The Link System:

To link Diversi-DIAL stations together, you will use one of your
phone lines to call the other station. Everything said on one
station will be transmitted to the other station over this phone
line. You can then use a 2nd line to link to yet another station,
and so on. Each station can link to as many stations as you want,
creating enormous linked networks.

There is no limit to the number of stations that can be linked. The
only restriction is that you must never create a circular link.
Let's say station "A" links to "B" and "B" links to "C". If "C" then
links back to "A", this is a circular link. Messages would go around
this link forever, completely clogging the lines. Other than this
restriction, you can link to any other Diversi-DIAL you want.
You cannot cause a circular link unless you link to 2 stations at
once, so just be careful when doing this.

CONNECTING THE LINK:

To connect a link, you must dial out with one of your lines.
Diversi-DIAL contains an automatic phone dialer option, to make this
easier. To get Diversi-DIAL to dial a phone number, you must first
enter the number you want to dial from the keyboard with the /J
command, followed up to 11 digits you want to dial. You may also
enter an 8th optional digit (1..7) specifying the maximum modem
number allowed to dial. For example, to dial the number 553-9460,
you would first enter:

/J5539460

Note, no spaces. To cancel dialing, just enter /J. To only allow
dialing on modem #1 or #2, you would enter:

/J5539460/2

Special note: To allow only 7-digit /J:

  BLOAD DIAL
  POKE 32475, 0
  BSAVE DIAL

To actually do the dialing you enter:

/R1T            (for line 2, it's /R2T, etc.)

This will first pick up the phone, wait 2 seconds, and dial the
number. At this point, Diversi-DIAL will become a terminal, for
the sysop only. You should see the signon message for the other
station, and the normal Diversi-DIAL messages on your own station
will stop. If the signon message does not appear, the line is
probably busy.

Now, you must get the other station to recognize that you are a link,
and not a regular caller. The easiest way is to enter a PASSWORD
which starts with an even number, 900 or greater. You'll have to get
that from the sysop of the other staion. Otherwise, the sysop of
the other station can turn you into a link with:

/R1A            (or /R2A, etc.)

Note that this command results in a signoff, and then signon of the
link station, but the connection is not actually broken.

Once you get into link mode on the other station, just hit ctrl-G to
exit from terminal mode. The normal Diversi-DIAL chat will
re-appear, and the stations will be linked.

PC PURSUIT:

PC Pursuit is by far the best way to connect long-distance, since
they charge a flat fee of $25 a month, no matter how long you are
connected. This makes linking Diversi-DIALs around the country
possible. Otherwise, the phone bills would be prohibitive.

PC Pursuit can only call 14 major cities, at present. Fortunately,
Detroit is one of them. You can call FROM almost anywhere, but you
are only able to call TO numbers in the major cities.

To sign up for PC Pursuit, call 800-368-4215 on weekdays voice, or
they have a BBS at 800-835-3001.

As of now, you can use PC Pursuit to connect two stations together
without going through a major city. It's a little tricky, but here's
the idea.

You get the other sysop to call his local Telenet node (they give you
a list of nodes when you get PC Pursuit). Tell him to hit <return>
twice, and keep entering "D" to hold the line. When he signs on, he
will see a Telenet node number as the first thing. You have to get
this number from him, so you may need another phone line to talk
voice at the same time. Let's say he saw "512 14F" when he signed on
to his Telenet node.

Now, you call your Telenet node and enter the following:

@C 512 14F,id,password   (your PC Pursuit ID and password)

The 512 14F is the number he gives you. You should now be able to
see what he types, and vice versa. This is great for a private chat
with anyone in the country. For a Diversi-DIAL link, however, both
sides will need to enter the following commands.

<return>@<return>
@INSE NONE
@HALF
@SET? 10:0
@CONT

Note that you won't see your typing after you enter HALF. Now, just
hit ctrl-G to connect the links on Diversi-DIAL. You can use this
method to connect any two stations which have a local Telenet node.

LINKED STATIONS IN ACTION:

Now that you're linked, here's how it works.

Everything someone types on a remote station gets sent to your
station as well. You will see the full handle of the person on the
remote station, but with a number in front of it. This is the number
of the link line. It might look something like this.

1#2[T1:Joe) HI, I'm on a remote station now.
#0<T2:Bill) Hi, Joe, welcome to linkland.

Now, for Bill to send a private message to Joe, he would type:

/P12 Hey Joe, only you can see this.

If Joe's handle looked like this:

3#2[T1:Joe) HI, I'm on a remote station now.

Then Bill would type:

/p32 Hey Joe, this is private.

That is, you add the number before the handle to the /P. You can
think of the people on the remote station as callers #30 to #37.
Now, if Joe's station is also linked to yet another station, then the
people on the other station would have 2 digits in front of their
handles. You might see this:

35#7[T2:Harry) Hey, I'm 2 stations away from you Bill.

For Bill to send a private message to Harry, he would type:

/P357 Hey Harry, here's a private message for you.

No matter how many digits are in front of the handle, you just add
them to the /P to send a private to that person.

If the link channel gets too confusing for you, you can tune to a
different channel and still send /P messages to people on the
remote stations. This way you won't see all the public "garbage"
everyone is sending, and you can have a private chat with anyone on
the network.

When the program starts, the /ML space contains link instructions.
You may replace them if you wish. Please read /ML for more details
on links (call D-DIAL #1 at 553-4373 if you have the demo).

OTHER LINK CONTROLS:

There can be an awful lot of data going through the links, with so
many people typing at once. I've included a number of features to
reduce the confusion.

First of all, nobody without a PASSWORD is seen by the remote
stations. I call this the "Twit Filter". You can /V a "Twit", and he
will then get through the filter and go to remotes. If a caller has
a handle beginning with a "[", then he can be seen by the remotes.

You allow "twits" to cross a link with /U-988 (see /U info).

If the link channel gets too busy, you can turn it into a "Quiet"
channel (see /I3). The sysop tunes to the channel and enters:

/R9M

From then on, no public messages will be seen on this channel, except
messages typed by sysops, and the /SP station lists (see below).
Everyone can still /P to get messages to specific individuals. This
allows large links to be manageable.

Moving the remotes to different channels:

Sysops can move a remote with /T. If the remote is on line 7,
and you want to move him to channel 4, enter:

/T47

You then have to type /T4 yourself to follow him.

THE /SP LISTS:

Every 5 minutes during a link, each station sends an abbreviated form
of its /S list to the entire network. This way, people on remote
stations can tell who is on the other stations which are linked.

A sysop can request /SP lists at any time. To send your own /SP
list, just type /SP. To request a /SP from a linked station, enter:

/Pn/SP (n can be more than 1 digit)

/SP never does anything unless there is a remote station on your
channel.

The /SP list shows only the people with PASSWORDS (it skips the
"Twits"). If you see someone in the /SP list, this means you can send
a /P message, and he should receive it. If you type a public
message, he will only get it if he's on the same channel as the link.

If you get tired of watching all the /SP messages go by, enter:

/CS or /CL or /CM

This means you will not see them, until you enter /CS again. See /ML
in the program for further details.

STATION PRIVATES:

If you send a /P to a remote station, but don't end it with a caller
number on that station, it will go to everyone on that station only.
This is called a "Station Private". Station Private messages all
start with "S", and individual Private messages start with "P". If
#1 is a link, for example, /P1 would be seen only by people on the
linked station, and not by people on your own station.

To send a station private to your own station, type /PS and the
message. This type of message is not seen by any remote stations.
Try to get into the habit of using /PS for talking with people on
your station, to avoid confusing the remote people.




INTERNAL LINKS:

If you want to expand your own station to more than 7 lines, you can
link 2 or more computers together with a cable. This direct link
behaves very much like a remote link.

To make a direct link, you will need to buy 2 parallel cards, and a
cable to connect them. I found a terrific card, made by an excellent
company at a great price. It is ideal for this purpose. The cards
cost $39.95 each, and they will include a connecting cable when you
buy 2 cards. Order your cards from: MicroDimensions, Inc.,
1-800-423-7252. Tell them it's for Diversi-DIAL, and you want 2
"Interface Two" cards, with a connecting cable.

Each card has two 16-pin DIP sockets labeled "A" and "B". You'll
notice the Diversi-DIAL modem configuration program now includes
"Interface Two A" and "Interface Two B". To link 2 computers
together, use the "A" type, and connect the "A" sockets on each card
together with the cable they send you. Just make sure you plug the
cable in the same way on both cards. That is, the same side of the
cable should be up on both cards.

Now, plug one card into slot #7 of each computer. Get the
Diversi-DIAL software running on both computers. The enter:

/R7A

Enter this on both computers. They will both then connect as a link,
just as if someone had linked by a modem. You can disconnect the
link at any time from either end, with /K7, and re-connect it again
with /R7A.

When you want to add a 3rd computer, you just need 1 more card and
cable. You will now connect the "B" socket on your main computer,
with the "A" socket on the new card. Plug the new card into slot #7
of the third computer. You now have to configure the main computer
to show a "B" type Interface Two card in slot #6! Note thet even
though the card is physically in slot #7, the "B" side of the card is
considered to be in slot #6. On the main computer, you connect the
"A" side with /R7A, and the "B" side with /R6A. The "B" side
operates as another remote link on line #6.

Although it would be possible to configure it, never connect a "B"
side to another "B" side. It won't hurt anything, but the "B" sides
are electrically incompatible with each other, and won't do a proper
hookup.

When you do hook up a "B" side, there is a slot open that cannot
contain a modem. You could put a disk drive there, if you want, to
help with program loads.

With 2 cables, you can "Double Link" your 2 stations. You can use this
to put line channel 1 and 2 at the same time. To make this work
properly, you should enter the following commands on both sides:

/R6A
/R7A (connect the links)
/R7B (block /SP from one of them)
/P7/X7 (avoid /P777777... loop /P's)
/P6/X6 (avoid /P666666... loop /P's)

Other New Features:

There are a number of other new features in the current update to
Diversi-DIAL. Here is a summary:

/R Commands: (n=1..7 and x=1..4)

/RnO    Make caller #n a link, originate tones (auto dial if /J set)
/RnA    Make caller #n a link, answer tones
        /RnO and /RnA will pick up the phone and hold the
        line with no carrier for 3 minutes. If you need
        more time, enter /RnO or /RnA again for another
        3 minutes.
/RnT    Connect to caller #n in terminal mode.
        If #n is not a link, convert to originate link first
        (i.e. do automatic /RnO and auto dial first)
/RxR    Remotes start on channel x (when >=900 PASSWORD entered)
/RxS    Members (except remotes) start on channel x
        (Non-members always start on channel 1)
/RnM    Set maximum # callers on current channel (the channel
        you are on when you type /RnM)
/R0M    Only sysops can tune to current channel
/R9M    Current channel becomes "Quiet". Only sysops can send public
        messages to this channel. All others must /P.
/RnF    System will be "Full" even if modem #n is open.
/RxC    Set 2 carriage return per second dump for channel x=1..4
/RxX    Set 14 char per second dump for channel x=1..4
/RnE    Email Station: Accept /E requests from link #n
/RnE    Non-Email Station: Send /E requests to link #n
/RnB    Blocks all /SP and logon message from link #n
        (must use this on one link of a double-linked station)
        (/RnB also turns on beeps from remote signons)
/R#     Increase/Decrease line length (leave OFF normally).
        i.e. use to enter /M's, then turn back off.
/RnL    Re-Logon caller #n

PASSWORDS >=900

If you enter a PASSWORD >=900, you are automatically connected in
link mode. You should give passwords out to other sysops who you
want to link with.

Please give other stations your 900 password corresponding to their
station number. I.E., give station number 23 member #923.

Other New Commands and Features

/J######x Set 7-digit phone number to dial with /Rnt and /RnO.
          x=1..7 optional maximum modem # allowed to dial
          (this is a keyboard only command)

/CR    The caret character "^" is now converted to a carriage
       return. You can use the ^ to format email, for example.
       "Twits" cannot enter the ^. Even so, people abuse it and
       annoy others. To minimize this, you can enter /CR to
       turn the caret back to the character caret again.

/CS    Suppresses the /SP lists during a remote link.
       (You still see station link #)

/CH    Remove your handle from /SP (see /ML)

}      This character can no longer be entered. It is now used
       only by link stations to identify the /SP list.

/Txn   Tune remote link #n to channel #x

/SP    Sends station list to remotes. Only works when a remote
       is on your channel. Non-sysops can only do /SP every
       1-2 minutes. A # sign in the /SP list shows callers
       who are on the link channel. An empty handle means
       that caller did /CS or is a non-member.

/Hn<handle> If "n" is a remote link, then this changes the
            handle of this link. If "n" is "0", this sets the
            station name appearing at the top of /SP

SYSOP Link Features:

Sysops can now do commands on link stations. If "n" is the link
modem, then a sysop can type /Pn/ and a command on the linked
station. The following commands will work:

/Pn/Tx    Move link to channel "x" on remote station.

/Pn/H<handle> Enter your station handle in remote /S

/Pn/Xm    Squelch caller "m" on remote station.

/Pn/Q...  Enter sysop password on remote station.

If you enter a sysop password with /Pn/Q, then you become a sysop on
the remote station. You can then enter the following commands:

/Pn/Km

/Pn/Vm

If you entered the system password the you can also do

/Pn/R (all /R commands)

/Pn/U (all /U commands)


When you do /Pn/.... just imagine you are a normal caller on the
remote station. You can do most of the commands a normal caller can
do, except you don't see the --> Done.

The sysop on the remote station can also use /G to turn your link
into a "minor" co-sysop. You can then /Pn/K and /Pn/V on his
station.

Once you have entered /Pn/Q and the system password, you can even
enter commands through 2 or more links. For example:

/P1/Qpass       Enter password on first remote station
/P14/Qnextpass  Enter password on second remote station
/P14/K2         Kill caller #2 on 2nd remote station.

Email:

If you have a >900 number on another station, you can pick up email
on that station. When you link to that station, pick up your email
before exiting terminal mode. That is, type /E while in terminal
mode. Note: you won't see --> No Email. Then hit ctrl-G to establish the
link.

APPLE II+ COMPUTER

Diversi-DIAL now runs correctly on an Apple II+ with a 16K card in
slot #0. There is no Email on an Apple II+, and the clock does not
run correctly. However, you can use an Apple II+ to link to your
main Apple //e with Interface Two cards.

The Apple //e running Diversi-DIAL now sends a signal out the
cassette port every second, for clock synchronization. To use this
signal, you must cut R9 on the Apple //e mother board to raise the
voltage level of the cassette output (see Diversi-DIAL program
loading instructions).

Connect the cassette output on the Apple //e to the cassette input on
the Apple II+ (or linked Apple //e if you want). When setting the
time on the linked computer, put an "*" between the AM and the
seconds (or PM and the seconds). For example:

/Z02/22/86  9:15 PM*00

The clock will now be driven by the Apple //e from the cassette port.
If no cassette input is sensed for 10 seconds, the "*" will disappear
and you'll go back to the internal clock.

You can daisy-chain the cassette output of the link computer to the
cassette input of a 3rd computer to synchronize all three, if needed.

UPPER/lower case

The Apple II+ keyboard cannot operate lower case. Diversi-DIAL now
supports the "Shift Key Mod". The easiest way to make the shift key
mod on an Apple II+ is to buy 2 very small clip-on test leads at
Radio Shack. They are plastic, with a little hook at the tip that
can clip onto a single pin of an IC. Solder a test clip to both ends
pf a wire. Clip one side onto the second pin from the right on the
Apple II keyboard encoder. It's right below the "*" key
approximately. Clip the other lead onto pin 1 of the 74LS25 directly
in front of the Game Socket. Pin 1 is the lower right corner.

To get Diversi-DIAL to recognize the shift key mod, enter:

/DS

With the shift key mod, the ^ character is now ctrl-N, instead of
shift-N. The \, backslash character is shift-0.

The II+ screen only displays uppercase. You can get a lowercase
video display chip (Ask your dealer), if you want to see lowercase.
Diversi-DIAL converts lower to uppercase on the II+, unless you enter

/DU

When you are converting to Uppercase, you can enter:

/D

This will convert real uppercase characters to inverse.

Two other commands function on an Apple II+ as follows:

/CI - Increase screen display speed
/CD - Decrease screen display speed

MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES:

/FS     Suppresses the self echo.
/I3     Shows channel capacities
/I9     Disappears with /U-992, except it gives the main
        D-Dial number (313-553-4373). Please tell people
        who want more D-Dial info to call this number

PASSWORD OPTION:

If you don't want your PASSWORDS to change every month, you can now
specify which month and year you want to use semi-permanently. You
do this when setting the time with /Z. For example:

/Z02/22/86  9:34 PM 00%01/86

The "%" after the seconds shows that the PASSWORD month and year
follow. With the above example, you would use your January, 1986
PASSWORDS even though it is actually February. You would then
control your password system with /U commands. Personally, I don't
recommend using this, but at least you have the option. It's much
harder for you to /U- someone who doesn't pay, than it is for you to
let the system do it automatically at the end of the month. But, the
choice is yours now.

Please refer to the main documentation for the new /U commands.
Also, note that the program length for cassette loading is:

1800.9C00W

1800.9C00R 2000G

EDITING SIGNON AND /I1 MESSAGES:

You can modify the opening message and the /I1 message. Choose
option #7 from the Diversi-DIAL menu, then choose which message you
want to modify.

The messages you insert cannot be longer that the old messages. When
you reach the maximum message length, you will hear beeps.

When you edit the /I1 message, you will no longer enter /O from the
keyboard. You should include your "Owner" message in the /I1.

When you lock your system, non-members will first see your /MZ
message, and the last part of your /I1 message, if you wish. When
entering your new /I1, put a "^" (caret) character at the point where
you want non-members to start in your /I1 during lockout. If you
don't want to show the /I1, don't enter a "^".

REMOTE EMAIL:

Read /ML in the program to see how to send email to a remote station.
If you don't want to get Email from linked stations, enter /U-995.

When you receive Email from a remote station it looks like this:

==> From: #@21=D-Dial #21
(103*:Joe) Hi
==> Date Sent: 04/07/86  3:30 PM

This message came from Joe, who is member #103 on Diversi-DIAL
station number 21. Note that you can only send a message back to Joe
when your station is linked with his station again. When you link to
Joe's station again, you would answer him with:

/Pn/E103 OK Joe, got your message. HI.

You cannot enter /E@21 to answer Joe. However, you can enter:

/E-@21

This will delete all Email sent to you from anyone on D-DIAL #21.

Sysops can request the /SM member list from any linked station with:

/Pn/SM
/Pn/SC

The /SM list is returned in public to everyone on your end of the
link.

Direct link Email:

With direct linked stations, only one station should have an extended
80-column card to hold the Email. The other stations may be Apple
II+ computers, if you wish. When you type /E on a station without
Email, you can send the request over to the station with the Email.

To enable this feature you must type:

/R7E

On the non-Email computer, this tells the program to send /E requests
to the link in slot #7, i.e. to the Email computer.

In order for the Email computer to respond, you must also enter /R7E
on it as well. That is, you must enter /RnE on both sides of the
link.

Don't ever use /RnE unless both computers have the same PASSWORDs.
Otherwise, members from one station will pick up Email addressed to
members on the other station with the same member number.

You may link more than 1 non-email computer to a single email
computer. Just /RnE the link slots on all computers. All non-email
computers must be connected directly to the email computer. You
could link 7 non-email computers (6 lines each) to a single Email
computer, for a total station capacity of 42 phone lines.