-=> Quoting Alex Mcconnell to Greg Bodger <=-

 AM> Hi Greg,
Hi Alex.
   Thanks for your reply and apologies for being so slow to respond.
(I've been run off my feet for the last couple of months and haven't had the 
opportunity)
Could I also take the opportunity to thank Jason Lambert for his reply and i'll
use this message as my response to both. 
 
 GB> This is my first and last Netcomm modem. (A 33.6 Roadster)

 AM> I own one of these and it's working fine (28800 version)
 
 GB> We bought 3 of these between myself and a friend.  Upon opening the
 GB> box and plugging the first 1 in, it immediately let out the compressed
 GB> smoke contained in the chips inside and stopped working from that
 GB> second. 

 AM> Hunk of crap. Did you get it replaced?

 Just being sarcastic. Yes it was replaced.

 GB> The other 2 exibit a problem where if you initially set the terminal
 GB> speed to 115k, they will log on at 1200 baud.  This problem is
 GB> consistent using any  combination of computers. 

 AM> Okay. Roadsters are set for maximum compatibility (or so they say) and
 AM> your Roadster sounds like it is connecting to a BBS that has MNP 10.
 AM> Simple. AT-K0 removes this problem.
 AM> If you want MNP 10 put this in: AT-K1*H0{at}M-Q0
 AM> and that should work fine.

 AM> V42 and V42bis is probably the best: AT\N3%C3 (this adjusts to
 AM> whatever the modem at the other end can use)

Thanks for this.  The above string seems to have tamed it considerably. I'm 
getting error correction logons most of the time now.  I haven't had the 
opportunity to follow this up, but I thought that MNP 10 would have fallen 
back to V42 bis. (In the same manner that V42Bis fell back to MNP 5 in older
V32 bis modems). Apparently this is not the case. 
 
 GB> A work around for this is to set the terminal speed to 57k type
"AT"
 GB> then go back to 115k, then it is ok. I don't consider this a
 GB> satisfactory fix though. 

 AM> Just leave it at 57600 then, most BBS's are only set for 38400 anyway
 AM> and the max seems to be 57600 (thats 6100cps on compressable files).

Did this and it works ok.

 GB> Today (Sunday 29/09/96) the carrier detect function has decided to say
 GB> goodnight.  This message is being transmitted to the BBS without the
 GB> aid of carrier.  (I bet not many modem manufacturers could do that)
 GB> (Think of the savings in phone calls) Unfortunately my Internet
 GB> software says "Sorry,  no carrier. I'm going to disconnect", even
 GB> though the host is sending and  receiving the logon information.

 AM> It sounds like an incompatibility problem. Modems are sometimes
 AM> incompatible, the M34F doesn't work very well with a USR Courier.
 AM> Have you tried calling another BBS? It seems unlikely that you would
 AM> get three stuffed modems as my Roadster worked out of the box.

A problem with the modem I think.  I sent it back to Netcomm.  They returned
it saying that nothing was wrong.  As the fault is intermittent, Murpheys Law
would dictate that it was probably on its best behaviour while at Netcomm.  
The Carrier light still doesn't work most of the time. The Modem that this one 
talks to most of the time is one of the other roadsters. I think I may have 
incorrectly blamed the carrier light for the unreliable internet connections.
The string to force it to v42bis seems to have settled everything down 
considerably.
 
 GB> Another problem is the Auto answer function. Try getting into
 GB> telemate, type  "ATA" to simulate a non modem phone call. The modem
 GB> will go through the  carrier search procedure until it selects 1200/75.
 GB> It will then decide that 1200/75 is present and lock to the line for
 GB> ever.  Thus no more incoming calls. 
 GB> I rang Netcomm about this and they gave me an initialisation string,
 GB> which  didn't work.

 AM> So what do you actually want to do? Do you want to get the modem to
 AM> answer or not to answer?
 AM> ATS0=0 sets auto answer. You could try one of the S registers or the
 AM> ATXx settings.

I wanted the modem to answer.  However if a nonmodem call is placed,  the 
modem still locks up to 1200/75. It appears that part of the problem might
be the type of exchange the modem is connected to. (Crossbar) The modem 
seemed to be ok when connected to an AXE number. (The difference is Unbalanced 
verses balanced line feeds)
 
 GB> To get out of this thing, does anyone know whether Netcomm will let
 GB> you  upgrade??  (to a Maestro for instance?)

 AM> Don't give up just yet. Roadsters seem to be very problematic (judging
 AM> by everybody else's problems). Don't feed it init strings that you
 AM> don't know what the hell they are, just try AT&F and see if that works
 AM> if you haven't done so already.

This is the first modem I have used where AT&F didn't resolve the problem. 

 GB> I feel that these problems are the result of a poor piece of hardware,
 GB> and no initialisation string will resolve the problem.

 AM> Well, they have the same Rockwell chip in them! BIOS is the only thing
 AM> that's different.

Yes I actually meant to say firmware.

Once again thanks for the info 

Greg....


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