Dear Experts,
Please could someone shed some light on this for me. Lately, I've
noticed a sharp rise in the number of failed connections to my ISP when
the modem dials. The normal sequence of events for a successful
connection has been like this:
1. Modem dials.
2. Modem emits two tones, one after the other about 1s apart.
3. Remote modem responds and the screeching begins.
4. Speaker in modem cuts off.
5. Immediately, 'CD' LED on modem lights.
6. Also immediately, some brief hard-disk access occurs.
7. After about 7 seconds, the 'vector at 0x0060...' message
briefly appears on Arachne screen and all's ready to go.
When the connection fails, everything in the above list occurs up to
step 5. Sometimes the CD LED never comes on, the disk access never
occurs and nothing further happens. Hanging up is the only way out.
BUT ... sometimes the CD LED comes on after a delay of about 3 seconds,
and even this delay seems to be enough to stop the rest of the sequence
happening. So the long and short of it is that if the CD LED doesn't
come on immediately the speaker cuts off, the connection fails.
Now - on another (more expensive) ISP that I sometimes use, the
sequence is different: for a start, after dialling the modem only emits
one bleep to start before the other end responds. Also the pattern of the
screeching sounds 'different'. But most significantly, there is usually
ALWAYS a delay of maybe 4 seconds after the speaker cuts off before the
CD LED comes on, but then the 'vector at 0x0060' message appears almost
immediately and the connection is successful.
Since this modem connecting business is a closed book to me, I hoped
that someone on the list could explain the different behaviour that I've
tried to explain below - also, how to get the 'cheap' ISP commection to
work reliably every time. I use the same configuration on both ISPs,
i.e., auto log-in, no terminal mode, no script. The PC is a 486DX4 with
56k V90/K56(tm)flex modem. I can post some part of my ARACHNE.CFG
to the list if you can say which bit is most helpful.
As always, I'll be greatly indebted for any clues!
All the best,
Ron.
-- Arachne V1.66, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
