Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!kherron
From: kherron@ms.uky.edu (Kenneth Herron)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: GVC 9600 V.32/V.42bis/MNP5 - good or bad modem?
Message-ID: <1991May23.220220.27973@ms.uky.edu>
Date: 23 May 91 22:02:20 GMT
References: <80.283BB3AA@zswamp.uucp>
Distribution: na
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Lines: 43

root@zswamp.uucp (Geoffrey Welsh) writes:

>In a letter to All, Bill Irwin (bill@twg.bc.ca ) wrote:

> >We're about to buy one of these for evaluation and I was
> >wondering if anyone has had any experience with them.  The 
> >price of about CDN$500 seems very reasonable for a modem with 
> >these features, but if it is a troublesome modem it is expensive 
> >even if it is free.

>   I had a pair of these for about a week of evaluation, but the models I had 
>were V.32/V.42 (no V.42bis data compression nor V.32bis 14.4 kbps).

I have one RIGHT NOW for evaluation.  I've discovered a few problems:

1) The \T idle timeout loads improperly from the saved profile when the
   modem is reset.  The value used is 1/2 of the saved value.  No biggie.
   Technical support didn't know about it until I told them.

2) It sometimes, inconsistently, non-repeatably, won't connect when calling
   in to a 1200 baud modem.

3) When dialing into a T2500, I sometimes got V.42bis, 9600 baud, trellis
   coding, and sometimes got V.42bis, 2400 baud, and no trellis.  Again,
   this was non-repeatable and inconsistent.  The GVC tech calling my
   T2500 and the GVC always got 9600/trellis coding.

   By disabling trellis coding in the GVC, I got 9600 and V.42bis every
   time (but I didn't try too many times).

I've also found the modem to be rather poor.  There's no index or table
of contents, and typos abound, including things like "&T" where they 
meant "%T" in a command description.  This is nothing an experienced
manual spelunker can't get by, though.

So, it works but the firmware needs a few more bugs shaken out of it.
The tech indicated they could issue an eeprom upgrade to fix \T, so
if/when they isolate the other problems they should be fixable too.
-- 
Kenneth Herron                                            kherron@ms.uky.edu
University of Kentucky                                       +1 606 257 2975
Department of Mathematics       "So this won't be a total loss, can you make
         it so guys get to throw their mothers-in-law in?"  "Sure, why not?"