How Does Mail Work? (Also, modems, cables, telebits, etc.)

[Richard Todd]

alexis at panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) writes:

>So far, a telebit is the _only_ modem I've managed to make work with A/UX
>consistently over long periods. I've been experimenting with several
>different sorts of 2400bps modems for the last two weeks and they're
>driving me up a wall!!! I'm beginning to suspect that there may be some
>flaw in A/UX, although I'm at a loss to explain how. What I do know is that
>I've seen strange behavior that should be impossible, which goes away when
>I reboot. On the other hand, some behavior is more persistent (and annoying!).

  What sort of behavior are you seeing?  I'm sort of curious.  For several
months I started out using a rather mutant 2400bps modem (Concord Data 
Systems, if you must know--not even making any pretense at being Hayes
compat) and had no problems using it, though I was at the time only using
it for dial-out.  After the 2400bps modem died due to lightning (they put the
Nat'l Severe Storms Lab in Norman, OK for very good reasons :-), I used a 
1200bps generic Hayes-clone modem (the "Smart Duck" they used to sell in the
DAK catalogs, for those of you who remember those) for a while until I scraped
together the cash for a T1000.  Again, no problems with dialout.  I now
use a T1000 for dialin and dialout with no problems.  
  
>If you want to dial out with A/UX, you'll have to do a "stty -n /dev/ttyxx
> -modem", but I think telecom is that last thing on earth I'd want to do with
>A/UX. Use a Mac app instead- I think all the standard ones work fine with
>A/UX.
 
  Well, I don't know what the "standard" Mac apps for telecom are, but I
tried Zterm and it failed miserably--claimed all serial ports were busy.
Me, my favorite telecom program was always ProComm for the PC, so I get
along well with Emmet Gray's Pcomm program (ProComm clone for Unix).  Let
me know if a) you want the config files, etc. for compiling under A/UX or
b) you know where I can track down more recent patches for Pcomm than
patchlevel 4... 


>>Do the Telebits work well at 2400 baud. (The main campus modem
>>pool is 2400 and less.

>They have no problem, and speak MNP up to 5 (older ones up to 4, I think).

I've never had any problem using the T1000 to call 2400bps modems either.
I think the T1000 only goes up to MNP4; at least my (1-year-old) one does.

>Now it's my turn to cry for help. If anyone can tell me what's wrong with
>my modems, I'll be very grateful. Help!!!

  Tell us more about your setup (config files, gettytab/inittab settings),
and I'm sure the Usenet readership will be glad to offer opinions.  Some of
them may even be correct :-). 
--
Richard Todd	rmtodd at uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu  rmtodd at chinet.chi.il.us
	rmtodd at servalan.uucp
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