-=> Quoting Simon Byrnand to Frank Croft <=-

 SB> Once apon a time Frank Croft said, 'Two COM2's' to All...
 
 FC> ie 'two com2 ports'.
 
 FC> Any ideas? Anyone?
 SB> 
 SB> Not really, except to reassure you that you're not going mad, and
 SB> you're not the only person that has come across it :-) I've seen it on
 SB> many machines, including my own, where at the moment, (just looking) it
 SB> lists two COM1's and two COM2's. Aarrgghhh :) As far as I can see it
 SB> doesnt do any harm, but hmm.....

Thank you very much Simon. This is the first bit of recognition that I have
received concerning this problem, yeh after going thru hell and finally the
modem is working fine, this little com2 prob is all that is left.

It turns out that my modem and soundcard were too close together, so that
a new prob popped up yesterday, where if I used the modem, my soundblaster 
would stop making win95 sounds, etc, until I reset. This was ok until i 
discovered that in turn the soundblaster must have been doing something to the
modem, as I could download ok, but if I tried to upload it would slow down to 
3cps until the transfer would abort..

Hmmm, so I took the thing apart to see whats happening and found the prob, 
swapped scanner card and soundblaster and all seems ok so far.

I keep hearing, ocassionally, sounds coming from the computer as if the modem
is trying to pick up the line. Although not too sure if it is the modem, or my
toes cracking.. ;)

Ah, well thanks for letting me know there are more two com ports people out,
there.

I might add, perhaps this is also a commong thread among us..
When first started using the system, I would get crashes 'hangs' while online,
then I discovered the two com2's. I rang around and was told to install 
'bitware' a terminal program that came with the modem, I had done this 
previously but didnt like it much.. Now the strange thing is that bitware,
seemed to fix the crashing problem, until the sound problems popped up.

Now the crashing and sound probs could be unrelated, as I disconnected the modem
from the line, while trying to fix it, and also the sound card speaker outputs,
so this could have moved the cards closer together, which turned out to be
causing the interference. 

I would like to speculate that 'bitware' if indeed this is a program that the 
other computers you have encountered this two com2 problem on, have used, 
writes some setup thing into one of win95's files to install this phantom
com2.

Anyway, thanks for replying and letting me know I still have a little grip
on reality.

... "Transporter chief Byrnand, beam the landing party to the bridge"
--- Blue Wave/386 v2.30 [NR]