From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Digicom Scout Plus Bug, Feature or Operator Error??
Date: 4 Sep 92 06:24:10 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

vds7789@aw2.fsl.ca.boeing.com (Vincent D. Skahan) writes:

>davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:
>>danr@ais.org (Daniel Romanchik) writes:
>>>In article <BtvECB.A34@ais.org> I wrote:
>>>>I just got my Digicom Scout Plus and seem to be having a little
>>>>trouble getting it set up.  The factory default is to have the modem
>>>>try to connect at 14,400 and automatically downshift to whatever the
>>>>receiving modem can handle.  That works fine, and I get a connect, but
>>>>the modem still thinks it is connected at 14,400.  I have to escape to
>>>>command mode and manually change the modem rate setting so that I can
>>>>communicate with whatever I am communicating with.
>>>>
>>>    Well, I should have continued experimenting before putting my foot
>>>in my mouth (i.e. posting).  Turning off error correction gets
>>>everything to work just fine.

>Dave, can you please mail/post your register settings if it's not
>too expensive (with a line re: who you talk to and what rate you get) ?

Nothing special. I just init'd with:

   AT &F S0=0 *M2 &W

&F resets to factory defaults, S0=0 turns off the autoanswer, *M2
turns on error correcton responses along with the CONNECT message,
and &W writes the new defaults into the modem's non-volitile memory. 

I have tested the Scout Plus against a USR 14,400 BPS; Telebit 1600,
T2500 (only supports 9600 v.32), and T3000; and another Scout Plus.
They all give about the same:

         Port: 38400
Modem<->modem: 14400 EC/V42bis

Download 68404 bytes of ASCII mail: 23 sec (2974 CPS)
Upload   68404 bytes of ASCII mail: [*1*]  

Z-modem download 68404 bytes of ASCII mail: 22 sec (3109 CPS)
Z-modem upload   68404 bytes of ASCII mail: 22 sec  (3109 CPS)

Z-modem download 55313 bytes of compressed mail: 36 sec (1536 CPS)
(Uncompresses to 136808 thus effective 3800 CPS)

Z-modem upload   55313 bytes of compressed mail: 36 sec (1536 CPS)
(Uncompresses to 136808 thus effective 3800 CPS)

[*1*] There are significant problems with sending ASCII (and receiving
      the echo back at the same time) at this speed. Best to
      upload anything of any size with x/y/z-modem and (and insert
      it into mail, news, etc. as required).

>I just purchased a Scout+ and have been totally unable to connect
>to my feed site, who runs a WorldBlazer...I connect, but everything's
>total garbage till the modem punts and hangs up.  I've walked through
>all *E0 to *E10 and the modem either disconnects immediately or it
>gets garbage .

Can't help you there. Maybe the WorlBlazer ? ? ? But maybe also the
line conditions. While I've heard that modems had to be made special
for Japanese telco lines, I always thought was just a bunch of
administrative malarky until I got the Scout. But I found that if it
is set to autoanswer, when the other side hangs up on a older-type
pulse line, the Scout hears what it thinks is a RING and tries to
answer the phone.  

>I get 1620 cps zmodem to a USR-DS and have gotten 640 cps uucp to
>a trailblazer, so the modem itself can connect to stuff.

1620 sounds OK. I haven't tried UUCP: I have T2500's for that.

>>>     My one gripe so far with the Digicom Scout Plus is the
>>>documentation.  They should include a chapter describing practical
>>>applications situations.

>I'd kill for a real-world FAQ that said, 
>	- ok, you have a (insert major maker here) on one end
>		and you have a (insert other one here) and I'm
>		talking [slip|uucp|zmodem], set your registers thusly...
>	- here's how you can get a list of known bugs between your
>		modem and modem X.

This would of course, be nice. But I don't think it's possible,
given the constantly changing situation. I would also have to
include the various ROM versions of all the modems as there are
known differences. 

>>Note also that the documentation doesn't necessarily reflect what
>>the modem will actually do and there was no addenda with mine.

>They have a lot of nerve calling it a "users' manual".  It's neither
>a manual nor for users.  Worst piece of useless junk I ever read.

I would imagine some people never look at it anyway unless they have
trouble.... 

The worst manual for a modem I ever got was with a USR DS.  It came
with 31 changes in an addendum which I copied, cut up, and pasted
in. Could hardly read it and the modem's behavior didn't match
anyway. 

In sum: From what other people have said about 14,400 BPS modems
here in Japan, they are somewhat of a mess. They don't all connect
to each other under varying conditions. I think we're back to the
days where if you've got a modem that connects to a particular
brand/model on a particular host from a particular location: that's
all you can say it does. Change the modem, the host, or your
location you are in a new situation. 

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087

Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems