[ale] My modem is ignoring me

[Zot O'Connor]

> > > From: Joe Bayes <jbayes at cs.oberlin.edu>
> > > To: ale at cc.gatech.edu
> > > Subject: [ale] My modem is ignoring me
> > > X-Display-Position: 0
> > >
> > >
> > > I feel so shunned.
> > >
> > > I hooked my modem up to my serial port, and double checked to make
> > > sure I was using the serial port and not the parallel port (male
> > > db25). I turned my modem on, fired up Kermit, double checked that my
> > > device was set correctly, set my speed, then hit "c".
> > >

I reccomend mincom over kermit, it is a Telix clone that works well and is easy
to change settings.

> > > Whatever I typed after this point, not only did my modem not receive
> > > it, but the keystrokes didn't even echo on the screen. The
> > > Serial-HOWTO said nothing about this problem, and a week on and off of
> > > fiddling  with it produced no results.
> > >

Local echo (kermit does the echoing) is listed as "Half Duplex" This is pretty
rare.  Most times you see the commands, the modem is echoing them back.

If the lights on the modem are not blinking when you hit jeys, you are not
talking to the modem.  Likely causes:

  1)  Modem is on different port.  Check by switching ports (Cua0 is com1)
  2)  You have null modem cable between you and the modem.  You need a straight
      through cable/  Want to to test this?  Connect it to two serial ports (two machines
      are better) and watch both ports. (One one machine open minicom in two sessions
      one for each port.  You may need to set the first session to the non-defualt port
      first).  A null modem cable will pass through any characters typed.
  3)  Modem is not on.  Are there any lights?  If so do they change when you connect the cable/
      and/or go into mimicom?  The DTR and MR lights usually come on.
  4)  Cable plugged into wrong space.  The is reqal hard to do, but possible
  5)  Serial port is bad.  Use setserial to test it.  Perhaps the card is setup wrong.  Perhaps
      the port is not connected well (often the prt on the back has a ribbon cable to the card
      Check the card in the slot.
  6)  Test the modem on another machine.  Use the same cable!  Perhaps the cable is bad.
  7)  Modem is in some wierd binary mode, or in asynchronous mode.  Highly unlikely, read you doc.


Now if you see lights and nothing happens, try this:
  1)  Modem is locked, power down for 5 sec and back up
  2)  Modem is at wrong speed.  This is rare, send <CR>AT<CR>  Unless the modem is locked
      at a high speed this will inform the modem what speed you are at.  You can lso run the gambit of
      speeds.  If you get noise on some speeds, set minicom 8 bits, No Parity, 1 stop bit.  Keep
      looking for the speed.
  3)  Test it on another machine.  This helps if com port is bad (You can have some wierd com
      port errors, like send and no recieve and send some.  The Drivers on cheap cards
      are easy to blow.
  4)  Modem is in Binary or asynch mode.  Probably a dip switch, check the manual.  This is rare.

If this doesn;t work, post the results to each question.  From there I bet I can figure
it out.

-- 
Later,
ZOT                                                        zot at crl.com
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