Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-lcc!ptsfa!ihnp4!chinet!steinmetz!davidsen From: davidsen@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems Subject: Re: Error correction without notification is a road to disaster Message-ID: <1264@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> Date: Thu, 5-Mar-87 12:12:35 EST Article-I.D.: steinmet.1264 Posted: Thu Mar 5 12:12:35 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 8-Mar-87 08:54:40 EST References: Reply-To: davidsen@kbsvax.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr) Distribution: world Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY Lines: 35 In article steckel@alliant.UUCP (Geoff Steckel) writes: >A number of vendors have introduced "error correcting" modems >recently. I have heard of none that notify the user that correction >has taken place. Some manufacturers actively discourage users from >using error correction protocols above their modems! None, of course, >detail the manner in which they provide this service. From experience >and reading in networking, this is a disaster waiting to happen. I agree with you premise, but I *think* you're working from a false starting point. The error correcting modems *seem* to work by sending a packet and doing a resend if it's munged in transit. I get the impression that you are assuming error correction ala Hamming or Fire codes. The prime bebefit of error correction is when using the modems in an interactive manner, eliminating the "babble" which so often goes with a connection these days. It is not a substitute for other methods currently in use. It also allows non-critical data to be sent by just blasting the data out, similar to cu text tranfers. This improves the throughput considerably for files which do not contain vital data. I would be willing to trust the modems on a news posting, or casual conversation, but would still use additional error checking for sending the draft of a contract or a buy order to my broker. Forgive me if you knew how these modems work and still think another level of error checking is evil. -- bill davidsen sixhub \ ihnp4!seismo!rochester!steinmetz -> crdos1!davidsen chinet / ARPA: davidsen%crdos1.uucp@ge-crd.ARPA (or davidsen@ge-crd.ARPA)