                   Release Notes  PN 93000362

                      Digi RealPort Driver
                  Version 2.8.94.0, 06/10/2003

                     Microsoft Windows 2000
                      Microsoft Windows XP
                  Microsoft Windows Server 2003

                  Software Package PN 40002164


  CONTENTS

  Section      Description
  -------------------------------
  1            Introduction
  2            Supported Operating Systems
  3            Supported Products
  4            Known Limitations
  5            Upgrade driver from FAS to RealPort
  6            Update RealPort driver
  7            Additional Notes
  8            History

  1. INTRODUCTION

     This document describes the device driver that supports
     the Digi devices listed below.  The driver is for use
     with Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, or
     Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

     Refer to the following number when searching the Digi
     International Inc. Web site (www.digi.com) or the FTP
     site (ftp.digi.com) for the latest software package:

     40002164_<highest revision letter>

  2. SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEMS

     Microsoft Windows 2000
     Microsoft Windows XP
     Microsoft Windows Server 2003

  3. SUPPORTED PRODUCTS

     Digi Connect ME
     Digi One EM
     Digi One IA
     Digi One IA RealPort
     Digi One RealPort
     Digi One SP
     Digi One TS
     Digi One TS H
     Digi One TS W
     Digi Flex
     Digi PortServer
     Digi PortServer II
     Digi PortServer TS 2
     Digi PortServer TS 2 H
     Digi PortServer TS 2 MEI
     Digi PortServer TS 2 W
     Digi PortServer TS 4
     Digi PortServer TS 4 H
     Digi PortServer TS 4 MEI
     Digi PortServer TS 4 W
     Digi PortServer TS 8
     Digi PortServer TS 16
     Digi EtherLite   2
     Digi EtherLite   8
     Digi EtherLite  16
     Digi EtherLite  32
     Digi EtherLite  80
     Digi EtherLite 160
     Digi EtherLite 162

     If your device is not listed, select "Standard RealPort Device"
     from the Model list.

  4. KNOWN LIMITATIONS

     If you plan to use the RealPort driver with serial printers,
     you have to reboot the system after device installation or
     after renaming ports to see the new ports listed in the Print
     Spooler's list of available ports for printing. This is a
     known limitation of the Print Spooler, which does not detect
     changes in the list of available ports automatically.

     If you experience problems printing to a serial printer,
     navigate to the device's Device Properties dialog in the
     Device Manager, enable "Complete Write Requests Immediately,"
     and try printing again.

  5. UPGRADE DRIVER FROM FAS TO REALPORT

     If you have previously installed the EtherLite driver for an
     EtherLite device (EtherLite 2/8/16/32/80/160/162), follow these
     steps to upgrade to the current RealPort driver:

     a. Uninstall the old EtherLite driver and reboot the system.

     b. Update the EtherLite firmware using the DGIPSERV utility,
        which is included in the driver package. You can download
        the latest firmware files from the Digi Support Web site,
        http://support.digi.com.

     c. Install the new RealPort driver through the "Add New Hardware
        Wizard".

  6. UPDATE REALPORT DRIVER

     You need administrative privileges to update device drivers.
     Please be sure you are logged into Windows as Administrator
     or as a user that is a member of the Administrators group.

     To update an existing RealPort driver, first perform these steps:

     1. Unzip the driver installation package to a folder of your
        choice.
     2. Run Dgrpcln.cmd to remove previous Inf file versions.

     Next, locate and follow the instructions for your specific
     operating system:

     WINDOWS 2000

     a. To open Device Manager, click "Start", and then click "Control
        Panel". Double-click "System". On the "Hardware" tab, click
        "Device Manager".

     b. Click "Device Manager" and double-click "Multi-port Serial
        Adapters".

     c. Double-click on the device for which you would like to update
        the driver. On the "Driver" tab, click "Update Driver...".
        This will start the "Upgrade Device Driver Wizard".

     d. Click "Next" on the first page.

     e. Select "Display a list of the known drivers for this
        device..." and click "Next".

     f. Click "Have Disk..." and browse to the folder where you
        extracted the driver files. Click "Next".

     g. Select the matching device and click "Next".

     h. Click "Next" and then click "Finish". You might have to
        restart your system to let the changes take effect.

     i. Repeat steps c. through h. for each device you would like
        to update.

     WINDOWS XP
     WINDOWS SERVER 2003

     a. To open Device Manager, click "Start", and then click "Control
        Panel". Double-click "System". On the "Hardware" tab, click
        "Device Manager".

     b. Click "Device Manager" and double-click "Multi-port Serial
        Adapters".

     c. Right-click on the device for which you would like to update
        the driver and select "Update Driver...". This will start the
        "Update Hardware Wizard".

     d. Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)"
        and click "Next".

     e. Select "Search for the best driver in these locations", check
        "Include this location in the search," and browse to the
        folder where you extracted the driver files. Click "Next".

     f. Verify that the matching device and driver is selected and
        click "Next".

     g. Click "Finish". You might have to restart your system to let
        the changes take effect.

     h. Repeat steps c. through g. for each device you would like
        to update.

  7. ADDITIONAL NOTES

     On-line help is available when you install the product.

     Installation documentation can be found at Digi's Web site,
     http://www.digi.com, or at Digi's FTP server, ftp://ftp.digi.com.

     ADVANCED DEVICE SETTINGS
     ------------------------

     The RealPort driver supports an additional set of advanced
     features, each of which can be enabled or disabled from the
     Device Manager:

         o Right-click "My Computer"
         o Select "Manage"
         o In the left-hand side of the Computer Management
           window, select "Device Manager"
         o In the right-hand side of the window, expand the
           "Multi-port serial adapters" category
         o Right-click on the device to configure
         o Choose "Properties"
         o Navigate to the "Advanced" tab
         o Verify that the top-level device (the RealPort
           device) is highlighted and select "Properties..."
         o The Advanced Properties dialog is displayed, which you
           can use to enable and disable the advanced features.

     Each of the advanced features discussed here is disabled by
     default.

     COMPLETE WRITE REQUESTS IMMEDIATELY
     -----------------------------------

     Checking this field means that the driver confirms the
     completion of a write request as soon as data is written to
     the buffer. The default is to wait until the data is sent
     out the port.

     SEND KEEP-ALIVE PACKETS
     -----------------------

     Sending keep-alive packets is a mechanism for keeping a TCP
     connection up all the time, even when there is no network
     traffic between the RealPort driver and the Digi device.

     ALLOW PORTS TO BE OPENED WHEN NETWORK IS UNAVAILABLE
     ----------------------------------------------------

     Turn this feature on if you want the RealPort driver to
     always succeed open requests, even if the driver cannot
     communicate with the remote device at the time of the open.
     By default, the driver only succeeds an open request if it
     can communicate with the remote device.

     RETURN ERROR CODES WHEN NETWORK IS UNAVAILABLE
     ----------------------------------------------

     The RealPort driver supports two methods to handle Wide Area
     Network (WAN) errors, such as those generated when the
     RealPort driver loses its TCP/IP session with the remote
     RealPort device.

     By default, the feature is disabled and the RealPort driver
     seamlessly and transparently handles any and all network
     errors. The most common network error is that the driver
     loses its TCP/IP session with the remote RealPort device,
     either because the RealPort device is unreachable due to
     general network failures or because the RealPort device was
     rebooted or powered off.

     In the event that the RealPort driver loses its TCP/IP
     session with the remote RealPort device, the driver will
     attempt to reestablish a new connection with the device once
     every second. The driver will also simulate a loss of
     hardware flow control lines by lowering each of the following
     signals -- DCD, DSR, and CTS. It will also simulate receipt
     of an Xoff character, if software flow control is being used.

     In this mode, client applications will not and cannot detect
     network errors. Client applications are free to continue
     reading from and writing to any RealPort ports, and to
     continue using the ports as they otherwise normally would.
     In this way, network errors are handled transparently from
     the client application.

     However, it is sometimes useful for a client to know when the
     remote RealPort device is unreachable because the TCP/IP
     session was dropped. In this case, you can check the "Return
     error codes when network is unavailable" feature, and the
     RealPort driver will then communicate network errors to the
     client when the network is unreachable.

     In this mode, if the network connection is dropped and a
     client initiates a read or a write, the driver will
     immediately complete the operation and return the error,
     ERROR_NETWORK_UNREACHABLE. A client application can be
     modified to recognize this error code and to respond to the
     error by performing some special operation, such as logging
     the error to a file. The driver will continue to return this
     error code until it is able to reestablish a network
     connection with the remote RealPort device, at which point
     the driver will resume normal processing of reading and
     writing to the port.

  8. HISTORY

     Version 2.8.94.0 (Rev. N, June 10, 2003)
     ---------------------------------------
     o Added support for Digi Connect ME.
     o Fixed a problem processing write requests after the input
       buffer is cleared with PurgeComm during network disconnect.
     o Corrected break event signaling.
     o Fixed detection of modem line transitions for EtherLite 2.

     Version 2.7.90.0 (Rev. M, April 22, 2003)
     -----------------------------------------
     o Added support for Microsoft Windows Server 2003
     o Improved management of outgoing network resources.
     o Fixed a condition where a network disconnect under certain
       conditions may cause a bugcheck.
     o Fixed RTS Toggle functionality. A RTS pre- and post-delay
       can be configured through the command line interface or the
       web interface of your Digi One or Digi PortServer.
     o Modified the Complete Writes Immediately feature to allow
       queued data to drain when the port is closed.
     o Fixed framing error detection to not insert bogus data
       into the read data stream.
     o Modified driver to default uninitialized ports to 1200,7,e,1,
       like the standard serial driver, and to maintain baud rate,
       line settings and flow control across opens.
     o Added code to force RTS low when device is closed; sometimes,
       if a port was using RTS/CTS flow control and was closed, RTS
       would remain high.
     o Added support for Digi One TS H, Digi PortServer TS 2 H,
       and Digi PortServer TS 4 H.
     o Added support for Digi One TS W, Digi PortServer TS 2 W,
       and Digi PortServer TS 4 W.

     Version 2.6.82.0 (Rev. L, January 31, 2003)
     -------------------------------------------
     o Added support for Digi One EM, Digi One IA and Digi One SP.
     o Fixed race condition when switching parity states.
     o Modified Complete Write Requests Immediately feature to work
       irregardless of flow control.
     o Added user interface option "Send keep alive packets" to control
       keep alive packets sent to the remote device. The default setting
       is disabled.
     o Fixed condition where default Xon and Xoff characters were
       not initialized correctly.
     o Fixed detection of parity and framing errors.
     o Fixed Xon/Xoff limit bounds checking.
     o Exposed GUI option to allow serial ports to be opened
       even if the driver cannot communicate with the remote device.
     o Improved driver load time when network is disconnected.
     o Changed event reporting to begin accumulating events once
       SetCommMask is called, instead of waiting for WaitCommMask.

     Version 2.5.67.0 (Rev. K, August 28, 2002)
     ------------------------------------------
     o Microsoft WHQL certification.

     Version 2.5.67.0 (Rev. J1, August 07, 2002)
     -------------------------------------------
     o Enhanced network interface to more efficiently process
       data when presented with out-of-sequence and fragmented packets.
     o Fixed completion of writes for ports not using flow control
       but enabling DTR or RTS.
     o Improved detection and reporting of local network disconnects.
     o IRP_MJ_READ was not completed although a non-zero value for
       the ReadIntervalTimeout was set.
     o Latency enhancements.
     o Enhanced logging of error conditions in System Event Log.
     o Added user interface option, "Complete write requests
       immediately," for timing-sensitive applications.
