PE> One solution to this problem would be for me to go back to my old method,
PE> and you guys all setting your modems to expire after about 3 minutes or
PE> something, whatever it is before Telecom gives up on your behalf.

RS> Thats a bit tricky coz there can be significant variation in the
RS> handshaking time, particularly with some particular circumstances.

PE> Pardon?  It should work fine.

RS> Not when the handshaking time in successful sessions varys extensively
RS> as you change modems at your end. Particularly when the time that matters
RS> is the longest time thats ever seen for a successful handshake, plus a
RS> margin for safety. The longer that gets, and it has to be reasonably long,
RS> the more likely it is for you to come back on line late in the dial
RS> attempt, loop the line coz its ringing, and then the caller times out
RS> coz there is nothing like enough time left to successfully handshake.
RS> In other words the callers system aborts the handshake coz you looped
RS> the line very late in its timed event.

My idea is for the callers to set their timeout to about 4 minutes.

RS> Maybe its possible to do it your way, with the modem not being busied,
RS> and then have a special event which is invoked at the end of the mail
RS> processing event which just checks to see if the modem is seeing a ring,
RS> and spins its wheels till it stops ringing, and doesnt answer the call.
RS> Then once the line has stopped ringing, that event terminates and you
RS> drop into the normal mode waiting for the next RING.

Yes, that sounds good, although you may have trouble with one
person aborting and the next person getting through, so that it
takes ages for the RINGs to clear, although that could be countered
with a 5 minute timeout.  BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

---