Using PCOMM

[Kevin O'Gorman]

In article <516 at rbdc.UUCP> andy at rbdc.UUCP (Andy Pitts) writes:
>In article <417 at kosman.UUCP>, I wrote:
>> I cannot get PCOMM to work with my external Telebit Trailblazer Plus.
>> I think I have things set up right, but it acts really strange.
>> 
>> If I try to use one of the dialer menu entries, it goes off-hook and
>> never dials anything, but waits for a connect.
>> 
>> If I try to dial manually, it dials okay and the modem connects, but
>> PCOMM never sees that the connection has happened.
>
>It works for me.  Have you installed all the patches to pcomm?  One of them
>(I think patch 2) fixes a bug that prevents pcomm from sending the dial string
>to an external modem.  There is also a fix in one of tha patches that sets
>the line to CLOCAL so you can send characters to the modem if DCD is low.
>
>If you have installed the patches, try this modem setup:

I'm trying.  No joy.  I have patches through 4 (1 and 2 were included in the
distribution I started with).  I don't autobaud because I have found it
necessary to lock the interface at 9600 for other reasons -- basically, too
many of my callers had trouble getting uugetty to cycle through baud rates,
and there are 3 different rates in use.

I still have some trouble with the design of the setups here.  There doesn't
seem to be any way to adapt to a multi-speed modem.  What I'm looking for
and not finding is something like 300 SETUP, 1200 SETUP, etc., which would
be command strings to the modem to set up for outgoing calls at those rates.
This can be important on 'blazers, because lots of us run with s92=1, which
means that two 9600-capable modems can get tricked into talking at 1200 baud
because we're trying to be kind to folks who have short timeouts and who only
talk at that rate.

Anyway, I have found a way to get ATE working, and I'm back to that for now.
I could not get it to dial the 'blazer, so I lied to it and set up the line
to be 'COMPUTER' instead of a modem, and it gives me a direct connection to
the line.  I type my own modem commands and get connected that way.  Then I
can capture files, and do printing and all the other stuff I really need.

Since I am telecommuting for a living (2500 miles in the blink of an eye) I
am more interested in what works than what is elegant.  The idea of PCOMM is
just fine -- but I can't get it to work, and it looks like the design is a
little bit short of what I need anyway.

Now if anyone could get either of these packages to work right, I would still
appreciate it

- ATE to dial an external trailblazer
- PCOMM to use an external trailblazer