Setting Communications in DOS

When communicating with a serial printer from DOS, you must set the COM port communication parameters to match the printer settings.

To set he parameters determine the printer settings by printing out a configuration label.  See the printer's user guide for details as this procedure varies by printer.

Once the communication settings for the printer are determined, you can set the parameters for the particular COM port your using.  Our example is for COM1.

From the prompt in DOS type:

MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1

Press the enter key and if the port accepts the input, you should see a response something like:

Status for device COM1:
-----------------------
Baud: 9600
Parity: None
Data Bits: 8
Stop Bits: 1
Timeout: OFF
XON/XOFF: OFF
CTS handshaking: OFF
DSR handshaking: OFF
DSR sensitivity: OFF
DTR circuit: ON
RTS circuit: ON

*For additional parameters, type MODE /? at the prompt.

Once you have the parameters set, they will remain until changed by a new MODE command or the DOS session is ended.