I've been a member of the Crosstalk user family for over a decade and so I had lots of high hopes for the new kid on the block, version 2.2 for Windows with Crossfax. The program started shipping from Digitial Communications Associates' (DCA, Alpharetta, Geo.) last month and is the latest salvo of Windows "communications suites" that contain a mix of asynchronous terminal emulation, file transfer, support for networked modem pools and fax capabilities. However, I'm sad to say that this new baby is ugly: I experienced numerous bugs and crashes, and I can't recommend it for the enterprise until these get fixed. It pains me to give Crosstalk thumbs down: I've used various versions ever since the days of CP/M many years ago when it was the only communications program around. I still use the DOS Crosstalk XVI software when I install a new modem that is particularly difficult, mainly because it is a dependable tool that has always worked for me when others fail. And the number of new features on version 2.2 are really outstanding, including some neat tricks with Internet access and fax fowarding that I'll get to in a moment. I've been using a combination of two programs for Windows communications and fax: Trio's (Raleigh, NC) Datafax and Hilgraeve's (Monroe, Mich.) HyperAccess. Both have enough features and work solidly for me. For example, Trio has a nice macro that works with Microsoft Word and HyperAccess has the ability to scan downloaded files for virus patterns in real-time. I was interested in seeing whether this latest edition of Crosstalk/Crossfax (there are actually two separate executables, but packaged together) would make me switch. It didn't, mainly because of many shortcomings in the product and lots of bugs. For example, on one window pane the close button works as you'd expect, but not if you use the command from the control-menu box (the small box in the upper left of the title bar). Another is that you can't change your fax modem after you've installed the software: while lots of other fax programs have this flexibility, with Crossfax you first must uninstall everything and start from square one. And various autoconnection scripts didn't always autoconnect, which was frustrating when it came time to track down the problem. But if these bugs don't bother you, Crosstalk/Crossfax has included just about everything but the kitchen sink in terms of a communications product. There are three new features that might be compelling to purchase the product: -- Internet access. Say you've got an ordinary shell account to get onto the information superhighway. You've been using a terminal emulation product for years and dutifully downloading your files twice: once to your Internet provider's host, and then the second time to your PC. With Crosstalk, you can do this in a single step. It automates the login, which is no big deal since lots of comm products can do that. Then you press a button to check your mail -- that's nice but other products could do that if you had the time to program them. DCA did it for you. And then you press another few buttons to run the ftp protocols and move the file down to your computer, in a single step. That's something to write home about: no need to navigate with Unix commands or even any commands. Indeed, the first time I did an ftp download I had to check and make sure that the file actually was on my hard disk, I thought for sure that it was a trick. I tried this with a test account on Portal: DCA has included several Internet providers directly as part of the software, so you can get up and running on the Internet quickly. Included are Alberta SuperNet, CerfNet, CicNet, Netcom, Panix, Portal and The World, and you can set up your own information if you want to pick another provider. My own account on Global Enterprise Services is configured for serial line Internet Protocol access, which won't work with Crosstalk. If you do a lot of ftp transfers and have a shell account, this feature is a big timesaver. One small negative is the lack of solid documentation on the Internet features: there is a readme file on the disk but not much else in the manuals. -- Fax fowarding. Here's another situation. Let's say you leave your office for a week long visit with your branch office in Toledo. You are expecting a fax, and your assistant is away on vacation. No problem. Set up Crossfax to forward your faxes to Toledo's fax machine. And, just in case you don't trust the thing, have it print out any received faxes as well to your own printer. To my knowledge, this ability to forward a fax is a unique feature, and when I tried it, it worked like a champ. DCA says this is akin to call forwarding on your voice phone, and I'd agree. Now, I am not the biggest fan of PC fax, mainly because of reliability. Indeed, I managed to find lurking on my hard disk a fax from earlier this summer that I never saw. How it ended up on my PC when I use a dedicated fax machine most of the time I'll never know. This refugee fax is not Crossfax's fault, just an indication of thelack of quality overall with products in this genre. I had lots of trouble getting Crossfax to work with my Intel fax modem. Part of the problem was that I've installed about six different PC fax products on this particular machine. But part of the problem rests with DCA and how poorly they have documented support for the Intel fax modems. At one point, I couldn't get Crossfax to received any faxes: they went to the Intel software instead. You might want to use another fax modem other than Intel's until DCA fixes this. Crossfax has the ability to read in phonebooks from Intel's (Hillsboro, Ore.) and Delrina's (Toronto) fax products. However, this is almost unusable unless your phonebook is small, since you have to parse each individual entry. Other products, such as Trio's (Raleigh) Datafax, can read the entire phonebook directly and in a single step. -- Networking features. Hayes' (Marietta, Geo.) Smartcom was long my favorite when it came to use a modem pool to dial out of my network: it supports a long variety of acronyms of networked communications protocols. Many Windows comm products just drive a locally attached modem and don't allow for any network modem connection whatsoever, such as HyperAccess or Travelling Software's (Bothell, Wash.) Comm Works. Crosstalk in version 2.2 has added support for three important network protocols. (Smartcom has these three and offers others as well.) The three are interrupt 14 redirection (still used by some older modem pools when all else fails), Novell Asynchronous Services Interface (NASI, which is obviously just for NetWare networks), and telnet/TCP/IP. This latter one is significant and offers the ability to run both through ordinary comm ports and the Internet as well.That's helpful, especially for those shops that have TCP/IP in abundance and don't want to run two separate comm products. You'll need version 1.1 of Winsock software, or a TCP stack from one of the major vendors (Sun; FTP; Novell, NetManage; Walker, Richer,Quinn; or Wollongong) to make this work. Smartcom only supports the first two TCP stacks. So these three features are nice, but how does Crosstalk stack up to the competition overall? When I am out shopping for a new Windows comm program, there are two things that are important to me: automation features and ease of configuration. -- Automation features. By now, just about every comm program on the planet has some sort of scripting and automation routine. You know, the ability to automatically enter your user name and password, and a few commands to get you started in your session when you connect. Crosstalk for years has had a virtually unusable (at least by me) scripting language called CASL, for Crosstalk Applications Scripting Language. Well, it still is rather thick going but DCA has provided lots of examples in the form of working button bars and other graphical niceties that are part of the features that ship with the product. You can examine what they did to create all this graphical wonder quickly and easily, and if you have the patience and time, make changes yourself. There are automation routines for the major services such as procedures for login and checking one's MCI Mail, one that I tested successfully. There are lots more: Lexis, AT&TMail, Compuserve, Delphi, DowJones, and so forth. My only beef? Unlike Hilgraeve's HyperAccess, these services are only revealed when you do a File/Open command -- HyperAccess puts each service in an icon on the desktop. --Setup and configuration. My test is to see how little information I need to enter to get up and running with a new communications service. The Windows product that I like the best is HyperAccess: it is fast on the file transfer and takes less than a dozen keystrokes to enter the information for a new service. Crosstalk takes a bit longer to setup. I am allergic to those comm products that like to muck with my various .INI files and add drivers to my \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. Smartcom and CommWorks, for example, do this, while HyperAccess doesn't. Crosstalk does both dirty deeds, which is unfortunate when it comes time to uninstall the product and try to undo these changes, or when you are trying to track down a problem with your internal support staff. Because Crosstalk and Crossfax are two separate products (DCA has significantly improved upon technology it purchased from Alien Computing for the fax side of things) there are two separate installation routines, which is a bit agravating. The fax side of the house correctly autodetected my modem, for example, but I still had to manually enter things when it came time to setup Crosstalk. Oh well, that is what I mean about those little bugs. Taken together, Crosstalk and Crossfax are a communications powerhouse that have lots more features than most of the competition. However, the number of bugs and small things make this an unreliable program and I'd wait until version 3 before getting more involved. In the meantime, I'll still use my trusty old DOS version of Crosstalk that doesn't crash and after a decade still runs like a champ. And, for a Windows comm program, I'll stick with my combination of Trio's Datafax and Hilgraeve's HyperAccess until the Crosstalk/Crossfax pair get to know each other better. Data box: Crosstalk for Windows version 2.2 with Crossfax Price: $195 shipping since August Ready for the Enterprise: NO, still too buggy to trust UP: Features such as Internet automation and fax forwarding are unique DOWN: Many bugs and annoying loose ends makes for unreliable connections. DOWN: Setting up a new service and converting fax phonebooks are cumbersome Test bed: Dell 486/D50 running Windows with Intel SatisFAXtion internal fax modem. Digitial Communications Associates 1000 Alderman Drive Alpharetta, Geo. 30202 800- 348 3221 404-442-4366 404-442-4095 (fax) Internet: 76702.1216@compuserve.com
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David Strom
Port Washington, NY 11050 USA
US TEL: 1 (516) 944-3407