Bob ..

 BJ> I'm catching up on a few items.....  temporarily....

 BJ> Are you running SIO for the com ports and/or vmodem 
 BJ> definitions?  If so, is this SIO version 1.60d?  If 
 BJ> so, is it a registered version  that is registered for 
 BJ> 8 or more nodes?  If not registered, it will only 
 BJ> allow up to for "ports" to be used, if I remember 
 BJ> correctly.....

I've never thought about this and haven't researched it in the manual, just
assuming your thought line is correct.  Does the SIO2K version have the
same 'limitation' of no more than four 'ports' and/or vmodem definitions?

I have both SIO 1.60d as well as SIO2K registered.  A number of systems
around me use all four serial ports with four port accessory plugin serial
port cards .. some old style buss type and some PCI.  At least in my case
each comm port for those hardware cards is on a separate IRQ. In my case no
more than two instances of MAX are running against telephone lines at one
time, but the other two hard comm ports are being used for other
telecommunications purposes.  That varies from serial port use for Rochelle
phone line data monitoring for up to four phone lines simulteously, to my
own programs which use serial port connections for radio transmitter
send/receive purposes for telegraph or other digital data, plus antenna and
other discrete station site hardware control devices.  Which in the case of
Rose KVM switched sites might even include still serial mouse port activity
as one of the hard comm port uses.

On top of that is the SIO Vmodem issue which can 'expand' the use of 'comm'
ports to what I guess is four ports.  In this case the IRQ that is
'required' in the SIO control parameters is 'listed' for the control setup
for the system, but is an 'upper' IRQ number and if I recall this correctly
is really not 'used' as such for Vmodem?  Right?  That's how we get more
than four 'serial' ports into use for the four hardware comm ports and
Vmodem in SIO/SIO2K, no?  And SIO/SIO2K, in theory, doesn't 'care' about
that VModem IRQ number, as it is not one of the sixteen IRQ's that are
'reserved' for such things?

Which can be confused in some cases because PCI slot hardware can share
IRQ's .. provided that the device driver for that PCI slot hardware is
written properly to share IRQ's.  Which sometimes it doesn't no matter what
.. in the case of audio and NIC card isses and OS/2, specifically. sigh.

Now I don't have MAX attempting to run on eight different users at one time
like is in question here.  But the Integrand Research pig iron relay rack
OS/2 system which is running this BBS is using all four serial ports at one
time on SIO2K registered.  Two of the phone lines are in fact MAX BBS
systems still on phone line connections, while the other serial ports are
in use for other things.  Which obviously, SIO2K is servicing.

But in this case another MAX BBS is, in fact, using Vmodem and TelNet for a
third MAX operation while all this is going on.  And .. that does work at
the same time as the other four comm port lines are in use.  The other two
serial ports in the box on SIO2K are being used for the mouse and for an RF
gateway to an AEA packet operation between the MAX BBS operation and VHF
Packet radion work to gate Fido to VHF Packet operations for emergency data
service if needed.   Thus providing a Vmodem Telnet operation which can
gateway Fido to either land line Fido or other service as well as VHF/HF
radio interfaces for emergency uses.

Which works.

That would be, in this case, five comm port uses, including the Vmodem
Telent instance.  But .. that's not five MAX BBS users.  Say four on modem
connections and four more on Vmodem Telnet connections, like I think is the
question here?

Part of the reason I'm participating here is that there is another quirk I
have noticed in all this over the years.  I also use HyperAccess for OS/2
for remote desktop operations under OS/2 between sites over phone line
modems using one of the phone lines at some sites as well.  And curiously,
while the remote site can use SIO2K for the HHost part of the connection,
the local site I am using to connect to the SIO2K remote HHost operation
cannot use SIO2K.  It has to be on the older SIO 1.6d version as well.  Or
I can never complete local HyperAccess Pro desktop connection to the SIO2K
remote HHost site connection.

Which opens up the next issue that may be at work here for the poster with
the questions!  You must use a DIFFERENT serial number SIO installation for
each interconnection via Vmodem and Telnet between sites!  That means, if
you were using four different serial ports on hard phone lines with SIO or
SIO2K, that part would work fine.  But any user with OS/2 and SIO or SIO2K
which attempts to connect with a Vmodem and TelNet connection back to this
same box, has to have an install version of SIO or SIO2K with a different
serial number for that connection, if my memory is correct!  Same with
HyperAccess Pro and HHost.  In this case when you register that, it comes
with two different install diskette files, so you can connect between two
sites that way.

But .. in the case of SIO or SIO2K, is the reason this is failing is that
the test boxes are also running OS/2 for the four Vmodem and Telnet
connections and all from the same registered version of them?

In my case I registered more than one version of SIO and SIO2K.  They are
different for each install remote site which I know is expected to connect
to my systems .. site to site.  And I know from past experience that
without that I cannot successfully get Vmodem and Telnet service between
sites.

So might this be what is wrong?


--> Sleep well; OS/2's still awake! ;)

Mike {at} 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01