[Techtalk] External 56k modem

[Maria Blackmore]

On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Staci wrote:

> I recently decided (due to budgetary constraints) to get rid of my
> cable-modem til fall and go back to dial-up for a while.

:(

> I got the serial modem, I've got the kernel-drivers built-in, it
> dials, it answers, it handshakes...and chokes. 45 seconds or so after
> it goes quiet, it just disconnects.

Could you be more specific about "chokes" ? ;)

> But I know I have the authentication protocol right, and my friend
> said he had the modem working before so it shouldn't be the hardware,
> and I even had someone else double-check and make sure I had the
> drivers.

OK

Can you install something like minicom to try making it dial by hand?

First of all, check you can talk to it by just typing "AT" and pressing
enter, it should answer with "OK"

You can reset the modem with "ATZ" and get it to dial the number with
"ATDT" and follow with the number, eg dialling up to where I work would be
"ATDT08451200387"

Eventually, you should see a "CONNECT" from the modem, possibly with a
speed following it.

At this point you may need to press enter to grab the attention of the
modem rack that you're dialling into, and persuade it to give you a login
prompt instead of waiting for a PPP sequence.  You can then use the
account name and password to log in.  If you log in succesfully, you will
see a whole big bunch of apparently random characters come back at you,
which is the modem rack trying to start a PPP session.  If you don't log
in succesfully, it will either ask you to reenter your details or just
drop the connection.  In either case, it should prove to be useful
information.

> Using KPPP it just resets and tries to redial, using WvDial it "times
> out" and then can't seem to get a dial-tone to try again.

Have you verified this with a phone on the same line?

> I did try setting the kppp timeout to some huge ungodly number of
> minutes, but it didn't help.

hmm, no, I suspect not

> Does anyone have any ideas what to try next?

see above :)

> I can get another modem but it'll be a hassle and I'd much rather make
> this one work. :/

Just out of interest, what sort of modem is it?

Maria