Bruce Foreman wrote in a message to Bill Shaughnessy:
BF> Bill Shaughnessy wrote in a message to William Wilson:
 BS>         Then how do you explain the fact that, with my PCB
 BS> Ver 15.22 mailer active (assuming that I reinstall it), I
 BS> can connect and pass mail to Stu (assuming that he
 BS> reinstalls OPUS), and in no way, shape or form can I pass
 BS> mail to you?  Don't use the modem excuse Willie.  You, Stu
 BS> and I are all using current day USR's, and I have yet to
 BS> hear of a USR modem that has problems connecting to another
 BS> USR modem. 
BF> But it could very easily be a "modem" problem.  Two modems
        No, Bruce, there is no way that it could easily be amodem problem.  
The problem is not one of systems connectivity, as has been assumed by many 
people, but rather is one of the possible existence of multiple copies of 
OPUS 1.73a. The passage above that you qouted represents only one 
manifestation of the problem just restated.
        Now, if the connectivity "problem" quoted above really were a 
problem, you still would have a problem trying to blame it on a modem. You 
see, the PCBoard Fido mailer and the barefoot OPUS mailer have a great 
dislike for each other, and just will not exchange mail with each other.  
Contrary to the normal connectivity problem, the inability of my system to 
exchange mail with William Wilson's system, as outlined above,
*is the norm* when utilizing the mailers just mentioned.  In fact, there are, 
according to the developer of PCBoard, only two known instances where the 
PCBoard Fido mailer and the barefoot OPUS mailer have actually exchanged 
mail. Both known instances just happen to involve my system (PCBoard 15.22 
w/Fido Mailer) and two barefoot OPUS systems on Net 129, my local Net.  The 
first instance resulted from the in-depth testing I did before changing 
officially from OPUS to PCBoard.  The reason for the in-depth testing lies in 
the  fact that Stu Turk is one of my up-links, and if I couldn't connect to 
him, there was no sense in even considering the PCBoard Fido mailer.
        In short, Bruce, the "connectivity problem" is not the normal one of 
the failure to connect, but in reality is one of trying to determine why an 
impossible-to-make connection occurred, and further dis so many times.  It 
could well be that the OPUS software is totally innocent, but when only two 
reports out of several thousand are out of the pattern, the probabiltiy of 
finding the root cause in those devient reports is quite high.
        I do have to give you some information about the modems. William 
Wilson, Stu Turk and I are using USR modems, and all are roughly 2 years old. 
 Wilson and Turk have V-Everythings, and I believe both have flashed to 33.6. 
 My modem is a 28.8 V34 Sportaster.  During the roughly 2 years that we've 
owned and used these modems, Wilson has run only barefoot OPUS.  Turk has run 
barefoot OPUS and Maximus 3.01 w/BinkleyTerm.  I've run, barefoot OPUS, 
Maximus 3.0 w/BinkleyTerm, and PCBoard 15.22 with both the PCB Fido mailer 
and BinkleyTerm.  Wilson and I have minimal contact with each other, but we 
both have extensive contact with Turk.  If modem problems were involved, I'm 
reasonably certain that we'd have some indications.
 BS>         Again, Willie, using a non-compliant mailer, why can
 BS> I consistently pass mail to Stu, and just as consistantly,
 BS> not pass mail to you, and especially when you and Stu
 BS> presumably have identical OPUS 1.73a packages?
BF> Hardware diffrences are a far greater likelihood than
BF> "variations" in the Opus files.
        If we were trying to solve a normal connectivity problem, the 
hardware would be a good place to start.  But we don't have a normal problem, 
and in fact we may not even have a problem at all.  So what if there are 
several versions of OPUS 1.73a running around.  If this has not bothered you 
by now, chances are very good that it won't bother you in the future.
                   Bill
--- timEd 1.01
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