Enable / Disable Modem ?

[usmc-ratman]

I'll make the question at short and sweet as possible. I have two programs (FaxTalk and WinPage) that both use the modem. I keep FaxTalk running in the background most of the time.

During the day, I need to use WinPage to send text pages to co-workers. To do this I have to close FaxTalk, start WinPage and send the pages, Close Winpage, and restart FaxTalk.

The reason that I must do this is because FaxTalk "grabs" the port and if FaxTalk is open Winpage gives me the error, "Error Opening Com Port! Port Id=-3". It does not work the other way around (ie have WinPage open 1st, then open Faxtalk and get an error from Faxtalk). I assume this is because Winpage just sits there and does not lock onto the modem port until it actually goes to send the page, and FaxTalk continuously is monitoring the port for incoming calls. So I was just wondering....

Is there a way to maybe assign an "alias" port id to the modem for one of the applications, temporarity disable the lock that FaxTalk has over the port, give WinPage priority over the port, or something similar. Any Ideas or suggestions.

Thank you,

John R.

Semper Fi

OS: WinXP Pro sp1 (all updates - but still leary of sp2)

CPU: Dell Diminsion 2400