On Thu, 21 Jan 1999, Colan Mitchell wrote: Well, if its supposed to be looking for dialtone, then why is the line ringing up to three times? Unless you're saying it actually does dial the number, then the line rings a couple times, then the modem returns a response of "NO DIALTONE"? Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Always being hassled by the man. Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 01/15/99]

On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Colan Mitchell wrote: Ok, have you verified that it is in fact ringing the phone? Have you tried dialing another line in your house (if you've got one) or a cooperative friend's number? Assuming that it is calling the number, which it seems to be, then what number are you calling into? What is the carrier on the other end? A 300bps modem? A 56K V.Everything? What would really help you is a lineman's testset. But since those cost lots of money and you probably don't want to go breaking into telco vans late at night to steal one like the kids used to do back in the day, you can get yourself two .1 uF caps (240V) and two modular phones jack to rig up a simple passive listening device. Wire each conductor of the phone line to one of the caps. Then wire the other leads to the modular jack. Like so: tip (normally green wire) ----||-----\_ __ TO .1uF | | INFORMER _|__| modular jack ring (normally red wire) ----||-----/ .1uF This basically isolates the DC of the phone line while allowing the AC to pass, so you can listen in on the line without obstructing the call. You would connect a line cord in parallel with the Informer, then connect the other end into the contraption above. Then you can plug a phone into the modular jack, go off-hook and then let the Informer dial while you listen in. Now having gotten only about two hours of sleep this morning, I just realized I went thru all the trouble to type up this pretty circuit diagram when all you really need is a line splitter from Radio Shack or whatever. You could plug the phone into other jack of the splitter and when the informer goes to dial you can pick up a phone plugged into the other jack and listen. Isolating the line from your phone in this case is really unnecessary. Oh well. Anyway, try this out and let us know what turns up. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Always being hassled by the man. Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 01/15/99]

On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Colan Mitchell wrote: Ok, well that gives a clue (the fact that freenet takes more than 2 rings to connect, which is dumb but oh well). Perhaps the Informer is suffering from premature rejection, ie. it's timing out too fast when it doesn't see a carrier within two rings. Does the Informer use AT commands to dial the modem? If so then it probably has an S parameter to set the carrier timeout period. I don't know what the S command is though right off hand and my modem is tied up right now writing this memo to you so I can't do an ATS?. Maybe I have a modem manual nearby. Ok, here it is. ATS6 stores the number of seconds the modem will wait for carrier. The default is generally 60. But to be sure, enter in ATS6=60 before dialing the freenet number and see if that changes anything. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Always being hassled by the man. Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 01/15/99]