KD> I have a bit of a problem with one of my users.  He has an old 386 with
 KD> Windows 3.1 and recently installed an internal 33k6 modem
 KD> with the following specs.

[..]

Don't know about this modem .. most likely not relevant, considering ..

 KD> The problem is that he keeps pausing for longish amounts of
 KD> time (data over
 KD> run - retrain?) and eventually dropping carrier. I suspect
 KD> he has the older xx450 UART.

Well, there may be a modem problem too, but you can't successfully run 14k4
modems under Windows (or any multitasking system, generally) without a
well-tuned setup, with 16550A (FIFO buffered) UARTs .. let alone a 28k8 or
better.

 KD> I went down by train to see if I could sort it out but my
 KD> lack of familiarity
 KD> with the Windows environment and his hardware precluded me
 KD> from doing more
 KD> than modifying his modem startup/user profiles.

What comms program(s) is he using?  RTS/CTS handshaking setup may be a
factor, and of course suitable modem initialisation ..

 KD> There was an improvement in the connect speed to my Maestro
 KD> 28k8 v.fc but it
 KD> still seemed to stack commands/react slowly.  I've
 KD> suggested that he invest in a motherboard upgrade. :-)

It would be cheaper to add a comms card with 16550 UARTs; then again newer
m/boards usually have a pair of those built in, and more speed never hurt,
but a 386 of any flavour should be plenty fast enough for single-line V.34
comms.

 KD> C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE

Not sure, but the default smartdrv write caching mode might be a worry, or
at least contributing to problems.  The rem-ed out one had write caching
off, which is safer, at least until comms is working smoothly.

 KD> Any help appreciated as I don't want to make another 80 minute round trip
 KD> again.

:)  Don't blame you.  For Win 3.1 comms support, it could turn into weeks
.. anyway, to have a chance he needs 16550 UARTs for starters.

Ian

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