CompuServe Thread

Nancy, 1. A NULL modem is simply a serial-serial port hookup where the wires in the hookup get "reversed" on certain pins from one end to the other. Thus the TransmitData on one end, becomes the ReceiveData line on the other end. The same is true for the CTS/RTS lines and DTR/DSR lines. It's used in conjunction with a terminal program on each end to transfer files at the highest common speed (baud rate) from one machine to another. 2. With a NULL modem, you do the equivalent of setting one machine up like a host. No need for a real modem and phone lines. 3-7…can't help there. Don

Nancy, I would just use CrossDos and stick the the laptop's 3.5" 720k (I assume that is what it has) disk in the Amiga. CrossDos will let you read or write just as if it were an Amiga disk. I have not used Dos2Dos but don't think it works as transparently. With CrossDos you can access the disk from within any Amiga program. No hassles. ….Mark

Nancy, My vote goes to using either CrossDOS or Dos-2-Dos. I have both, but since I do little transfer work, I find it more desirable to use Dos-2-Dos for transferring whenever the need arises. You could also use CIS Binary Mail, and mail the files to yourself. (i.e. – upload from one machine with a terminal program, and DL to the other.) This technique works well when using LHARC to compress and relatively small files. It can get expensive, though, if you use it a lot or have extremely large files to transfer. Hope this helps, 8) David

Hi Nancy: I have some comments for questions 2 & 5. If you have modems on both machines you can bypass the phone system. Simply run phone cable between the modems. I've not used this technique but the other sysops (and users) in the CBM fora do it regularly to transfer between C128's and PC's. We used DOS-2-DOS at Transactor and it worked well enough. I now use CrossDOS at home and so does another T editor. I much prefer CrossDOS because it "seamlessly" integrates your MS-DOS disks into the Amiga. I would recommend DOS-2-DOS to someone who needs to be able to use files from a PC but rarely has to send files back to it. Here's why: D2D opens a window with two columns, you choose the direction, click on the source file and give a name for the destination. This is fine if what you mostly do is import files – and you can export if you really need to. If you're going to be doing it all the time, CrossDOS is superior because it makes the Amiga `believe' that the PC disk is a native disk. It is just another device name. So… You start writing on Monday night on the Amiga and realize you'll need to continue at work on the PC Tuesday morning. Fine. On the Amiga, save your file to "di0:", pop out the disk, put it in your pocket and pop it into the office PC. Come home Tuesday night and, needing to edit and punch up your text, pop the same disk into the Amiga, load the file from "di0:" and begin. This is very convenient and saves you all the copy operations you would otherwise have to perform with D2D. I've recently been using such a scheme to work on files between Transcript and MultiMate (a more involved and irksome shuffle! Because of MM of course.). Between versions of WP, you would never notice that you're working on different platforms (except that the Ami version is nicer to use). If you have to do this sort of thing a lot, you'll much prefer the convenience of CrossDOS. Malcolm

Nancy, In the Amiga Technical Forum (Go Amigatech) there's a file in the System Utilities data library called MSDOS1.LZH. This is a public-domain MS-Dos file system that works in a manner similar to CrossDos. If you have Amiga WordPerfect, and the document file formats are the same between Amiga and MS-Dos WordPerfect, and you can set up a bootable WordPerfect disk with this MS-Dos file system on it, *then* you should be able to use MS-Dos formatted 3.5" disks on both machines. Robert