Direct Cable Connection Crash Course - Software Review and User Report

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Direct Cable Connection - Software Review and User Report

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Author/Publisher:

Microsoft

Contact/Address:

www.microsoft.com

Software Review - Description

Well, here goes a piece of awkward software if there ever was one. With the single exception of the Windows Swapfile, the Direct Cable Connection is probably the most controversial single MS Windows component I know of. Why is that so? I've asked myself that question countless times, and all I came up with was that, probably, Microsoft just never intended Direct Cable Connection to be really functional at all. As with the aforementioned Swapfile, they simply provided the thing because they had to - knowing that an operating system uncapable of some elementary interconnectivity between two stand-alone PCs would be as ridicule as an operating system without some sort of virtual memory management, and not worthy to be called an operating system in the first place. So what they apparently did is, they packed together some exes and dlls, provided them with rudimental functionality, and dubbed the bundle Direct Cable Connection. Because of its bad quality, of course, they didn't dare document it well, which is why Direct Cable Connection remains one of the most scarcely documented parts of the Windows OS. And which is why most of the work heroically done by frustrated end users has been mainly guesswork and has proceeded by trial and error - which is to say, terribly slowly, although heroically.
What is Microsoft's rationale in all this? Do I really have to explain? Just as with the terribly badly performing and terribly badly documented Swapfile, Direct Cable Connection was conceived so as to:

leave plenty of room for their own separately salable add-ons, such as Microsoft Plus!,
and for third-party developers to jump in with dedicated utilities (PC Anywhere, LapLink...)

on one hand and, on the other hand,

plenty of discontent in the end users,
that way subliminally pushing them to buy those dedicated utilities.

Not terribly cunning, if you look at it coldly, huh? - but terribly effective in terms of market penetration, take my word for it!

As a matter of fact, Microsoft are so ruthless and predictive in their marketing strategies (strategy being a term derived - not coincidentally - from warfare theory), that, even at the risk of potentially incurring in some copyright infringement, I just have to reproduce here the closing statement of their one-time associates, RealNames.com, that have been pushed out of business by the ruthlessness of Microsoft's strategy - especially because we don't know for how long will this statement be available on their official website. Forgive me for this sidebar, but I just think it can never harm to know who you're buying your software from.

But maybe first some backrgound info is required for those among you who are not familiar with the RealNames affair:
The idea behind RealNames Keywords was as ingenious as it was simple: suppose you run BadBargains.com and wish to direct all surfers looking for a bad bargain to your site, BadBargains.com - you simply buy the "bad bargains" keyword from RealNames and, bingo! Through their agreement with Microsoft, they will direct all surfers using the Microsoft browser and issuing a search for "bad bargains," to your site. So RealNames thought they would sell Internet Keywords to potential Internet marketers who wish to redirect all interested surfers to their sites. So they contacted Microsoft as the producer of the Internet browsing software with the biggest market share. So, as it seems, this was their mistake: looking at it through market shares, and forgetting who they were dealing with. They should have seen it coming. Before too long, Microsoft decided that they didn't need the middle man anymore and pushed RealNames.com out of business. Just wait and see: I could bet my ... 3 ... that, before too long, Microsoft will implement a variation of the idea on their own... Uh? Sorry? They already have?
Anyway, here are the two pages as they were available at web.realnames.com at the end of June, 2002:

RealNames has closed.

Microsoft Decision Triggers RealNames Closure

Following Three Consecutive Quarters of Revenue Growth and Dramatic Growth in Keyword Usage, Microsoft Decides Not to Renew Keyword Contract

RealNames Keywords are activated in the Microsoft IE browser pursuant to a distribution agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft has chosen not to renew that agreement. Keywords will continue to resolve in Microsoft Internet Explorer browser until June 28, 2002, at which time the service will no longer be available.

RealNames has ceased normal business operations and commenced an orderly wind down of its business. This is a necessary step, given Microsoft's decision, but an unfortunate one. The growth in Keyword usage clearly demonstrates that Keywords are the next generation naming system. Nonetheless, without our key distributor, it does not make sense to keep the business active in its current form. Thank you for subscribing and using Keywords.

All inquiries from partners should be sent to RealNames, at rnbusiness@realnames.com. Keyword customer inquiries or comments should go to customerfeedback@realnames.com.

RealNames will be sending written notification to all creditors, including Keyword customers. To update your e-mail and physical addresses or if you have further questions regarding this procedure, please send your e-mail to claims@realnames.com.

Keith Teare is no longer serving as Chairman of the RealNames Board of Directors. He has been retained by the Board of Directors to lead the sale of RealNames' assets. All inquiries regarding sale of RealNames assets should be directed to assetsales@realnames.com.

RealNames FAQs

How long will existing Keywords remain active?

Active Keywords will continue to resolve in Microsoft Internet Explorer through June 28th, 2002 at 5:00 p.m. PDT.

What Services will remain active for Keyword owners?

RealNames will provide customers and resellers with the ability to modify their Keyword destination URL through June 14th. No other services or support will be available.

Are Keywords still for sale?

No, new Keyword subscriptions were suspended at the end of business on May 10th.

Will RealNames provide a refund for Keyword Customers?

By August, RealNames will be sending notification to all creditors, including Keyword customers. If you wish to ensure that RealNames has a correct email address for you or if you have further questions regarding this notification, please send your information to: claims@realnames.com.

How can my company start the process of qualifying to participate in the RealNames asset sale?

All inquiries regarding sale of RealNames assets should be directed to assetsales@realnames.com.

Still not persuaded? Read this excerpt from an oldish (3-7-98 and 3-13-98) Crack Talk newsletter (reprinted without permission, but with all original typos and errors ;) :

Crack Talk 3-10-98

It's obvious that Windows grows increasingly popular by including the new innovative ideas other programs have thought up and developed. As I sat up Win 98 a couple things I noticed... the dial up adapter to help you set up an internet connection has improved to the point that it will probably put the software companies that made the programs like "Dunce" out of business.. and the companies who make the "stay connected" programs can pack it up too. My system wants to be online so bad that it never will rest till it's connected. You can bet that AOL and other internet providers aren't going to like that! It will keep their phone lines tied up all the time. If you have AOL you may as well brace yourself for the same kind of problems you had when they went to flat rate.. AGAIN... when Win 98 is released.

If your company has an innovative software product before you worry about someone cracking it maybe you should take a look at some companies like Quaterdeck.. who had a very popular multitasking program called Desqview. Check their stock value from 2 years ago, trading at $35.. and compare it to it's current value, $1 - $2 ...over 94% devaluation, now losing 43 cents per share. ...and, of course that is just one of many many many examples you can find.

Crack Talk 3-Friday 13th-98

Update: Micro$oft "Road kill"

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to bash Microsoft.. I just find it AMAZING that they can pretend to be against software piracy when NO company on earth has put more programmers / small inovative companies out of work by copying/taking their ideas and creations.

For those of you who may not quite understand the meaning of this idea, "Road Kill" is like the cat, dog, rabbit or squirrel that you see laying dead beside the highway. When someone comes out with an innovative and popular idea and develops it into a useful product, it won't be long before it becomes a part of the Windows operating system. In the old days this was called pillaging. Here are some of the victims.. and I would appreciate any comments and additions to this list.

Desqview ( Could have been where Microsoft is today had they made it look like a Mac with cute little icons)

Starfish Internet Utilities

Get Right Monitor (Reconnects Dropped Downloads)

Netscape- To some extent

They bought Hotmail (well at least they paid for something)

Automate

Real Audio Player (now called Netshow)

Yahoo News Ticker

Winamp (Mp3 player)

Many Good Norton Tools have been copied

MS NetMeeting is a combination of about 30 good ideas, not MS.

MS voice (reads txt files to you) very cool.

MS Mapping software that makes maps for you, with GPS.

MS word copied- Word Perfect & Lotus Wordperfect (Dropped prices in half last week to try to survive)

MS office copied- Corel office, & Lotus

Many uninstall programs were copied.

Cybermedia's "Oil Change" (Now called Update Wizard.)

The word "wizard" was stolen from Softkey.

Will Java make it? Who needs all this "cross-platform" stuff when everyone is using Win/Nt anyway? Don't you just cringe when you see Java trying to load when you hit a web site? I sure do!

Software Review - Pros

Direct Cable Connection is, let's give it this much, the easiest way to connect two stand-alone computers: it's a "poor man's LAN," as someone said. You can play networking games over it (so I'm told) and can even configure one of your computers as a Web server and access it from the other machine via a Web browser. You can even ping it etc... And, particularly for notebook and My Briefcase users, it's definitely a life saver - although in its Microsoft implementation, it's hardly any better than their DOS intersvr.exe/interlnk.exe combo. In fact, if the former "uses-up" your dial-up connection (which means, it prevents you to dial up to your ISP while using Direct Cable Connection), the latter doesn't recognize FAT32 volumes, which may be an even greater pain - depending on your needs and your configuration. But here, before we even found a single true "Pro", we are already inadvertently slipping in the "Cons" section:

Software Review - Cons

You name it. I don't even know where to begin... To show lenience toward the poor Direct Cable Connection, I tried to move as many "Cons" as I possibly could further below, to the Tips, Tricks and Tweaks section, but still there remained a bunch...

First and foremost, although this is not strictly about Direct Cable Connection, but rather about the Printer and Folder Sharing: it's a terrible security breach, potentially allowing hackers to enter your machine while you are connected to the Internet, and play havoc in there. Just check out grc.com and click on the ShieldsUp! link if you don't believe me: you are guaranteed to lose some hair...
It seems that different versions of Direct Cable Connection (directcc.exe), shipped with various flavors/versions of Windows, may be incompatible in that they fail to establish a connection. Although, personally, I'd be more inclined to say that maybe they only come with different default presets: in fact, it would suffice to have different protocols installed by default in order for Direct Cable Connection to refuse to work without prior "tweaking" (which, in this case, would be limited to simply installing and binding the same protocols on both machines).
Slow Windows shutdown after you install Direct Cable Connection? Check LM Announce under File And Printer Sharing/Properties/Advanced: if it's enabled, that may be the culprit. Disable it and try now. Any better? No? Thought you'd say so. One interesting (and irritating) thing about Windows is that you may never be sure whether a solution that works for one user will work for anybody else ;P ...
Don't expect your Network Neighborhood to start functioning after you set up Direct Cable Connection: you are apparently still not setting up a "true Network" (in Microsoft's view at least), so you still won't be allowed to browse your Network. This is despite the fact that you can access shared resources, view shared folders, use shared printers, CD-ROMs etc. etc. I've heard rumors that you should enable Browse master on both machines, or on the host only, or on the guest only - I've tried out all possible permutations and couldn't get it to work.

User Report - Tips, Tricks and Tweaks

General

With the newer, "intelligent" parallel ports (which are not even "parallel" anymore, but "Enhanced Capabilities" ports - which is what the acronym ECP stands for), this doesn't seem to be a problem, but it can be a problem if at least one of the machines you are trying to connect is rather oldish: you must have the same type of port on both machines if you want Direct Cable Connection to work. So, just to be sure, dig into your BIOSes and set both your machines either to Standard Parallel Port (SPP) or both to Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP).
You suspect your cable may be at fault? Test it from the DOS, with its intersvr.exe/interlnk.exe combo: if the connection still can't be established, it's very likely you should dump (or recheck and re-solder) your cable.
Buy a bidirectional cable, the transfer rates, although still incredibly slow, are 8-10 times faster than with the serial cable. Use SysMon.exe to monitor the connection speed and the transfer rate.
Your best bet is to remove the dumb IPX/SPX protocol (in my experience, it never finds the host, forcing you to either type in its name by hand, or click Cancel) and replace it with NetBEUI - binding it to the DUN (Dial-Up Network), of course, and doing this on both computers (they will only be able to communicate if they both use the same protocol). NetBEUI seamlessly finds the host's name, folders, and other resources, such as printers, even correctly individuating their network names! Of course, you must have all the necessary paraphernalia, such as Microsoft Networking, Printer and Folder Sharing, Client for Microsoft Networks, etc. properly installed and configured to make Direct Cable Connection work, but I assume y'all know that, don'tcha?
Although Direct Cable Connection doesn't provide real peer-to-peer networking (one of the PCs is "guest", and the other is "host", which resembles a client/server, and not a peer-to-peer configuration), there have been reports that you could trick Windows into reversing the two roles, virtually obtaining a two-way peer-to-peer connection. Reportedly, this could be done simply by creating a shortcut on the host to the \\guest\shared_folder; in my experience, this doesn't apply to all configurations and doesn't always work. The interesting part is, though, that you can even access conveniently configured machines on the Internet this way. If a computer is connected to the Internet via an ISP, and has folder sharing enabled, and you know the computer's IP address, then you can simply launch Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) and type the target's IP address in Windows Explorer's address bar, wait a few seconds, and voilà - you can browse the target's folders... This is highly illegal, though. As all things funny.
You should keep in mind that, independently of the Direct Cable Connection, Windows Commander provides its own FTP-like parallel port connection as well.

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