HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wolfgang@netcom.com (Wolfgang Henke)
Subject: Re: Word of Advice
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 04:17:42 GMT
Organization: Netcom
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

MLPOWE01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU (Michael Powell) writes:
: 
:       University of Louisville
: Phone: (502)588-6744
: 
: DO NOT BUY A SUPRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
: 
: Resist the temptation and buy something worth your money...not a $350 (or
: whatever the price) paper weight.  I've gone through three and number three
: will probably go out this afternoon...none have worked.  Instead of seeing
: some LD savings (over 2400 baud), I've paid lots more to send this damn thing
: back and forth between here and Oregon....it isn't worth the stress.
: 
: Buy a nice USR or something (I hate to say that, seeing as the only contact
: I've ever had with them was extremely poor....awful public relations).

Here is the modem I use: Digicom Scout+. It connects me well across two
or three continents and I like the AT command set. 

After reading some comments in this newsgroup I recently got a Rockwell
based V.32bis modem from a reputable manufacturer just to compare. It
does not look good so far, but I have not finished testing yet. Better
in the Rockwell chip are the support for speaker volume control, worse
are the line monitoring commands, the result codes. 

People interested in this stuff can anon ftp to ftp.rahul.net
/pub/wolfgang and look around. I uploaded quite a few files and fax
programs and modem test programs and will add the full comparative
review of the Rockwell <-> Scout in a few days. 


-- 
   _________________________________________________________________________
   Wolfgang Henke        wolfgang@henke.sf-bay.org       wolfgang@netcom.com

Xref: sparky comp.dcom.modems:12566 comp.sys.laptops:3282
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: Anyone heard of the MaxLite 144/PC pocket modem?
From: yuan1@husc9.harvard.edu (Nina Yuan)
Date: 26 Aug 92 13:58:16 GMT

hyatt@cis.uab.edu (Robert Hyatt) writes:

>In article <1992Aug25.134953.23750@panix.com> nina@panix.com (Nina Yuan) writes:
>If it mentions "14,400" as the speed, then it MUST be V.32bis.  I wouldn't
>be too concerned.  One caveat:  often, particularly at 9600bps and higher,
>modems get pretty selective in what brands they will talk with.  From
>recent tests, ATT has the best 9600 modem in terms of connecting with
>anybody with the Intel 9600ex second.  Others often communicate well with
>their "brothers" (same manufact.) but not so well with "strangers."  If
>you have a particularly site you want to call in mind, you should test
>drive your new modem before buying it.

I was just a bit worried that "14,400" referred to effective transfer rate
with error compression, or something, and that it wasn't "true" V.32bis.
Anyway, yes, I'll make sure to test its connection with the modems here at
school.  Thanks for the advice.

-nhy

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nina H. Yuan                               "It's a miracle that curiosity
nina@panix.com                              survives formal education."
yuan1@husc.harvard.edu                                  - Albert Einstein
From: tnixon@hayes.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Status of BFJ -- visual report
Date: 2 Sep 92 15:29:53 EDT
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA

At lunch time today, I drove out to Roswell to check on the 
situation at BFJ.  It remains as previously reported: closed, with a 
sign on the door saying "Closed for Remodeling, Reopen in Two 
Weeks". Peering in through the window at the cash register tape, I 
could see that the last transaction had been on 15 August, so it's 
been a bit more than two weeks.  No sign of remodeling work being 
done -- some products still on shelves, UPS deliver notices stuck on 
the door (dated 26 Aug).

-- 
Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer      | Voice   +1-404-840-9200  Telex 401243420
Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.  | Fax     +1-404-447-0178  CIS   70271,404
P.O. Box 105203                     | BBS     +1-404-446-6336  AT&T    !tnixon
Atlanta, Georgia  30348             | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon  Fido   1:114/15
USA                                 | Internet                tnixon@hayes.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
From: atau@ccrma.Stanford.edu (Atau Tanaka)
Subject: Hayes Ultra 96
Keywords: X25 PAD
Reply-To: atau@ccrma.Stanford.edu
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 92 00:55:45 GMT

I understand that the Hayes Ultra 96 is the only unit on the market that has  
X25 PAD, the sort of error checking usually found at the packet. By using this  
feature, a friend told me that I can save a lot of money when I dial up from  
France, since one normally must rent a Transpac connection from the govt. By  
having X25 PAD in the modem, it seems that I can connect at one layer "deeper."

Anyhow, I'd like to verify and clarify this info, and also find out what a good  
street price might be for the Hayes Ultra 96. I saw $635 today in a Bay Area  
computer rag.

Any info would be greatly appreciated, and I can summarize and post if  
appropriate.

--
           Atau Tanaka
	   Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics
	   (CCRMA)

	   atau@ccrma.stanford.edu
From: cfw@unixland.natick.ma.us (Christopher Wroten)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Followup on Gateway 2000 Telepath modem fiasco
Date: 26 Aug 92 12:05:17 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Unixland Public Access Unix & Think_Tank BBS

A couple weeks ago, I wrote an article detailing my unpleasant experience
with Gateway 2000 concerning their Telepath modem. Suffice it to say that
I felt I was wronged by them and that they admitted it.

Yesterday, I unexpectedly received e-mail from Gateway's "Online and Onsite
Service Representative" thru America OnLine's internet gateway (I choose
not to use her name so that she is not inundated with mail from others :-)
It was very unfortunate that her mail to me got hung up somewhere for 10
days, because she made a sincere offer to get me my modem by August 18 (she
composed the email to me on August 16.) Since my modem is expected to arrive
by August 29 and it's the 26th now, the offer of help was negated by the
delay in the mail.

Anyway, I felt that if I'm going to flame in public, I have a responsibility
to air the resolution in public as well, in addition to praising those who
make sincere efforts to fix sore spots.

Christopher Wroten
cfw@unixland.natick.ma.us
Xref: sparky comp.dcom.modems:12763 comp.sys.mac.comm:8504
From: alen@crash.cts.com (Alen Shapiro)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: (RFD) Acceptable max baud rates on voice-grade lines (EQM)? (med-long)
Summary: What is EQM and how should it behave?
Keywords: EQM line quality voice grade modem noise
Date: 30 Aug 92 16:48:02 GMT

Another wrinkle in the on-going saga of what speed I can expect
to connect at with a high speed modem (in the presence of a
less than perfect line).

To recap...

I have a Prometheus Ultima Home Office 14400-capable modem with A LOT
of bells and whistles. It refuses to acknowledge a LAP-M connect to
at least 4 different types of modem in the presence of reduced
line quality. It does however, still accept the 14400 carrier rate
and the resulting connect is too noisy to use (most of the time). I have
caught it rejecting LAP-M and still giving me a usable connect (with
little noise) which indicates that the LAP-M rejection threshold is
quite low.

Observations...

Strangely enough, since I've been putting out these modem-posts, I've
been receiving email that indicates the problem is not limited to
Prometheus and may be quite common. Modems that are meant to retrain
to lower rates or should be able to make protocol-connects at higher
rates are doing neither.

I wonder if this is a function of the Rockwell data pumps that
are infecting many new modem offerings? Are these symptoms something
that would be handled at that (chip) level?

The prometheus has a line signal measurement command (%L) which does not
work (just gives OK) and a line quality measurement command which returns
a result in "EQM"s (Eye Quality Monitor). First, what is an EQM, is it
a recognized comms term? Second, this is what I see when I use the command
at +++ level (aside...I guess I have a REAL hayes modem here, I'm still
connected after typing the break sequence <- :-)).

 If I connect at 9600 I see a number in the mid 20s, If I connect at
 14400 I see a number around 100 (90-120). The Prometheus manual says:
 lower is better, 0-15 is a normal connect, modem will retrain if it
 measures an EQM between 60 and 80 (if enabled to do so).

I have not yet checked a good (stable 14400 LAP-M connect to see what
its EQM looks like. My modem is not retraining even though I have it set
to do so. I see wildly varying EQM at 14400 mostly up in the low 100s
but sometimes down in the low single digits (like 0). These varied
measurements polled as quickly as I can type "a/" to get the last
at%Q (EQM poll) repeated. Could be that the line quality is not bad
for sufficient milliseconds at a time to cause a retrain?

any comments please, especially on what EQM represents and what
should be expected from voice-grade lines. Are there any published
specs that the phone companies must comply with for frequency response
of voice-grade lines?

--alen
alen@crash.cts.com
From: Denny.Chuang@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Denny Chuang)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Address os supra corporation
Date: 26 Aug 92 06:06:29 GMT
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service


                  Supra Corporation
                  7101 SW Supra Dr.
                  Albany, OR  97321
or FAX the information to 503-967-2401.

	could you tell us how you like your supra 14.4k modem?  
	How is the FAX feature?

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Organization: University of Central Florida--Computer Services
Date: Friday, 28 Aug 1992 09:28:19 EST
From: Chris Chew <CCHEW@UCF1VM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Some info on BFJ
 <1992Aug24.202526.13302@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
 <1992Aug24.222119.1686@gumby.dsd.trw.com>

In article <1992Aug24.222119.1686@gumby.dsd.trw.com>, gottloeb@eel.dsd.trw.com
(Jeffrey R. Gottloeb) says:
>
>>Ouch!  Perhaps equally important, if this has indeed happened (and it seems
>>strange that their 800 number continues to ring??) what are our alternatives?
>>Can we get Supra to honor the orders? (unlikely) or, if we paid by credit
>>card (as I did) are there laws protecting us?
>>
>>Inquiring minds want to know!
>
>There are federal laws (Fair Credit Billing Act?) that protect credit
>card purchasers from paying for merchandise or services not received
>(such as airline tickets on a bankrupt airline).  Follow the instructions
>on the back of your billing statement to contest the charges.  You

If you gave the credit card number, you still should not have been
charged until shipping time, so if you the modem was never shipped, they
probably would not have charged it yet. Then again, if they did go out of
business, they might have tried... In which case you should be able to
refuse the charge with the card issuer.

When I placed my order with them, I was told I wouldn't be charged. They
didn't and even called me a few weeks back to tell me they were about to
ship it, but it had been so long on hold, I cancelled the order.
As of my last bill, I wasn't charged.

Just a thought.

Chris.
cchew@ucf1vm.cc.ucf.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
From: randy@psg.com (Randy Bush)
Subject: Re: What's a good 14400 modem?? (Intel?)
Organization: Pacific Systems Group, Portland Oregon, US
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 05:05:10 GMT

vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver) writes:

>     &D3 is a fetish of mine that saves a lot of grief

We run &D0 so that we can reboot or otherwise muck with the routers without
dropping the modem-modem connection.  A number of our links are dialup, but
left up 24/7.

>     S2=128 just turns off +++

Seems not to occur (with Dale's patented pauses) in IP connections.  Leaving
it enabled allows us to muck with modems' settings without losing links.

>     "H3 is the default, so I don't know why you set it
>     \N3 is the default, so I don't know why you set it

Same reason you set &C0, but in our case they worked.  :-)

[ actually, i heard a completely unconfirmed rumor that an early rom set may
  have gone out with some regs or another not defaulting as documented. ]

> None of those appear to me likely to affect the speed at which the
> modems move bytes.

Agreed.

Our tests were mono and bidirectional FTP of uncompressed text with DTEs
locked at 56kb.  These are PC-Route and ka9q running on 12MHz 286s over real
telco lines around town.

> a pair of Silicon Graphics IRIS's

This might be your problem.  Could we borrow a few for our modem testing? :-)

randy
-- 
randy@psg.com   ...!uunet!m2xenix!randy
From: jch@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Jen Cheng)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: UART  Upgrade
Date: 28 Aug 92 08:29:31 GMT
Reply-To: jch@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Jen Cheng)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U

Can anyone recommend a supplier for an I/O card with 16550AFN UART
for serial ports? My current I/O card uses WD16C450-PL (as UART?) and
is soldered. I suppose the easiest way of upgrading is to change the
whole I/O card (two serial ports, one parallel port and one game
port).

As I'll be ordering from England, a supplier that deals with
international orders will be handy (if it resides outside UK, of
course).
From: s923257@yallara.cs.rmit.OZ.AU (Chew Ming Ean)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: HELP!!
Date: 3 Sep 92 08:33:05 GMT

HELLLLP!!
Thanks for reading this...

My question is that -What sort of modem should i buy????
Fax/Modem or just the plain modem??

Also, what configurations should i be looking for??

Does the modem differ from country 
to country??? E.g If i bought it in Hong Kong- can i use it in Australia?

Thanks for your time and patience :)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: probelms uploading with Supra
From: Steve.Withers@bbs.actrix.gen.nz
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 11:55:37 GMT
Organization: Actrix Information Exchange

In article <k5w9PB1w164w@uuisis.isis.org> jp_torun@uuisis.isis.org (jp torunski) writes:
> I'm having problems uploading with my Supra Faxmodem 14.4 (external). I have 
> an XT, and I use Telix 3.15.
> 
> When I try uploading at 14.4, it'll go smoothly for a while, and after a 
> random amount of time the whole system will freeze, and I have to reset.
> 
> It works fine when I connect at 9600, with v.32bis off (using at&f0).
> 
> the port is locked at 38400bps.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas that might help me?
> 
>                                         JP

You may not like it, but have you thought of upgrading? An XT might be a bit
too slow. Especially if it is 4.77MHz.
 
What sort of chip have you got on your serial port? 
 
Steve

-- 
Steve Withers - Wellington, New Zealand | End the two-party duopoly. Vote 
Steve.Withers@bbs.actrix.gen.nz         | for the Mixed-Member Proportional 
withers_s@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz            | (MMP) voting system on Sept. 19th. 
**** Happy user of OS/2 v2!! ****       | Give yourself a vote that *counts*!
From: hans@castlerock.East.Sun.COM (Hans Hrasna)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: What's a good 14400 modem??
Date: 28 Aug 1992 16:03:01 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Distribution: world
Reply-To: hans@castlerock.East.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: castlerock.east.sun.com

In article PZR7PB2w165w@infopls.chi.il.us, andyross@infopls.chi.il.us (Andrew Rossmann) writes:
*** stuff deleted ***
>  My feed has two Supra 14.4K's (I think) and an unkown v32bis (maybe a
>Sportster?? It connects very fast.) I have a Courier v32bis. VERY often
>(>50%) it takes two training attempts to get a connection. Sometimes 3. If
>it goes for 4, it usually hangs up. Also, I occasionally get a non-error
>correcting connection. I have to hang up then since his getty doesn't
>understand that speed (he runs 38400 if error correction is on, and
>connection speed if not.)
>
	Try changing your DTE fallback with AT&B0&W. This will prevent your

DTE from changing rates when you can't get an ARQ/MNP connect and therefore 

you won`t have the problem with the getty daemon being at the wrong speed. You

have to use the command with your DTE set to the speed you want it fixed at,

in your case 38400.. if you have DTE set to something else it will fix itself at

the current setting, and if thats not the right speed, nothing will work. ATI4 will

give you the current DTE baud rate.

Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon)
Subject: Re: V42bis compression rates
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 19:57:13 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC

In article <1992Aug26.023157.21212@edgar.mn.org> bryan@edgar.mn.org (Bryan Halvorson) writes:
>In article <1992Aug25.130105.25567@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu> lofaso@tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Bernie Lofaso) writes:
>>
>>File		Size	Direction	Supra	T3000
>>----		----	---------	-----	-----
>>LZH archive	 70K	work->home	1475	1379
>>			home->work	1479	1393
>>
>>mail		154K	work->home	2820	2317
>>			home->work	3165	2445
>>
>>Seems that on the compressible file, the Supra does about 20-30% better.
>>This surprised me. The T3000 has a setting to support Xmodem, which when
>>used with Zmodem does not help.
>>
>Transfering mostly 400k compressed news batches I've noticed that my US
>Robotics V32bis modem is 10-15% faster than my Worldblazer in both V32
>and V32bis modes. I have verifyed that both modems are connecting with
>V42bis and LAPM.
>
>I mentioned this to Telebit tech support when I called to get put on the
>list for the Worldblazer 5.01 roms and was told that nobody else has
>reported having similar problems.

Well, here we go.  I have.  Greg, are you listening?  It's a nice modem, but
I've yet to see PEP numbers as good as Telebit claims, 1900-2000 cps being the
max w/spoofing on, and the throughput compress or uncompressed in the v.32bis
mode seems to lag behind that of many brands.  Uncompressed throughput is
definitely lower than ZyXeL-ZyXeL typically is when I connect to the pubnix I
use (if I ask the ZyXeL users, anyway) and when I connect to a USR, I get
better numbers than I do on the connection to a T3000 at school.  Dammit.  The
modem ought to go at least as fast as anything on the block, given what's
under the hood.  Is this just sloppy coding, or the lack of fall-forward
(this assumes that a fall-back has occured, since all connections were made at 
1.4.) or what?  Can it get fixed one of these days?

-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon	 tls@panix.COM
  "Oh, you have wounded me!  I have very few prejudices, actually.  The
biggest problem is that I am intolerant of fools.  That is why I have
such a low tolerance level for Libertarians."  -- Jim McMaster
From: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: What's a good 14400 modem?? (Intel?)
Date: 1 Sep 92 14:21:29 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In article <1992Sep1.122949.3267@terminator.cc.umich.edu>, honey@citi.umich.edu (Peter Honeyman) writes:
> Vernon Schryver writes:
> |> My "throughput test" consist of `ping -c ZZZZ remote`, increasing the
> |> value of ZZZZ until the line stops keeping up, as observed for 20 to 60
> |> seconds.  That forces the modems to process ZZZZ*2 bytes.
> 
> i have a different ping, so please check me on this.  isn't the packet
> size ZZZZ + 20 (ip header) + 8 (echo header) + 1 (slip frame)?


As I understand it, that omits the ICMP header but counts the 8-byte
ping date.

The 4.3BSD ping does
	size ZZZZ + 20 (IP header) + 16 (ICMP header) + (MAC header)

The date used by ping itself is in the first 8 bytes of the ZZZZ data.

The MAC header is 1 byte with common SLIP and cslip.  I sometimes use a
varient header-compressing SLIP which has a 3-byte header (including
checksum and "session ID").

So you're right that my calculations are a little off.  I don't think
it's worth worrying about.  My inferences of when the modems stop being
able to keep up are not accurate to more than 10%, the modems
themselves vary by more than 10% from moment to moment, and I don't
care about any modem where my error of 37 bytes is 10% or more of the
modem's through-put.


Vernon Schryver,  vjs@sgi.com
From: micha@moko.saar.de (Michael Bongartz)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: ZyXEL prices in California wanted
Keywords: ZyXEL prices
Date: 24 Aug 92 20:14:00 GMT
Reply-To: micha@moko.saar.de
Organization: Michael Bongartz, private UUCP site, Saarbruecken/Germany
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.03 Rev. Apr 14 1992

In September, I'm in California, and I need prices for ZyXEL U-1496E
(external), and, if existent, for the plus model. Please reply, possibly
with address, to my private account, because I don't have time at this moment to read
all the news in this group.

Thanx,
        Michael

-- 

EMail:  micha@moko.saar.de    /\/\    Voice+Fax: +49 681 55654 (+ Ans-Mach.)
Z-Netz: micha_b@hit.zer      /    \   University:        mibo@stud.uni-sb.de
SnailMail: Michael Bongartz, Am Ordensgut 43, W-6600 Saarbruecken 1, Germany
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
From: evanc@uuisis.isis.org (Evan Champion)
Subject: Re: v.fast
Organization: International Shared Information Service (Ottawa)
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 92 04:49:10 GMT

tnixon@hayes.com writes:

> There ARE NO PRE-RELEASE SPECS.  The current level of consensus in 
> the committee is quite small; we can just barely agree on the data 
> rates, much less symbol rates, modulation schemes, startup 
> procedures, secondary channel implementations, etc. etc. etc.  There 
> is another meeting at the end of this month in Bath, England, at 
> which we hope to make some progress, but the fact remains that 
> V.fast is still quite undefined.  Anything you see on the market 
> today claiming to be "V.fast" is really just another proprietary 
> high-speed modulation scheme, since there isn't even the beginning 
> of a standard yet (just a lot of proposals on the table).

Is there some way to find out about what goes on at these meetings (ie: 
minutes or something of the sort) or are they fairly "closed"?  I would like 
to find out atleast about the options that the comittee is debating over.

Evan
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems