Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!mtune!icus!gil
From: gil@icus.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: DECSERVER 200's and dial in/out modems
Summary: Don't keep us in suspense...
Message-ID: <218@icus.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 88 07:37:24 GMT
References: <57rrk@byuvax.bitnet>
Reply-To: gil@icus.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.)
Organization: Bowne Management Systems, Mineola, NY
Lines: 89

In article <57rrk@byuvax.bitnet> rrk@byuvax.bitnet writes:
>Sometimes I get the feeling that noone is listening...or reading their manuals.
>I have stated several times that we are working multiple speeds automatically
>on dialout from a DEC Server.  If people would read their DECServer manuals,
>they would first of all discover, that at least according to DEC, it IS
>impossible to support three or more (e.g. 300, 1200, and 2400) dialout speeds
>from a DEC Server 200, but it is very easy to get two to work.

Uh huh.  Simple as pie.  I did read that three-ring binder and they tell you
how to connect to everything under the sun except a multi-speed voice-grade
modem.  They SAY that the alternate speed stuff is correct...but... (read-on)

>Right now,
>all we do is allocate a reverse LAT port and go into kermit.  Then we dial
>out.  The server will automatically switch between 2400 (set as the primary
>outgoing speed) and 1200 (the secondary outgoing speed) without the user
>knowing anything, except that the modem sends back a connect message telling
>the speed at which connection was accomplished.

Magic...I say..  Absolute magic.

Now, can you tell me how the MODEM knows what this speed is?  Unless I
am gravely mistaken, you have to establish a speed that you wish to use on
the modem BEFORE you dial-out.  At least this is so on a Hayes-compat. modem.
This is what most of us are using to dial-out I think.  Unless you have a
modem that does speed conversion for you, or you use a special line on the
RS232 port which handles speed (no, I didn't look further into this because
it wasn't satisfactory this way), there is NO WAY for the SERVER to know what
speed you wish to communicate with the remote system at.  Unless it is
magical, of course.

>Read the orange three-ring
>DECServer 200 documentation carefully, and follow the instructions.  It
>was so long ago that we set them up, that I don't remember all the steps,
>that's what my manual is for.  These modems serve simultaneously as outgoing
>and incoming modems, automatically switched by allocating the reverse LAT
>or incoming calls (which seem to have full multispeed AUTOBAUD, but I wouldn't
>swear it, since our modems don't bother with 300 baud, and from which up
>to 8 sessions can be initiated).  Did I leave any holes, so that you still
>think my modems don't work from my DECServer 200?  If you have any specifics
>you would like to ask about, such as DECServer port characteristics, after
>you set it up BY THE BOOK, I would be more than happy to send them to you,
>although I can tell you before hand, that it was done BY THE BOOK.  Try
>it.
>
>                                Ray Whitmer
>                                AMMON::RAY

Ray, most of us are not total idiots and don't need to be spoken to in
such a pathetic manner.

First off, I have set my DECserver BY the God Damn BOOK.  I took several
hours with the assinine book, trying to find what I was looking for.  I
was able to get something working, but it didn't resemble anything like
"multiple" (2)  speeds.  When I got something intelligent from the port, the
only way I could dynamically switch speeds was by being privileged on the
server and setting the speeds by hand.  This is unsatisfactory.

The ONLY way I can see that you can be using this method is by the RS232
speed control line (no flames if this is an invalid assumption, I don't
have THE BOOK, THE DECSERVER or THE COMPUTER in front of me, I just got
back from vacation and am AT HOME).  With Hayes-compatibles, and most
other smart modems, the speed is determined by a particular sequence of
characters being transmitted at a certain speed before a connection is
established.  This being the case, there has to be a way of setting the
port speed, as in SET TERMINAL/SPEED=xxx LTAy:, **BEFORE** a connection
is made.  This is what "The Book" doesn't seem to address.  They are
more concerned with dedicated modems conecting remote systems, and
downgrading speed when telephone line noise is bad.

There is another book called the VMS 4.6 release notes.  This book says,
in not so many words, that the SET TERMINAL/SPEED=xxx for a LAT device
doesn't work.  They give some examples of what DOES work. (anyone out
there have them and care to quote?).

PS:  Yes, we DO listen.  I posted an article months ago, when I was
working on this.  Nobody had any concrete solutions.  I tried and was
unsuccessful, and so I scrapped the idea, in the interest of wasted
time.

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