ComCap - Magenta Serial Port Capture Utility
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Readme for Release 3.2 - 17th May 2005
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Last Updated and Digitally Signed - 7th November 2008
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ComCap is a simple Windows application designed to capture any ASCII data
received on PC serial communications ports to text files.  It includes the
following features and options:

- Capture from up to 30 serial COM ports simultaneously, with suitable
hardware.

- Captured data is optionally shown in scrolling windows, and may be
copied to be clipboard if required.

- Capture text files may be in separate directories for each capture port
and new files may be created daily (at a specified time), weekly (Monday),
monthly, hourly, every few minutes, after an inactivity period, when a new
page character is received, or a fixed file name may be used.

- Capture text file name are automatically generated, with a file name
format customised with date and time in various ways, numeric or alphabetic.

- Basic communications settings such speed, parity, data bits, but there
are no flow control settings and data will be captured irrespective of
the usual control lines (so just a 2-wire serial cable is needed).

- ComCap displays the status of the CTS, DSR and DCD lines, and flashes
when data is received.  ComCap sets the RTS and DTR lines when capture is
enabled and uses RTS for flow control.  ComCap never transmits any data
and does not support software flow control (Xon/Xoff).

- Various options to safeguard captured data, closing the log after each
line to force it to write to disk, or after an inactivity period or
periodically every few seconds or minutes.

- A separate log file is maintained showing when capture starts and stops
and other ComCap events.

- A sound file may be played when each new line of data is captured (with
a minimum gap between sounds, in case of frequent data).

- Raw data may be captured unchanged from the COM port, or the data may
be cleaned up with non-printing characters removed and trailing spaces
removed.

- A time stamp may be added to start of each captured line in a
customisable format, typically for alarm type applications.

- A serial number may be added to the start or end of each captured line,
in a customisation format, typically to ease import of data into database
applications or to check log lines are not lost.

- Captured lines of data may be echoed to a windows printer with a
specified font size and style, but note many printers will only print
complete pages and some won't print until capture is stopped.

- Data loss checking, to detect if other windows applications caused
ComCap to possibly lose data.  A warning may be triggered if new data is
not captured after a period, configurable by time and day of week.

- ComCap is a system tray application that can be set to start
automatically when windows starts, and remain unobtrusive.  On Windows
NT4, 2000, XP and 2003, ComCap may be run as a service, so it starts when
the PC boots without needing a user logged-on.

- ComCap will run on Windows 98 and later 32-bit versions of Windows.

ComCap was originally designed to capture telephone call logging data from
the serial port provided on most telephone switching systems (PABXs),
typically called Call Data Records (CDR). The saved data may then be used
as input to telephone call management applications that will cost calls and
produce reports on telephone usage.  Note ComCap does not process CDR data
in any way, it simply saves the logs.

But ComCap is application non-specific and will capture any data that
arrives on a serial port.  It has been used for a wide variety of purposes,
such as logging output from test, alarm and monitoring equipment and serial
printer data (but it can not process printer control characters).

Please note that ComCap is not designed to monitor data between modems and
PC applications, it requires exclusive access to the serial port so no
other application can use the port at the same time.

The ComCap distribution includes a small application written by a user,
'Concatenation Utility', that allows multiple text file captured by ComCap
to be combined into a single text file that may be easier to import into a
telephone call management application.  There is also a small ‘Test RS232
Signals’ utility that may be useful in testing communication port and
cabling problems.

ComCap should have a minimal overhead on the PC and can just be left
running minimised.  It will run on any PC or lap top capable of running
Windows 98 such as a low end Pentium with 16 Mbytes of memory (which could
be dedicated for data capture).  Although ComCap will probably run on
Windows 95, it is no longer officially supported because the Delphi
compiler is not longer supported on that OS. Capturing from up to 30
ports is supported, typically USB serial ports or multi-port expansion
PCI cards, and Windows 2000 or better is recommended for such applications
with a reasonably powerful PIII or better PC to cope with all the I/O.


Installation
------------

ComCap is usually distributed as a ZIP file, which should first be
unzipped into a temporary folder.  If you do not already have it, the
Winzip application from http://www.winzip.com/ (or from most magazine
cover CD-ROMs, Tucows archives, etc) is strongly recommended.

The program SETUP.EXE should then be run to install ComCap.  About 470
Kbytes of disk space is required for the COMCAP.EXE program and 310 Kbytes
for the service version COMCAPSVC.EXE (this is not installed on Windows
9x).   Two other programs are also installed CONCAT.EXE and SIGNALS.EXE.
These are described later.

If you have received an executable with the name COMCAPS.EXE, this should
be run just like SETUP.EXE to install the software.  If the service
version is already installed, please ignore the error saying so.

A user with administrative level privileges must install ComCap.

Until registered, ComCap will only run for one hour before capture is
automatically stopped.  It will be necessary to restart ComCap to continue
capture. Upon request, a licence key valid for a few days can be provided,
if one hour at a time is insufficient time for testing.

ComCap may be registered using a secure order form at the web site:
http://www.magsys.co.uk/comcap/.  Once the order has been processed,
a small file 'userreg.txt' is returned by email, which should be copied
into the ComCap directory.  If ComCap is already running, it should be
exited and restarted to see the new file.  When started, ComCap will
show the name of the individual or company that registered the software
and will run continually.

ComCap is run from Start, Programs, Magenta Systems, then ComCap.  The
ComCap icon will appear in the System Tray, which should be clicked to
restore the main application window.  To auto start ComCap each time
windows is booted, copy the ComCap shortcut into the Startup folder.

If ComCap has been installed on Windows NT4, 2000, XP or 2003 Server,
‘Magenta ComCap Service’ will be found added to the Services list, with
manual start-up.  Before the ComCap service may be started, the windows
version must be run, Common and Channel Settings specified and capture
tested.  Then the service version may be started, and changed to automatic
start-up, if required.  If the PC reboots, capture will then continue
without the PC needing to be logged-on.

Although the ComCap Service may be used logged-on to the 'local system
account', it is better to specify a specific user account with a password.
This ensures that dates and times in ComCap will be formatted according to
that user’s preferences, rather than the American default, and allows
access to network resources.  Echo printing is only possible when using
the account of a user that has the required printer installed.

For testing purposes, a Plessey Call Simulator may be downloaded from the
web site at:  http://www.magsys.co.uk/comcap/callsim.zip.  Note the file
is not indexed on the ComCap web pages.  The Plessey Call Simulator
application creates CDRs for three types of large switch (BTS 7#2, iSDX,
Ericsson), outputting data to a serial port.  The volume and type of
simulated calls may be specified, for a wide range of test purposes.  A
null modem cable will be needed to feed the ComCap port.  It can be used
on the same PC as ComCap, but two COM ports will be needed for each
instance of the simulator (it only supports COM1 to 4).


Uninstalling
------------

ComCap may be removed from the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, or by
running the program UNINSTAL.EXE in the installation directory.  The
uninstaller will remove all installed programs and files, and all
registry.  It will not remove any capture or log files that ComCap has
created.

Uninstalling ComCap should remove the service version from the NT database
automatically.  If it only the interactive version is required, the
service may be removed manually by typing COMCAPSRV.EXE -UNINSTALL from a
command prompt.


Release History
---------------

This is now in the help file.


Ordering ComCap
---------------

Until registered, ComCap will only run for one hour before capture
is automatically stopped.  It will be necessary to restart ComCap to
continue capture.  ComCap may be registered using a secure order
form at the web site, http://www.magsys.co.uk/comcap/.  Once the order
has been processed, a small file 'userreg.txt' is returned by email,
which should be copied into the ComCap directory.  If ComCap is
already running, it should be exited and restarted to see the new
file.  When started, ComCap will show the name of the individual or
company that registered the software and will run continually.


Distribution
------------

ComCap may be freely distributed via web pages, FTP sites, BBS and
conferencing systems or on CD-ROM in unaltered zip format, but no
charge may be made other than reasonable media or bandwidth cost.  Any
notifications must state that ComCap is shareware until registered
with Magenta Systems Ltd.  Please email Magenta Systems Ltd if you
distribute ComCap in some way, so you can be notified of upgrades or
other important changes.


Copyright Information
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Copyright Magenta Systems Ltd, England, 2008.

Magenta Systems Ltd
9 Vincent Road
Croydon
CR0 6ED
United Kingdom

Phone 020 8656 3636, International Phone +44 20 8656 3636
Fax 020 8656 8127, International Fax +44 20 8656 8127

Email: comcap@magsys.co.uk
Web: http://www.magsys.co.uk/comcap/
Download: http://www.magsys.co.uk/software/comcap.zip

There is also a support conference on the CIX conferencing system,
cix:magsoft.  Information on joining CIX may be found at
http://www.cix.co.uk/ or http://www.conferencing.co.uk


