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Running Programs written to use TFWIN, TFWIN32 or TF2AGW with BPQ32

Introduction.

I have written a couple of routines that allow programs written for the TFWIN or TFWIN32 interface to use BPQ32. The TFWIN routines allow a Windows program to use a DED Host mode TNC, and are used by WFBB, WFBB32, TSTHWIN, and possibly others. TF2AGW is a routine that allows TFWIN32 programs to use the AGW Packet Engine. My routines are effectively a port of my DEDHOST driver, with a TFWIN compatible interface. The drivers are released as BPQDED16.DLL and BPQDED32.DLL. They need to be renamed to whatever program you are replacing. So, for instance, to run the 16 bit FFB program WFBB with BPQ32, configure FBB to use the TFWIN interface, and replace TFWIN.DLL with a copy of BPQDED16.DLL, renamed to TFWIN.DLL. To run TSTHWIN, replace TF2AGW.DLL with a renamed copy of BPQDED32.DLL. Note that the 16 bit routine uses the 32 bit routine, so you will need an (un-renamed) copy of BPQDED32.DLL in your SYSTEM32 directory.

Please note that you need at least Version 409u of BPQ32. Download the latest version from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BPQ32/files/

Configuration.

The driver allocates 4 streams by default, as supported by the original DEDHOST EPROM. It will allocate more, or release some, according to the channels set up the by application. (up to 32 max)

APPLMASK defaults to 1. This will be ok for most situations, but if you want to run more than one application (either multiple TFWIN or a mixture of TFWIN and native BPQ), it can be overridden by a registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\G8BPQ\BPQ32\DEDAppl\CALLSIGN=Mask

Where CALLSIGN is the call defined to the TFWIN application, and Mask is the ApplMask in decimal. So, for example, to run WFBB with callsign G8BPQ-4, as the 5 th application, and TSTHWIN with callsign g8bpq-5 as the 6 th application, set:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\G8BPQ\BPQ32\DEDAppl\G8BPQ-4 to 16

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\G8BPQ\BPQ32\DEDAppl\G8BPQ-5 to 32

NOTE that the callsign defined to the application is not actually used by BPQ32 – it still uses the BBSCALL for Appl 1 and NODECALL for the others.

The drivers write debugging information to the Kernel debug log. You can use the Freeware program DebugView from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647.aspx to view the info.

John Wiseman, G8BPQ

February 2006