Release Notes PN 93000160 Digi RealPort Service Version 2.8.94.2, 11/04/2004 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5 or better Software Package PN 40001738 CONTENTS Section Description ------------------------------- 1 Introduction 2 Supported Operating Systems 3 Supported Products 4 Known Limitations 5 Upgrading RealPort 6 Additional Notes 7 History 1. INTRODUCTION This document describes the service that supports the Digi devices listed below. The service is for use with Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. 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 OPERATING SYSTEMS Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Service Pack 5 or better 3. SUPPORTED PRODUCTS Digi Connect Family Digi EtherLite Family Digi Flex Family Digi One Family Digi PortServer Family Digi PortServer TS Family Digi PortServer TS MEI Family Digi PortServer TS W MEI Family Digi PortServer TS M MEI Family Digi PortServer TS H MEI Family Digi PortServer TS P MEI Family 4. 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. If you experience problems printing to a serial printer, navigate to the device's Device Properties dialog in the Device Manager, enable "Complete Write Requests Immediately," and try printing again. 5. 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. 6. 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. ADVANCED DEVICE SETTINGS ------------------------ The RealPort driver supports an additional set of advanced features, each of which can be enabled or disabled 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 The Advanced Properties dialog is displayed, which you can use to enable and disable the advanced features. Each of the advanced features discussed here is disabled by default. COMPLETE WRITE REQUESTS IMMEDIATELY ----------------------------------- Checking this field means that the driver confirms the completion of a write request as soon as data is written to the buffer. The default is to wait until the data is sent out the port. SEND KEEP-ALIVE PACKETS ----------------------- Sending keep-alive packets is a mechanism for keeping a TCP connection up all the time, even when there is no network traffic between the RealPort driver and the Digi device. ALLOW PORTS TO BE OPENED WHEN NETWORK IS UNAVAILABLE ---------------------------------------------------- Turn this feature on if you want the RealPort driver to always succeed open requests, even if the driver cannot communicate with the remote device at the time of the open. By default, the driver only succeeds an open request if it can communicate with the remote device. RETURN ERROR CODES WHEN NETWORK IS UNAVAILABLE ---------------------------------------------- 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. By default, the feature is disabled 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. 7. HISTORY Version 2.8.94.2 (Rev. N2, November 04, 2004) --------------------------------------------- o Added support for Digi PortServer TS MEI Families, including Wireless, Modem, Hardened, and Power series. Version 2.8.94.1 (Rev. N1, April 09, 2004) ------------------------------------------ o Added support for Digi Connect SP, Digi Connect Wi-EM, Digi Connect Wi-ME, and PortServer TS 8/16 MEI. Version 2.8.94.0 (Rev. N, June 10, 2003) ---------------------------------------- o Added support for Digi Connect ME. o Fixed a problem processing write requests after the input buffer is cleared with PurgeComm during network disconnect. o Corrected break event signaling. o Fixed detection of modem line transitions for EtherLite 2. Version 2.7.90.0 (Rev. M, April 22, 2003) ----------------------------------------- o Improved management of outgoing network resources. o Fixed a condition where a network disconnect under certain conditions may cause a bugcheck. o Fixed RTS Toggle functionality. A RTS pre- and post-delay can be configured through the command line interface or the web interface of your Digi One or Digi PortServer. o Modified the Complete Writes Immediately feature to allow queued data to drain when the port is closed. o Fixed framing error detection to not insert bogus data into the read data stream. o Modified driver to default uninitialized ports to 1200,7,e,1, like the standard serial driver, and to maintain baud rate, line settings and flow control across opens. o Added code to force RTS low when device is closed; sometimes, if a port was using RTS/CTS flow control and was closed, RTS would remain high. o Added support for Digi One TS H, Digi PortServer TS 2 H, and Digi PortServer TS 4 H. o Added support for Digi One TS W, Digi PortServer TS 2 W, and Digi PortServer TS 4 W. Version 2.6.82.0 (Rev. L, January 31, 2003) ------------------------------------------- o Added support for Digi One EM, Digi One IA and Digi One SP. o Fixed race condition when switching parity states. o Modified Complete Write Requests Immediately feature to work irregardless of flow control. o Added user interface option "Send keep alive packets" to control keep alive packets sent to the remote device. The default setting is disabled. o Fixed condition where default Xon and Xoff characters were not initialized correctly. o Fixed detection of parity and framing errors. o Fixed Xon/Xoff limit bounds checking. o Exposed GUI option to allow serial ports to be opened even if the driver cannot communicate with the remote device. o Improved driver load time when network is disconnected. o Changed event reporting to begin accumulating events once SetCommMask is called, instead of waiting for WaitCommMask. Version 2.5.67.0 (Rev. J1, August 07, 2002) ------------------------------------------- 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.