Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!pooh!madler
From: madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: installing modems and personal computers
Summary: dial-out is no big deal
Message-ID: <1991Jan14.013406.25391@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 14 Jan 91 01:34:06 GMT
References: <3573@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> <1117@toaster.SFSU.EDU> <1991Jan14.001459.13161@cs.mcgill.ca>
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glang@Autodesk.COM (Gary Lang) wonders:
>> > the fact that people need to ask the net how to 
>> >install modems indicates to me that it is _not_ a personal 
>> >computer.
>> 
>> Anyway, I am not sure what problems with this the NeXT has in
>> particular; I plugged my modem into the serial port, just like I've
>> done on my Macs and PC's, and ran my comm. software. I really don't
>> see what the difference is that you're citing here.

I forgot who that original poster was, but anyway, Gary is right.  It's quite
easy indeed to connect your modem and get it working for dial-out.  Any old Mac
modem cable will do, and you can even use the wrong device (/dev/ttya instead
of the correct /dev/cua), and it'll work.

The complications arise when you want to support dial-in as well.  That's what
most of my "how to connect your modem" posting deals with.  As regards the
comparison with personal computers--getting dial-in to work on a personal
computer is *much* more difficult than on the NeXT, or most any other Unix box.
Of course, MSDOS and the Mac were never really designed for dial-in, whereas
Unix was, so the comparison isn't entirely fair.  But when you compare oranges
and oranges (note that I cannot use the word "apple" in this cliche), i.e.
dial-out, then the NeXT is a "personal computer".

Mark Adler
madler@pooh.caltech.edu