties.
d. In the folder properties dialog, select the Sharing tab and then select
the Shared As option, enter a share name, enter a comment, and add user
access rights (Full or Read-Only).
e. The picture of a hand is added to the folder icon to indicate the
selected folder is now a shared resource.
Making Sure DCC Is Installed on Both Computers:
DCC is not installed with the typical Windows 95 installation
recommended for most computers. So you must check whether DCC is
installed on both of the two computers that will be using the IR
link. To do this, click the Start button, point to Programs, and then
point to Accessories. Direct Cable Connection appears in this menu of
it is installed on this computer.
If you find that DCC is installed on the host and DCC is installed on
the guest, you can skip the next step.
(Optional) Installing DCC:
Before you can establish a DCC connection, DCC must be installed on
both the host and guest. The procedure for installing DCC is given
below. If you found that DCC is not installed on either the host or
the guest, you must run the following procedure twice (once on each
machine).
a. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click the Control
Panel. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
b. In the Add/Remove Program Properties, click the Windows Setup tab.
c. In the Components list, click Communications, and then click the
Details button.
d. In the Communications dialog box, make sure Direct Cable Connection is
checked and then click OK.
Establishing and Using the DCC IR Link Between Host and Guest:
To run DCC over an IR link, carry out the following procedure:
a. Make sure the IR communications driver is properly installed and the IR
devices are enabled by carrying out the procedures in "Step 1.
Installing the IR Communications Driver" and "Step 2. Validating the IR
Communications Driver Installation" earlier in this document.
NOTE: You might want to limit the IR connection speed to 9600 bps for
the first test of DCC over the IR link (and then increase the
speed later).
b. On the host computer, click the Start button, point to Accessories, and
then click Direct Cable Connection.
c. Follow the steps in the Direct Cable Connection Wizard to set up the
host computer. When the wizard prompts you, select the Host option.
When the wizard prompts you to choose a port, use the same virtual port
as you used in the procedure "Step 2. Validating the IR Communications
Driver Installation" earlier in this document. The wizard will also
offer password protection. You do not need to establish password
protection on the host for this test of the IR link. When you are done
with the wizard, click the Finish button. DCC will start running on the
IR link and display the message "Status: Waiting to connect via Serial
cable on Comx," where Comx is the name of the virtual port the IR link
is using.
d. Repeat steps b. and c. for the guest computer, except when the wizard
prompts you select the Guest option instead of the Host option. When
you are done with the wizard, click the Finish button. The DCC
connection is automatically made over the IR link, and all the shared
folders on the host are displayed on the guest's screen.
e. Working on the guest computer, to copy a shared folder from the host to
the guest over the IR link select the folder's icon in the window that
displays all the shared folders that are on the host and drag the icon
to the desktop. To work on a shared folder on the host without copying
it to the guest, double-click on the folder in the display on the
guest. Note that if the host is connected to a network, the guest can
reach shared resources on the network through the DCC connection to the
host.
IR COMMUNICATIONS DRIVER COMPONENTS
===================================
The files that make up the IR communications driver are:
Filename Description
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT200L.VXD Support for the ACTiSYS ACT-IR200L IR adapter.
ACT220L.VXD Support for the ACTiSYS ACT-IR220L IR adapter.
ADAPTEC.VXD Support for Adaptec IR adapter.
CRYSTAL.VXD Support for AMP PhasIR Serial Adapter.
ESI.VXD Support for Extended Systems JetEye PC Infrared Interface
(ESI9680).
INFRARED.CPL Infrared device in the Windows 95 Control Panel.
INFRARED.DLL Infrared device class installer.
INFRARED.INF IR device information file for Windows 95 Setup.
INFRARED.HLP On-line help topics for Infrared Monitor.
IRCOMM.VXD Top layer of IR communications for Windows 95.
IRENUM.VXD Enumerator for the "IR bus."
IRLAMP.VXD Generic infrared framer, lower layer of IR communications
for Windows 95.
IRMON.EXE Infrared Monitor.
IRMONHLP.EXE
IR_BEGIN.WAV Sound for Infrared Monitor user interface.
IR_END.WAV Sound for Infrared Monitor user interface.
IR_INTER.WAV Sound for Infrared Monitor user interface.
MSPORTS.INF IR port information file for Windows 95 Setup.
PARALLAX.VXD Support for Parallax IR Adapter, LiteLink PRA9500A.
SETUP.EXE Installs the Windows 95 Infrared communications driver.
W_IR.CNT Table of contents for Infrared Monitor on-line help.
The documentation files supplied with the IR device driver are:
Filename Description
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
RELNOTES.DOC This document.
LICENSE.TXT Terms and limitations for using the driver.
IR ADAPTER MANUFACTURER NAMES AND ADDRESSES
===========================================
The names and addresses of manufacturers of IR adapters that have
been successfully tested with the IR driver executable in the IR
Communications for Windows 95 DDK:
ACTiSYS, Inc.
1507 Fulton Place
Fremont CA 94539
tel: 510-490-8024
fax: 510-623-7268
email: corp@actisys.com
Adaptec, Inc.
691 South Milpitas Blvd,
Milpitas CA 95035
tel: 1-800-959-7274
fax: 1-408-957-7223
AMP Product Information Center
AMP Incorporated
Harrisburg PA 17105
tel: 1-800-522-6752
Extended Systems, Inc.
5777 North Meeker Ave
Boise ID 83704-1520
tel: 208-322-7575
fax: 208-377-1906
The Parallax IR adapter distributor in North America is:
TSC Electronics
1610 Lockness Place
Torrance CA 90501
tel: 310 534 2738
fax: 310 534 3216
email: dtsaitsc@aol.com
contact person: Daniel Tsai
The Parallax IR adapter distributor outside North America is:
Parallax Research
201 Innovation Centre
NTU
Nanyang Drive
Singapore 639798
Republic of Singapore
tel: +65 793 0855
fax: +65 793 0775
email: parallax@technet.sg
======================================================================
Keywords : win95
Technology : kbWin95search kbZNotKeyword3
Version : 95
Issue type : kbinfo
=============================================================================
THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.
Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1986-2002.