modems was: Re: [TCLUG:11596] Two-way cable

["Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom" <carls@agritech.com>]

>Dial your ISP's number under minicom/cu/tip/kermit - it should report
>the connect speed.  Or make a connection, open up minicom and do:
>+++
>ati4 (? try ati 1-9, one of them will have the current connect speed)
        will have to try that.

>Or train your ear to detect the speed.  I'm still learning the >28.8
>connect tones :)  I do like the new USR "bong" though.
        well, I work in the perfect environment for that (have done so for a
year); and still don't have it down very well (then again, I haven't really
*tried* to learn to identify connect speed by tone). :) 
        I'm literally sitting next to a shelf of USR Couriers attached to a
BBS; in fairly constant use. people connecting at anywhere from 9600 to
28800. there's even a few 2400 connections that sneak in, even tho they're
not supposed to. 
        I'm pretty used to the normal connect tones; I can pick out 2400 and
9600 connections (because they're so fast). 
        the *really* annoying ones are the f**kw*d users who can't hear that
their modem is screwed up; and just keep trying to dial in. it *really*
grates on your nerves after a while. 

        what mystifies me is that some people can connect fine to their ISP;
but have trouble connecting to us. especially in a couple cases I've hear
recently; where people's modems are pretty obviously hosed (really *bad*
connect tones). I'm willing to blame a lot of it on bad phone lines (we have
a lot of very rural users); but there's some cases I can't explain away that
easily.
        other thing to blame is the software; since we supply them with the
software to connect to us (it's based on an old version of minicom). I think
that's a problem in some cases. 
        still, I'll be much happier when we move to a windows-based version
of the connection software (as opposed to the dos-based one). no more
mucking around with configuring the modem, if it already works for their ISP. 
        better yet, they're making noises about doing all this stuff over
FTP and the Net. I've come up with a scheme to handle the server-side stuff;
using Linux... remains to be seen if anyone will listen to me, since the
people in charge of the software are a bunch of UNIX-phobes. :(

Carl Soderstrom.
System Administrator	307 Brighton Ave. 
Minnesota DHIA		Buffalo, MN	
carls@agritech.com	(612) 682-1091