Have a problem with a Dongle (parallel) under Win3.11(WFWG),
built on top of Dos6.22

I made a custom pif that opens a dos-box and starts a batch file that
starts a program called TCPOS GastroFix.
It's a cashier program for a resteraunt.

To get this program to run you need the dongle attached to the parallel
port. Problem is, under pure DOS it works fine (just no network), but
under the windows dos-box it won't see the Dongle! ugg.

They need the network to do the printouts at the end of the day, and I
know they had it set up under windows3.11 before, so there IS a way to
get it to work.

I'm thinking maybe windows changed the IO Adress or IRQ or something of
the parallel port? Can't find anywhere to change the settings though,
only for seriell ports. Maybe it's something completely different.

Anyone had a problem like this before? I'm stumped. thanks for any
ideas. -Dave

DreadDave wrote:
Assuming that you aren't loading DOS network drivers, is there any
conflict with the IRQ being used by Windows networking and the
parallel port IRQ?

Is the network driver redirecting the printer port on this machine?

As I understand it, Windows accesses the parallel port through one
of three methods: Non Windows apps ususally use the DOS device names
LPT1 - LPT3, through the ROM BIOS interrupt 17, or direct addressing
if the hardware is 100% compatible.

Did you check the [ports] section in WIN.INI to see if the "LPT1="
entry has been modified? If it's just "LPT1=" then windows is
directly addressing the hardware. You may need to force Windows to
access the port through DOS by changing the entry to something like
"LPT1=LPT1.DOS"

HTH

Rick

Rick wrote:
Hey, thanks for the info and ideas Rick! Wish I had checked back
sooner. (was kinda loosing hope for an answer)
I'll look into it and try the lpt1=lpt1.dos idea. I bet that'll do the
trick.
Let ya know how it turns out.
-Dave