Paul, at 13:34 on Mar 31 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

PE> 1. After receiving an "ATZ" command at a particular baud rate,

No need to go into that one again, as we know how to work around it.  Such
behaviour is certainly quirky, but no way could it be called a bug.

PE> 2. Regularly getting 26400 connects with a Netcomm instead of
PE> 28800.  Actually, that was with the 1995-07-18 Supervisor Date.
PE> It has got worse since I went back to 1995-07-05, with almost
PE> all connects at 24000, the occasional at 26400 and 21600.

If the highest average link rate varies according to the SDL in use, it
would make sense to try them all, and use the one(s) which gives the best
overall connects.  Some people might even consider the ready availability
of ROM code to be an distinct advantage, rather than a problem.

PE> 3. Modem is initiating a retrain straight after each connect,
PE> even with V32bis modems.  I would expect that the initial
PE> negotiation would have figured that out, no need for a retrain
PE> on every single bloody call.  Yet the ATI6 does not show that
PE> a retrain was requested.

As far as I can recall, you were never able to prove that this was
happening with any modem other than Rod's Supra, and nobody else ever
reported similar instances, despite this peculiarity being discussed at
great length in Aust_Modems.  Insufficient data to blame the Courier, IMO.

PE> 4. Having problems talking to a Supra modem, 30% dropouts where
PE> previously there were none (with a Spirit Thunder modem).

That's not right at all, Paul.  Rod has told me himself that it was less
than 1 call in 10, and even he wasn't convinced that the Courier was at
fault here.  In fact, I seem to recall that call-waiting may have caused
this problem.

PE> 5. AT&F1 sets S56 equal to 16 instead of the default of 0 listed
PE> in the manual.  Actually, this problem happens with the
PE> 1995-07-18 Supervisor Date, and is gone with the 1995-07-05 one.

Not a bug.  Refer the explanation in my previous message WRT the necessity
of using different defaults for certain S registers with some SDLs.

PE> 6. A Spirit Thunder is getting connects with me at 2400 bps far
PE> more often than 19200.  1200 bps connects too.  Actually, this
PE> problem occurred with the 1995-07-18 Supervisor Date and one
PE> from 1995-01-25, and has gone away with 1995-07-05 ROMs.  It
PE> seems to have not occurred too many times with the 1995-07-18
PE> ROMs either.

Could be either modem at fault here, although my gut reaction is that it's
the Thunder which is the problem, especially when one considers that David
D has 5 or 6 Thunder callers who connect without any difficulties at all.

PE> 7. USR to USR connect failed due to a retrain failure.  Also,
PE> USR to USR is showing 21600/2400 as the connect rate.  This
PE> was done with the 1995-07-18 ROMs and being fairly rare has
PE> not yet happened with the new ROMs.

Dave Hatch saw this once, too.  Because it's so rare (I've never seen it
happen with any of my USRs), I'd tend to put it down to a major line
glitch.

PE> 8. Failed to connect to Hayes modem at all.  Very weird sounds
PE> coming out.  No problem when I was using a Spirit.  This actually
PE> happened with an older revision of the ROMs (1995-01-25), and 
PE> cannot confirm at this stage whether it still exists because the 
PE> modem was taken offline so that I could connect.

It's impossible to say who's at fault here.  However, if it was only the
Courier which failed to connect with the Hayes (forget the Spirit, you need
another V.34 modem to prove the point), then I'd tend to point the finger
at the USR.  However, I'd have really liked to have tried another SDL here.

PE> 9. A Netcomm Cardmodem V.34 modem (PCMCIA or something) gets 
PE> connects of 1200, 2400, 14400 and 28800 with me.  This also 
PE> happened with the older (1995-01-25) ROMs, and appears to have 
PE> gone away with both 1995-07-05 and 1995-07-18 ROMs.

Lots of weird shit happened with the 25-01-1995 SDL.  Far too many problems
with it for it to be coincidental IMO.  Probably fucked ROM code.

PE> 10. Previous user (using the 1995-01-25 roms) says that whenever 
PE> he is connected to his Internet Service Provider for more than an
PE> hour, the USR invariably drops out.  I don't connect for that
PE> long so cannot confirm this problem first hand with new roms.

Could be anything, although there's that dodgy ROM date again.

PE> 11. The following stats obtained from ATI11 + 6 apparently defy
PE> various Laws of Physics, but this was on the 1995-07-18 ROMs...
PE> Carrier Freq (Hz)        44672/44672
PE> Symbol Rate              48905/48905
PE> Speed                  21600/2400

I saw another very similar stats display not all that long ago, and general
consensus was that the line had suffered a major glitch.

PE> 12. I set S34=128 to disable V32terbo.  This had the result
PE> of making the calling Supra NOT show retrains on his display.
PE> This is a Good Thing.  The Supra is a V32bis modem.  It seems
PE> that V32terbo logic is affecting V32bis calls when it 
PE> shouldn't be.  However, now, instead of the Supra getting 30%
PE> failed calls (screwing up in the retrain AFTER connect), the
PE> Supra now gets somewhere around 30% connects at lower speeds, 
PE> such as 12000 and 7200.  Later trials were unable to reproduce
PE> this problem, got solid 14400 connects always, so probably not
PE> a problem after all.

Rod told me that the failure rate was never 30%, but I should wait for
verification anyway.  Any idea if that was the 25-01-1995 ROM code?

PE> 13. I set ATS27=48 as someone suggested I do.  The result of
PE> this was that I connected on my outgoing call with LAPM, my
PE> incoming calls were all MNP, except for some which failed
PE> completely.  I would have expected the results of ATS27=48 to
PE> be consistent.

"S27=48 ... disables LAPM detection phase".  I'd suggest that the
resulting connect would be entirely dependant upon the type of remote
modem.

PE> 14. Got a 28800 (no EC) connect to a Spirit Viper.  The call
PE> was actually successful, I just had to put up with garbage
PE> appearing on my screen every now and again.  Called again
PE> and it connected with EC.  Sysop confirmed that he had not
PE> been fiddling at the time.

I know what causes that problem!  It's almost certainly shitty lines!  :)

PE> 15. A Spirit II was getting 9600 bps connects to me.  Replacing
PE> the Courier with a Netcomm M34F or a Spirit Viper restored the
PE> 14400 bps connections.

Given the problems I've had between Spirit IIs and USRs over the years,
nothing would surprise me with that pair in use.  Indeed, I believe the S2
to be such a crappy modem, that I'm going to ignore that problem
altogether.

Regards, Bill

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20