Release Notes PN 93000362 Digi RealPort Driver Version 2.5.67.0, 08/07/2002 Microsoft Windows 2000 Microsoft Windows XP Professional Microsoft Windows XP Home Software Package PN 40002164 CONTENTS Section Description ------------------------------- 1 Introduction 2 Supported Products 3 Known Limitations 4 Upgrade driver from FAS to RealPort 5 Update RealPort driver 6 Additional Notes 7 History 1. INTRODUCTION This document describes the device driver that supports the Digi devices listed below. The driver is for use in the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP environments. 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: 40002164_ 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 If you plan to use the RealPort driver 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. UPGRADE DRIVER FROM FAS TO REALPORT 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 driver: 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 driver through the "Add New Hardware Wizard". 5. UPDATE REALPORT DRIVER 1. Unzip the archive to a folder of your choice. 2. Run DGRPCLN.CMD to remove previous INF file versions. You might need to be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to perform some tasks. To update a installed RealPort driver to a new driver through the Device Manager, follow these steps: UPDATE IN WINDOWS 2000: a. To open Device Manager, click "Start", and then click "Control Panel". Double-click "System". On the "Hardware" tab, click "Device Manager". b. Click "Device Manager" and double-click "Multi-port Serial Adapters". c. Double-click on the device for which you would like to update the driver. On the "Driver" tab, click "Update Driver...". This will start the "Upgrade Device Driver Wizard". d. Click "Next" on the first page. e. Select "Display a list of the known drivers for this device..." and click "Next". f. Click "Have Disk..." and browse to the folder where you extracted the driver files to. Click "Next". g. Select the matching device and click "Next". h. Click "Next" and then click "Finish". You might have to restart your system to let the changes take effect. i. Repeat steps c. through h. for each device you would like to update. UPDATE IN WINDOWS XP: a. To open Device Manager, click "Start", and then click "Control Panel". Double-click "System". On the "Hardware" tab, click "Device Manager". b. Click "Device Manager" and double-click "Multi-port Serial Adapters". c. Right-click on the device for which you would like to update the driver and select "Update Driver...". This will start the "Update Hardware Wizard". d. Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" and click "Next". e. Select "Search for the best driver in these locations", check "Include this location in the search" and browse to the folder where you extracted the driver files to. Click "Next". f. Verify that the matching device and driver is selected and click "Next". g. Click "Finish". You might have to restart your system to let the changes take effect. h. Repeat steps c. through g. for each device you would like to update. 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. 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 on the device's "Advanced" tab in Device Manager. 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. 7. 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 Added dgrpcln.cmd file to simplify driver installation. 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. D 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. C 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 2.3.28.0 ---------------- August 14, 2001 -- Production release, Rev. B Version 2.3.10 -------------- November 13, 2000 -- First official release, Rev. A 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 2.2.1 ------------- September 24, 1999 o Release for the Microsoft Windows 2000 Installation CD