Tape Devices
To facilitate data backups in the Windows NT environment, Windows NT contains built-in support for tape drives from a variety of different manufacturers. The most important thing to keep in mind with tape drives under Windows NT is that the device must be on the Windows NT HCL or be supported by a native Windows NT driver. The Control Panel’s Tape Devices applet (shown in Figure 5.63) lets you manage the tape devices installed on your system.
The dialog box has two main tabbed sections: Devices and Drivers. The Devices tab shows the tape drives currently installed on your system. To get the properties of a tape drive, select the drive and choose the Properties button. To have Windows NT automatically try to detect your tape drive, click the Detect button. If a tape drive is detected, Windows NT will install support for the device.
If your device is not detected (because Windows NT failed to recognize it or you are using a drive with third-party drivers), you can use the Drivers tab to manually install support for the drive.
Use the following steps to add a tape drive to your Windows NT configuration:
Run the Control Panel’s Tape Devices applet.
Click the Drivers tab.
Click the Add button. The Install Driver dialog box appears (shown in Figure 5.64), which lists all supported tape drive manufacturers and models.
From the list, select the manufacturer and model of your tape drive. If your drive is not listed but the drive came with a Windows NT 4.0 driver from the manufacturer, click the Have Disk button.
Windows NT will now prompt you for either the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM or a vendor-supplied diskette (if using the Have Disk option) containing support for the tape device.
When you’re finished, you’ll need to restart your system in order to complete the installation.
Alternatively, if you wish to remove an installed tape drive from the list, select the device and click Remove. Windows NT will ask you to confirm your decision.
Once support for your tape device has been installed, you will be able to use the Windows NT Backup application and other Windows NT backup programs containing tape device support.
Problems and Answers:After upgrading to Windows NT 4.0, I see two different Tape Devices icons on Control Panel. Which one should I use and how do I get rid of the other one?
This sometimes occurs after you upgrade to Windows NT 4.0 because the Windows NT 3.x Tape Devices applet was not removed. By default, Windows NT’s Control Panel displays icons for all applets (files have the extension .cpl) found in the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Drivers folder. To remedy the problem, rename the file Ctape.cpl in this folder to Ctape.old (or any other extension you wish). Rerun Control Panel and only the Windows NT 4.0 Tape Devices applet will be displayed.
Telephony
One of the exciting new features of Windows NT 4.0 is its incorporation of telephony (a.k.a. Computer Telephone Integration (CTI)) technology. This is the standard for communications between computer and telephone equipment that is used in faxing, voice mail, and other applications. This communication is facilitated with the telephony API (TAPI), which may be used by developers to enable telephony support in their applications.
The Control Panel’s Telephony applet (shown in Figure 5.65) lets you control your telephony configuration in Windows NT. The dialog box has two tabbed sections: My Locations and Telephony Drivers.
The Telephony Drivers tab lets you view and manage the list of currently installed telephony drivers. Drivers can be added, removed, or configured here.
The most common telephony driver in Windows NT is the Unimodem Service Provider driver, which is automatically installed when you set up a modem (or fax modem) using the Control Panel’s Modems applet. This driver lets telephony-based applications communicate with your modem. The other driver you should see is the TAPI Kernel-Mode Service Provider driver, which provides TAPI support in the Windows NT environment. If you purchase telephony hardware or software that includes additional Windows NT telephony drivers for device support, you can add them using the Telephony Drivers tab.
Use the following steps to add a telephony driver to your Windows NT 4.0 configuration:
Run the Control Panel’s Telephony applet.
Click the Telephony Drivers tab.
Click the Add button. The Add Driver dialog box appears listing all Telephony drivers shipped with Windows NT 4.0 (currently only the Unimodem Service Provider driver).
Select the driver you wish to install, or if you have a vendor-supplied Windows NT 4.0 Telephony driver disk, click the Have Disk button.
Windows NT will now prompt you for either the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM or the vendor-supplied diskette (if you selected the the Have Disk option) containing the telephony driver.
To remove a telephony driver, simply select the driver from the displayed list and click the Remove button. To configure the driver, click the Configure button, which displays the configuration dialog box for that driver.
The My Locations tab lets you configure the various locations from which you will use telephony software. You can configure different dialing properties for each location, such as area code, country, calling card, and outside line-access information. This screen is identical to the Dialing Properties screen found in the Modems applet and references the same configuration information. See the description of the Modems applet, for information on how to set up dialing locations.
UPS
Windows NT lets users with UPS devices install support for these devices in their Windows NT environment. UPSs provide battery backup power to your computer in the event of a power outage. The UPS feature lets Windows NT communicate with a UPS using one of your computer’s serial (COM) ports. Windows NT uses a special service called the UPS Service, which runs in the background, to communicate with the UPS device using the serial connection.
For More Information: For more information about Windows NT Services, see the description of the Services applet.
You can use the Control Panel’s UPS applet (shown in Figure 5.66) to configure UPS support in Windows NT.
To enable UPS support in Windows NT 4.0, your UPS device must come with a serial port interface and be supported by Windows NT. After you attach the UPS to one of your available COM ports, run the UPS applet and click the checkbox in the upper-left corner of the dialog box. This lets you enter configuration data about your UPS device.
When you configure your UPS in Windows NT 4.0, you should first obtain a support sheet from the UPS manufacturer listing the configuration options appropriate for your UPS model and the supported features. Windows NT supports several different UPS-based features, which are listed in Table 5.11.
For those features that your UPS supports, check the box next to that feature and select (where applicable) whether the UPS Interface voltage for this feature is positive or negative.
There are also several options at the bottom of the dialog box that let you configure other miscellaneous settings about the UPS device and service.
The UPS Characteristics section lets you enter UPS-specific configuration information and is only available when the Power Failure Signal feature is enabled and the Low Battery Warning feature is not. Expected Battery Life lets you configure the expected amount of time (in minutes) that your UPS battery will last in the event of a power outage. The default setting is 2 minutes.
Caution: Be conservative when configuring the expected battery life figure; setting the number too high may cause the battery to shut down before Windows NT is able to safely shut down your system. You should set the time to 80 percent of the manufacturer’s stated battery life time.
Battery recharge time is the number of minutes (range is 1 to 250) of AC-powered runtime required to recharge 1 minute of battery time. The default is 100 minutes.
The UPS Service section of the dialog box lets you configure options relative to the Windows NT UPS Service, which monitors the UPS connection. The Time Between Power Failure and Warning Message entry lets you specify the time between when a power failure occurs and when the first message is sent to notify users (in seconds). The default is 5 seconds, and the possible range is 0 to 120 seconds. The Delay Between Warning Messages option specifies the time interval (in seconds) between alert messages sent to system users after a power failure occurs. These messages continue until the system is shut down. The default is 120 seconds (2 minutes), and the possible range is 5 to 300 seconds.
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