From: jrd@cc.usu.edu (Joe Doupnik)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Gateway Telepath Modems
Date: 25 Jan 93 19:26:34 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1993Jan25.124217.370@cpvax.cpses.tu.com>, robert@cpvax.cpses.tu.com writes:
> In article <1993Jan25.141744.1027@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>, rcw2g@holmes.acc.Virginia.EDU (Rudi C. Wong) writes:
>> 
>> Has anyone had any experiences with Gateway's Telepath Fax Modem?
>> 
> 
> I have one, but would not recommend it to anyone.
> 
> The KERMIT problem has been worked around in the current MS-KERMIT patch file.
> 
> I have seen mentioned in this group the current card includes a daughter-board.
> It is possible that this card fixes a lot of the firmware/Rockwell problems
> with this modem.  The board is completely surface mount without any way
> to upgrade the ROMS. 
> 
> The Gateway BBS is useless for locating patches or known problems with the
> modem.  Support sucks.  The "technical" staff doesn't know a lot about
> modems (BREAK? What's a break?  Why do you want to send one?).  
> 
> To their credit, Gateway <WILL> take the modem back, but they won't fix
> the problems.  Save yourself the trouble.  Buy something else.
> 
> -- 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Robert Eden    817-897-0491                                 Glen Rose, TX
> Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station            robert@cpvax.cpses.tu.com
>                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ politicese for a nuke plant
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Just to add a little to what Robert has said. The current MS-DOS
Kermit patch file does solve the major problems with the Telepath modem.
Interestingly it also solves problems with a big bunch of new modems, so
the Telepath is not unique in this regard. We put a longish memo on the
net a couple weeks ago about the sad state of modems this year, and a copy
should be on watsun.cc.columbia.edu, cd kermit/a, probably msk312.bwr.
Other reports from users indicates modem matters are in very poor shape,
and the only way I know to solve it is to supply feedback to vendors about 
such units. The best feedback is financial.
	Once the patches are applied the Telepath seems to work rather well
here. I haven't tried BREAK. And the modem goes back to Gateway this week,
as the dust has settled on the matter.
	If you are technically curious about this area then here are some
hints. Kermit is very careful about testing the serial ports for UART-ness
and proper IRQ. It turns out that the reason many well known comms programs 
seem to work, and not all do by any means, is apparently they do not test. 
That is, a menu of port/irq values is presented to the user and the selected 
numbers are used willy nilly. I have not reverse engineered these programs but 
the symptoms are as described. Add to this the need to hit some modems between 
the eyes with a 2x4 (hard reset) and then speak to them extremely s l o w l y 
(even typing ATDT at a slow pace on some) during initialization. Imagine what 
the Bios does to them at boot time. Some systems have a terrible time with 
stray interrupts so Kermit's tests fail. These are all indications of, shall
we say, insufficient design effort and review, plus a probable attempt at
using a fancy slow chip to emulate an inexpensive fast UART and not succeeding.
Add strangness on some AT setup sequences, a pinch of machine configuration
difficulties, shake but do not stir.
	These problems have shown up recently in force, so there is a common
factor amongst the many vendors. The basic Kermit serial port operations have
been successful for many many years, and still are on quality modems. Thus the
current crop have trouble behaving as even a cheap UART.
	Joe D.