On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 11:54:17AM -0600, Larry Sheldon wrote: > I'll join the confusion--I thought the OP wanted to test for power > availability at the distant site by seeing if a modem there would answer > the phone there. That it HAD to be a modem in that case makes no sense > to me. > > I'm of the line now and have been for a while and maybe y'all don't do > things the way we did--we always had an answering machine (two or three > in some places*) that always answered on the first ring and gave some > kind of status report that was updated hourly on on event). If it did > not answer, the power was out.
At a client wiring closet, the super-conscientious rack maintainer one day decided that it was good practice to replace consumer-standard batteries during his quarterly cleaning rounds. Answering machines have replaceable batteries. Modems do not. -- Henry Yen <henry....@aegis00.com> Aegis Information Systems, Inc. Senior Systems Programmer Hicksville, New York (800) AEGIS-00 x949 1-800-AEGIS-00 (800-234-4700)