modem mileage

[Craig Kozel]

In article <1991Feb17.122852.26711 at world.std.com> dcc at world.std.com (Dave C Curado) writes:
>
>I've got a question concerning a modem.  I think there's probably a simple
>solution to my problem, but since I don't know it yet...
>
>We have a 386 running ICS 3.2 as an internet node.  Unfortunately for me,
>it's located 70 miles away from our main site, and we must always call
>in to the machine via good ol' 2400 baud modems.  This works fine, until
>you have the occasion to drop the session in an ungraceful sort of way...
>as in, hanging up the phone.  (for various reasons)
>When this happens, it seems as if the modem freeks out and sits there
>trying to communicate with the shell process I've left running.  This ties
>up the machine so badly, that you can't login.  Even standing at the console!
>280 miles later, (two round trips to go and fix the problem)
>my tires and I are looking for a 'better way.'

It sounds like the modem isn't dropping DCD or the serial port's
device driver isn't handling it correctly. I'd call the multiport
card manufacturer and see if they know how to correct the problem.
Maybe they have a new driver. It is not unheard of for serial card
(intelligent) drivers to have just the problem you state.

You mention having a daemon lying around in wait to take care of
this problem. For the short term you might look at a script that
logs out inactive users after a period of time (say half an hour or
so). SCO Xenix has a variable, idle, built in that you can set.
I'm not sure what the equivalent SystemV3.2 is -- but I've seen
discussions of this on the net.