THE FIRST AND MOST DISAPPOINTING FACT CONCERNING MPP MODEMS AND SIG*ATARI IS THAT AS OF 3/13/84 THERE IS NO TERMINAL SOFTWARE WHICH SUPPORTS BOTH THE MPP MODEM AND COMPUSERVE'S UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD PHONE TRANSMISSION ERROR CHECKING PROTOCOL (CIS'S A-PROTOCOL). "UNIVERSAL" MODEMS SUCH AS THE HAYES, AND ATARI MODEMS, CAN USE A PROGRAM CALLED TSCOPE, BUT TSCOPE DOESN'T WORK WITH MPP'S.(WE MPP OWNERS ARE, OF COURSE, HOPING SOMEONE KNOWLEDGEABLE WILL CREATE A "TSCOPE" TYPE PROGRAM FOR US) DESPITE THAT SHORTCOMING, SIG PROGRAMS AND FILES CAN BE DOWNLOADED USING TERMINAL MENU OPTIONS "B" OR "E". THE MAIN PROBLEM IS THAT NO TRANSMISSION ERROR CHECKING IS DONE SO IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET SOME GARBAGE IN THE SAVED FILE. (IF THE PROGRAM HAS A ".BIN" EXTENDER THEN A FILE CALLED "CONBIN.ATR" FROM REFERENCE LIBRARY XA2 MUST BE USED TO CHANGE THE ".BIN" TYPE DATA TO A USABLE FORMAT.) BASIC SIG DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS 1. FIND LIBRARY FILE YOU WISH TO COPY. ONE WAY TO FIND FILES WHICH YOU MIGHT WANT TO COPY IS TO BROWSE THROUGH DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FILES AVAILABLE IN A REFERENCE LIBRARY. TO DO THIS TYPE "XA #" WHERE # IS THE NUMBER OF THE LIBRARY YOU WANT TO USE. THEN TYPE "BRO" AND A DESCRIPTION OF EACH FILE IN THE LIBRARY WILL BE PRINTED. AFTER EACH DESCRIPTION YOU WILL BE OFFERED THE CHOICE OF "R D T" (R=READ, D=DOWNLOAD). JUST PRESS RETURN IF YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT THE NEXT FILE, OTHERWISE... 2. HIT START KEY TO CALL MPP MENU. YOU WILL BE OFFLINE, BUT STILL CONNECTED TO CIS. 3. PICK CHOICE B (DIRECT TO DISK) OR E (CREATE NEW BUFFER). 4. HIT "T" TO RETURN ONLINE. 5. PRESS OPTION KEY AND THEN EITHER "R" FOR READ, OR "D" FOR DOWNLOAD. (USE ONLY "R" IF FILE HAS ".BIN" EXTENDER"). 6. FILE WILL NOW BE SAVED ON DISK (CHOICE B) OR IN A BUFFER (CHOICE E). WHEN FILE HAS ENDED, PRESS OPTION TO STOP SAVING DATA. 7. IF CHOICE E WAS USED, THEN THE DATA MUST BE SAVED TO DISK OR CASSETTE BEFORE YOU TURN OFF THE COMPUTER (USE CHOICE C ON MPP MENU) (SIGN OFF FROM CIS FIRST TO SAVE YOURSELF $$$). 8. FILES WITH A ".CRE" EXTENDER ARE SPECIAL TYPES AND HAVE SEPARATE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THEIR USE AFTER YOU HAVE THEM SAVED PER THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS. 9. PROBABLY THE EASIEST WAY TO SAVE MORE THAN ONE FILE DURING A SESSION IS TO SAVE THEM IN BUFFERS, CREATING NEW BUFFERS FOR EACH FILE.