Release Notes PN 93000160 Digi RealPort Service Version 2.5.67.0, 08/07/2002 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Software Package PN 40001738 CONTENTS Section Description ------------------------------- 1 Introduction 2 Supported Products 3 Known Limitations 4 Upgrading RealPort 5 Additional Notes 6 History 1. INTRODUCTION This document describes the service that supports the Digi devices listed below. The service is for use in the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 environment. Refer to the following number when searching the Digi International Inc. Web site (www.digi.com) or the FTP site (ftp.digi.com) for the latest software package: 40001738_ 2. SUPPORTED PRODUCTS Digi One IA RealPort Digi One RealPort Digi One TS Digi Flex Digi PortServer Digi PortServer II Digi PortServer II Rack Digi PortServer TS 2 Digi PortServer TS 4 Digi PortServer TS 8 Digi PortServer TS 16 Digi PortServer TS 16 Rack Digi EtherLite 2 Digi EtherLite 8 Digi EtherLite 16 Digi EtherLite 32 Digi EtherLite 80 Digi EtherLite 160 Digi EtherLite 162 3. KNOWN LIMITATIONS Changing the baud rate of a serial printer requires deleting the printer device and then re-adding the device with a different baud rate. This is a Print Manager limitation in Windows NT 4.0. If you plan to use the RealPort service with serial printers, you have to reboot the system after device installation or after renaming ports to see the new ports listed in the Print Spooler's list of available ports for printing. This is a known limitation of the Print Spooler, which does not detect changes in the list of available ports automatically. 4. UPGRADING REALPORT UPGRADING FROM AN ETHERLITE DRIVER ---------------------------------- If you have previously installed the EtherLite driver for an EtherLite device (EtherLite 2/8/16/32/80/160/162), follow these steps to upgrade to the current RealPort service: a. Uninstall the old EtherLite driver and reboot the system. b. Update the EtherLite firmware using the DGIPSERV utility, which is included in the driver package. You can download the latest firmware files from the Digi Support Web site, http://support.digi.com. c. Install the new RealPort Service. UPGRADING AN EXISTING REALPORT SERVICE -------------------------------------- To upgrade a previously-installed RealPort service to the new service, follow these steps. Note that the "Update" feature available from the Services Tab of Network Neighborhood Properties is not supported -- instead, you must first uninstall the existing RealPort service and then install the new RealPort service: a. First, navigate to the Services Tab: o From the Desktop, right-click "Network Neighborhood" o Select "Properties" o Click on the tab marked "Services" b. Next, uninstall the existing RealPort service: o Select "Digi RealPort Service" o Click "Remove" o Click "Yes" o Click "Close" to dismiss the Network window o Click "Yes" to restart Windows c. Finally, install the new RealPort service: o Navigate to the Services Tab (see a. above) o Click "Add" o Click "Have Disk..." o Enter the path to the new RealPort service files o Click "OK" o Click "OK" d. Follow any other instructions to complete the installation. 5. ADDITIONAL NOTES On-line help is available when you install the product. Installation documentation can be found at Digi's Web site, http://www.digi.com, or at Digi's FTP server, ftp://ftp.digi.com. NETWORK ERROR HANDLING FEATURE ------------------------------ The RealPort driver supports two methods to handle Wide Area Network (WAN) errors, such as those generated when the RealPort driver loses its TCP/IP session with the remote RealPort device. The behavior of the driver can be designated from the Device Manager: o Right-click "My Computer" o Select "Manage" o In the left-hand side of the Computer Management window, select "Device Manager" o In the right-hand side of the window, expand the "Multi-port serial adapters" category o Right-click on the device to configure o Choose "Properties" o Navigate to the "Advanced" tab o Verify that the top-level device (the RealPort device) is highlighted and select "Properties..." o Check or Uncheck the item entitled, "Return error codes when network is unavailable" By default, the feature is not checked in the Device Manager and the RealPort driver seamlessly and transparently handles any and all network errors. The most common network error is that the driver loses its TCP/IP session with the remote RealPort device, either because the RealPort device is unreachable due to general network failures or because the RealPort device was rebooted or powered off. In the event that the RealPort driver loses its TCP/IP session with the remote RealPort device, the driver will attempt to reestablish a new connection with the device once every second. The driver will also simulate a loss of hardware flow control lines by lowering each of the following signals -- DCD, DSR, and CTS. It will also simulate receipt of an Xoff character, if software flow control is being used. In this mode, client applications will not and cannot detect network errors. Client applications are free to continue reading from and writing to any RealPort ports, and to continue using the ports as they otherwise normally would. In this way, network errors are handled transparently from the client application. However, it is sometimes useful for a client to know when the remote RealPort device is unreachable because the TCP/IP session was dropped. In this case, you can check the "Return error codes when network is unavailable" feature, and the RealPort driver will then communicate network errors to the client when the network is unreachable. In this mode, if the network connection is dropped and a client initiates a read or a write, the driver will immediately complete the operation and return the error, ERROR_NETWORK_UNREACHABLE. A client application can be modified to recognize this error code and to respond to the error by performing some special operation, such as logging the error to a file. The driver will continue to return this error code until it is able to reestablish a network connection with the remote RealPort device, at which point the driver will resume normal processing of reading and writing to the port. 6. HISTORY Version 2.5.67.0 ---------------- August 07, 2002 -- Production release, Rev. J1 o Enhanced network interface to more efficiently process data when presented with out-of-sequence and fragmented packets. o Fixed completion of writes for ports not using flow control but enabling DTR or RTS. o Improved detection and reporting of local network disconnects. o IRP_MJ_READ was not completed although a non-zero value for the ReadIntervalTimeout was set. o Latency enhancements. o Enhanced logging of error conditions in System Event Log. o Added user interface option, "Complete write requests immediately," for timing-sensitive applications. Version 2.5.59.0 ---------------- July 03, 2002 -- Production release, Rev. J o Fine-tuned the reconnect/reopen timeout from 10 to 5 seconds. o Fixed non-standard software flow control character handling. o Fixed race conditions during IRP completion if system is under stress. Version 2.4.57.0 ---------------- June 21, 2002 -- Pilot release, Rev. J1P o Latency enhancements o Added support for IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_STATS o Added GUI checkbox to allow user to select between abstracting/exposing network error conditions o Changed: The gateway address in DgIpServ is set to 0.0.0.0 now, instead of clearing it upon dialog initialization. o Fixed: In the special case where read timeouts are used and a read request times out with other read requests queued, it was possible that the driver completed a queued read request prior to completing the current read request o Fixed reporting of the events, EV_RXCHAR and EV_TXEMPTY o Fixed network disconnect read/write IRP and IOCTL failures o Enhanced driver to accept Xoff and Xon characters set to same nonzero value when not using flow control o Implemented registry key to disable Xon/Xoff limit check o Fixed PurgeComm not working correctly o Fixed Xon/Xoff flow control issues o Fixed: After updating the firmware on any Etherlite with the DgIpServ utility the Gateway and Subnet Mask are erased. o Fixed DgIpServ issue with systems having multiple IP addresses (either because multiple Network Interface Adapters are installed or a VPN connection is established). Added a dialog that asks in this special case for the network interface to use. Version 2.4.34.3 ---------------- January 07, 2002 -- Production release, Rev. H o Added support for Digi One IA, Digi One TS, Digi PortServer TS 16 Rack, and Digi PortServer II Rack Version 2.4.34.0 ---------------- November 12, 2001 -- Production release, Rev. G o Added support for PortServer TS, Digi One RealPort, and EtherLite 2/80/160/162 devices o Included EtherLite DGIPSERV utility, which offers easy configuration of device parameters and the ability to upgrade the EtherLite's firmware o Modified release process to assign common version number to all driver files for this and future releases o Fixed display of ports in list of Print Spooler ports o Fixed printing failure related to write timeouts o Fixed Windows 2000 bugcheck sometimes caused by changed IP address or COM port names Version 2.3.27.0 ---------------- August 14, 2001 -- Production release, Rev. F Version 1.0.20 -------------- August 15, 2000 o Added support for PortServer TS, Digi One RealPort, and EtherLite 2/80/160/162 devices o Added support for DNS device naming, such that if you assign a DNS name to a PortServer TS, you can use that name to install/configure the device (see your Local Network Administrator to assign a DNS name to the device) Version 1.0.15.0 ---------------- August 4, 2000 -- Production release, Rev. E Version 1.0.8 ------------- October 10, 2000 o Added code to more gracefully recover from TCP/IP session loss without placing the ports in an error state and requiring them to be closed and reopened Version 1.0.7.0 --------------- May 4, 2000 -- Production release, Rev. D o Resolved a close/open race condition, which caused invalid data to be returned when using the DOS command MODE and sometimes caused printing problems after a system reboot o Resolved single character transmit latency problems, which could cause a single-byte write to take upwards of 120 ms to complete o Fixed a serial printing failure Version 1.0.3.0 --------------- August 25, 1998 -- Production release, Rev. C Version 1.0.2.0 --------------- November 7, 1997 -- Production release, Rev. B Version 1.0.1.0 --------------- July 21, 1997 -- Initial production release, Rev. A