IBM 701C Modem Init Notes

[owen@world.std.com (Rod Owen)]

Thanks to good help from the staff at The World (world.std.com),
I'm having good luck connecting to their local modems and staying online.

Here's what I've found, and I'd like to solicit your comments on it:

1.  Emmanuel's suggested init string (at&f1&c1&d2&k3&q5s95=41):  The
	&c1, &d2 are default settings for either the &f or &f1 factory
	settings, anyway, as can be seen by using at&v to view them.
	The &k3 is bolded in the manual to show that it's also a default
	(bidirectional hardware flow control), but it doesn't show up
	in the at&v display  of settings, however \q3 does show up
	and has the same meaning.  Note also that the &q5 sets MNP
	autoreliable mode, but that's also what the &f1 does.  Finally,
	the s95=41 must be a throwback to some earlier modem of his.

	Therefore, Emmanuel's string can just as well be at&f1, and
	that will get you MNP autoreliable mode, but it doesn't solve
	the problem -- or didn't for me.

2.  I haven't verified the manual's claim that "commands you enter must
	be entirely in uppercase or entirely in lowercase. A command such
	as At&f will not be recognized by the modem" (page 5), but
	maybe I've had problems there without realizing it.

3.  Someone recently posted a reply to the 701C modem-problem thread to the
	effect that the 701C's modem supports 19200 bps data mode, but
	only with other V.32 Terbo modems.  This finally made sense to me
	in working with the staff at World today, and I think it's the
	answer to _my_ connect problems.

	World's modems are all the same brands, and I could connect and stay
	on if I called their Brookline modems, but not their Lowell ones,
	I think because the Lowell ones were influenced more by peak
	usage demands.  Maybe.  I could also connect to CompuServe and
	to the Microsoft Network without getting thrown off.  (However,
	downloading from CompuServe and perhaps downloading in general is
	perhaps a different issue.)

	The diagnosis:  user greed.  The answer:  use %b14400 to limit
	the speed at which your modem will talk to someone else's.  I
	know that all those connect at 19200 messages are gratifying
	to see, but either the other guy's modem has trouble maintaining
	the connection, or my modem has trouble.

	My init string is now at&f%b14400w1.

	I use the w1 to tell me what connection details result from the
	modem's negotiations.

4.  I've only had luck setting my port speed to 19200.  The manual says
	"a speed of 19.2Kbps will almost always work with any computer"
	(page 39).

5.  Someone asked, "When the modem says 'Connect 38400/REL, is it kidding?"
	What's really happening is that this is the speed at which your
	serial port is willing to talk to your modem.  It's not the
	speed at which your modem will talk to another modem.  This
	is a little more clear when you use the w1 command, as in this
	capture of my connection:

	atdt 9349753
	CARRIER 14400			/* max per %b14400 command */
	PROTOCOL: LAP-M			/* result of &f command */
	COMPRESSION: V.42BIS		/* ditto */
	CONNECT 19200			/* my port speed */

	If I didn't have the w1 command, I think all I would see
	would be "CONNECT 19200/REL."

6. Following the suggestions from Tech Support at IBM, I updated my
	system's BIOS to version 3O by using the sys7013o.exe file
	that you can find on CompuServe or http://www.pc.ibm.com/files.html.

	I don't think that it made a difference, and it's kind of scary.
	You need to download it, run sys7013o to unpack it and put it
	onto a blank, formatted diskette, read the directions, boot
	the 701 from the diskette, and, in my case, hold your breath
	when the screen goes blank and you (I) turn the 701 off and on
	before you see the message telling you to do so.  (It must be a
	bug in the program, or maybe the 5 minutes I waited wasn't long
	enough.)

7.  I also updated my modem's BIOS with the file bfmod611.exe, which has
	a basically similar procedure to updating the system BIOS, and I
	went from Rev A6.09 to Rev A6.11a for my firmware.

	Again, I wouldn't recommend that you do this, as I'm not sure it
	made any difference.  This file isn't in their general customer
	area anyway.

Well, that's it.  The last three (!) times I've connected to World, I've
been able to stay on as long as I've wanted.  This is quite a change from
the two-to-five-minute connection I've had since the machine arrived two
weeks ago.

Now, if anyone has suggestions for avoiding the "death spiral" when down
loading from CompuServe, where the speed goes from 2000 bps down to 250
or so before hanging, I'd really like to know.  I don't know if I'll
have problems with that now after what I've learned so far.  But you
never know.  I also don't know if my suggestions will produce a reliable
Netscape session.

If these suggestions work for you, will you please let me know?

Thank you.

- Rod Owen
	Rod@acm.org
	Owen@world.std.com






	
 




------------------------------

Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 11:26:29 +0100
From: Alex Judd <ajudd@quantime.co.uk>
To: Dave Speed <dspeed@well.com>
CC: thinkpad@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: Ethernet PCMCIA Cards
Message-Id: <2.2.16.19960409112424.18eff052@tiree.quantime.co.uk>

Sounds like your OS is the problem.

W3.11 does not support the required networking to enable you to map a remote
LPT port (needed to use a printer on another machine), or map a network
drive (net use <drive letter> <drive path>) needed to access your CD-Rom
player.

Phone up your supplier. Explain your problem. Ship them back the OLD OS. Get
WFW3.11. Install all machines in the same workgroup. Use NET-Beui protocol.

Should do the trick.

Alex

At 14:44 08/04/96 -0700, you wrote:
>
>As alluded to in a previous post, I am having difficulties
>with connection my 701C to my home ether net (10 Base T).
>
>I purchased a Simple Technology (ST) PCMCIA Ethernet card from 
>Computer Discount Warehouse (CDW); they said that the card was 
>compatible with the 701C Thinkpad. (And yes, I do believe in 
>the tooth fairy...)
>
>First attempt to install did not take even after trying beta 
>drivers (why did I start to feel slightly sick ?) so I swapped the 
>card for a new one.  Second card also balked. Probably not the
>card.
>
>I am coming to the conclusion that the problem is in the OS.  When
>I ordered the box, the CDW ad said "Windows 3.11" which I read as 
>"Windows for Workgroups 3.11"; I would have denied the existence of
>the former, but it does seem to exist.
>
>IBM Tech Support states (after several longish consults) that 1. W3.11 
>is not WFW3.11, and 2. "peer-to-peer networking is not supported under 
>W 3.11, but you can share disk drives and printers"; at this point, I
>thanked the nice man and rang off.  No help here.
>
>Back to ST.  They were unaware of any problems; the 701C was not on
>any black list.  My tech guy was also unaware of a W3.11 variant. 
>They are looking into it.
>
>Basically, I want to be able to use the printer and CD player when at 
>home.  Any pointers to the solution appreciated.  Email to me and I will
>post with the solution (hopefully soon).
>
>
>


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 12:01:00 +0100
From: eyrich@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Christoph Eyrich)
To: thinkpad@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: TP701 & Mac 
Message-Id: <m0u6bAc-000dR3C@fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de>

That depends on the Mac. The new ones do up to 230kb/s, older
ones, as you say, 115kb/s, and even older ones 57kb/s.

Christoph Eyrich
---
eyrich@zedat.fu-berlin.de

> 
> The highest rate I've seen is 115 kb/s, and that's bits, not bytes, so 
> the overall rate is way lower than, say, a floppy drive.  OK for file 
> transfers, but not like you can cross mount the CD-ROM or hard drive and
> have it be just like a lan.
> 
> -Don Perley
> perley@cadence.com
> 
> 


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 07:10:09 -0400
From: dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar)
To: eyrich@zedat.fu-berlin.de, thinkpad@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: TP701 & Mac
Message-Id: <9604091110.AA01695@nile.gnat.com>

one thing to remember in looking at speeds of links to MACS is that the
system 7 file system is incredibly slow, and is likely to be the
bottleneck for file transfers (in fact one advantage of hooking a MAC
up to an ethernet is that NFS access is typically MUCH faster than
native file access).

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 05:36:51 -0400
From: buffingt@chaph.usc.edu (Roger J. Buffington)
Reply-To: buffingt@chaph.usc.edu (Roger J. Buffington)
To: victor@net1.nw.com.au, tp750@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: Connecting with Warp Connect
Message-Id: <199604091331.GAA28694@chaph.usc.edu>

Victor, I had the same problem.  I solved it.  It has to do with your
logon file.  Try putting a \r before each command.

 ----------------------------------
Roger J. Buffington	
USC Law, Class of '97	

-----------------------------
AB6WR			
Go Trojans!!
WARPing with PM-Mail

| "I would rather die peacefully, in my sleep, like my Grandfather,
rather than screaming, and in terror, like his passengers..."


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 14:26:37 +0200
From: <ud1b@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
Message-Id: <"nz11.rz.un.585:09.04.96.12.26.48"@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>

Reply to Julie Strietelmeier concerning WFW 3.11 Time Problems
Same for me here, I think it has to do with the suspend mode.


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 09:56:02 -0500
From: hprice@girch301.med.uth.tmc.edu (Howard Price)
To: thinkpad@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: games & sound on tp750?
Message-Id: <199604091452.KAA11933@CS.UTK.EDU>

If the 750 is like the 755CD, the fundamental item is you need to run
"mwgames on" before starting the game.  This invokes the sound blaster
emulation of the mwave dsp.  Details are tougher, and vary by the game.

>
>What sound settings on games such as Doom, Doom2, or Descent, will work on
>the thinkpad 750?  I foolishly thought I was buying sound support when I 
>chose the 750 but so far the sound hardware is only good for running the 
>IBM sound diagnostic routines and the occasional WAV file.  Has anyone had 
>any success in getting decent sound with any of the more recent video games?
>
>Sean Owens
>player@envirolink.org
>
>


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 08:05:49 -0700
From: Dave Speed <dspeed@well.com>
To: thinkpad@CS.UTK.EDU
Subject: Factory Supplied  701C OS 
Message-Id: <2.2.16.19960409094118.2adff8a0@well.com>


Many thanks to all who emailed me.

Yes, thre *is* a Windows 3.11 (W3.11); it was designed for foiling
the use of Windoze under OS/2 Warp.  It pretends to network,but 
nobody knew how to make it work.

The inelegant solution was to install Windows for Workgroups
(WFW3.11).  Once this was accomplished (with minimal pain), the
network card install went fine and the 701 now enjoys several
GB of disk space.

Dave - KC6WKI


------------------------------

In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 09 Apr 1996 09:56:02 CDT."
	     <199604091452.KAA11933@CS.UTK.EDU> 
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 11:28:37 -0400
From: Bob Cowles <rdc@pelican.cit.cornell.edu>
To: player@envirolink.org, thinkpad@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: games & sound on tp750? 
Message-Id: <9604091528.AA17469@pelican.cit.cornell.edu>

BAsicly, you're out of luch with with either a 750 or a 755.  They both have 
software emulation of a soundblaster and what you have to have is hardware 
emulation.  The later Thinkpads moved to hardware emulation 755CE, CD, CX, CV

and the 760 sreies all have hardware emulation.

Bob Cowles
 
-----------------------
Bob Cowles                     ||   "This could come out better if we
rdc1@cornell.edu               ||     planned it."  Dr. Chaos


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