experiences w/ us-thinkpad in germany/europe

[Axel Hartmann <axel.hartmann@stud.uni-karlsruhe.de>]

hi y'all,

having learned so much from the list i thought it's time
for me to share the latest insights.

i just returned home to germany with my US-aquired tp701cs.

before the flight: 
i had it hand-checked at the airport (boston). make sure 
the batteries are loaded, they wanted to see it boot.

on the plane: 
the tp701 doesn't have a built-in cd-rom, so i was allowed 
to use it in flight. don't ask me why a cd-rom drive would
harm a boeing, but that's what they said.
sadly, the atlantic ocean is longer than my only battery.
much longer. not that it mattered, i was catching up on z's
anyhow.
the built-in speakers are loud enough for "fun" gaming, and
loud enough to disturb other fliers. luckily, the headphones
that us-air gives the fliers are "standard" with an adaptor
for the "proprietary" arm-rest jacks, and fit the thinkpad.

back home:
the power adapter can handle 220V. it gets noticably warmer
than with 110V. you also need a plug-adapter, since the 
flip-out american-style prongs don't fit in europe. otherwise
no problem.
the keyboard is, of course, US. and it lacks four german letters,
the umlauts and the s-z. duh. can't change that.
i finally got to test the IR-interface! a friend has the
new HP-LaserJet 6 (not released in the US yet, i believe).
it works! magic! fast! wow!     (LJ-III drivers work, btw)
i will actually be beaming my thesis! since the printer doesn't
speak, i won't be renaming the 'pad scotty, though.

the modem:
yes, i was the one half a year back pestering about my modem
hanging up after five minutes. it never really stopped doing
that when i connected my ISP with win95 at 19k2. i never
found a way to convince the plus pack to connect at 14k4.
anyway, here in germany my university only has 14k4 modems, 
and my modem works beautifully now.
no problem with dial tones or anything like that.

however, first you need a (you guessed it) plug adapter.
the german telekom mandates larger plugs. there are two kinds,
one for phones and one for non-phones (don't laugh) such as
answering machines and faxes. the phones should always have
priority and take the call away from the other machines, and
no two machines should be able to use the line at the same time.
yep, really complicated. the plugs are wired really weird.

=what should happen: the modem should be plugged into a n-
type outlet, take the line on pins 1 and 2 and pass this on
on to lines 4 and 3 respectively. in use, the modem should cut
the connection to pins 4 and 3. 
=why it doesn't happen: most modems just don't do it this way.
as far as i could tell, phone-devices in the states are all
in parallel.
=what i am doing: i'm connecting pins 1 to 4 and 2 to 3 in a
n-type plug. this way, my modem runs parallel to everything else.
=problems remaining: some houses don't have n-type outlets, just
f-type phone-outlets. they are, of course, mutually exclusive.
you might have to get a f to n-f-n adapter.
there are ready-made cables from f or n to US-style wd-connectors,
since most german phones use these connectors, too. however,
the pins are wired in at least 6 different variations. only
one works. it's easiest to ask for a cable for an american modem.
when i asked, they wanted almost $20. so i soldered it myself,
which is probalby illegal.

that was that,

axel

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.                 Axel Hartmann                                       .
. Paper         : Blumenstr. 15; 76133 Karlsruhe; Germany
. Voice         : [0|xx49] 721 - 27115                                 .
. E-Mail        : Axel.Hartmann@stud.uni-karlsruhe.de                 .
. Homepage      : http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~Axel.Hartmann          .
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