Windows® 98 Unleashed

Using HyperTerminal for Modem-to-Modem Connections

The Phone Dialer is a handy tool, but it's almost certainly not why you bought your modem. Instead, your modem's true raison d'être is to connect to other modems and thus propel you into the world of online services and bulletin board systems (BBSs). To do this, you need a communications program (or terminal program) that can operate your modem and handle the behind-the-scenes dirty work of dialing, connecting, downloading, and uploading.

In Windows 3.x, modem communications were handled by the Terminal accessory, a homely, Spartan program that proved to be merely adequate in everything it did. Few people liked Terminal, and even fewer actually used it, but the Windows 98 replacement—a program ...