Re: oh, no: 2 questions

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article sagochangi@aol.com (Sagochangi) writes...

>hmm... i just blew a huge wad of money on a 56k modem for my IIgs, lured by
>idea that the serial ports support 57.6k.  i remembered that z-link supports
>it, so why wouldn't my IIgs, right?  well, why does the control panel only go
>up to 19.2?  am i doing something wrong here, or is there a software solution?

    Both serial ports are controlled by a Z8530 SCC and do indeed support
up to 57600 bps, despite the Control Panel limit (I believe the artifical
limitation was so it would closer match the Super Serial Card). Most IIgs
aware software bypasses the firmware limit, ProTERM 3.x and Spectrum do
for example (as does Jermey Chadwick's Speedport CDA).

>i can't even get hardware handshaking to work correctly, and i know my cable
>and modem (USR v90 fax) support it.  past 14.4, i drop characters like my
>friend's 1-year-old running around with his magnetic alphabet kit.

    Do you have an accelerator card installed? If not, it is no surprise
it's dropping characters above 14.4K. You also require a properly wired
hardware handshaking cable, but I assume you have that.

    There are a lot of issues you need know about with 57.6K modems.
First off your ISP *must* have an arrangement with the phone company
to support digital routing through part of the connection, and my
guess is your only going to get this with TCP/IP (PPP) providers,
not shell ISP's. Next you will *never* connect at a full 57600 bps,
52000 bps is the current limit because of FCC restrictions or such
(this is an artifical limitation which could be lifted in time).

    The last issue has to do with how clean your phone line is, not
every line can support a 57.6K modem. Some people are lucky and get
a full 52000 connect, others only get 48000 or much lower (I know
of some cases where people can't connect higher than 33600). There
isn't much you can do, the phone company is only obligated to give
you a line clear enough to handle 4800 bps if I remember right.

>and this may be a power supply problem, but every so often i get a "ramfast
>fatal memory code=0c" error on power-up.  only a cold restart fixes it.  has
>anyone else experienced an error like this?  (seems like i asked this before,
>but i can't remember if i did, or just meant to.  apologies for a possible
>repost.)

    I think that error means the Z180 processor on the RamFAST has
temporarily crashed or failed in some manner. I've had this happen
on occasion and the only solution is to power-down the IIgs for a
few seconds and then start it up again.

    Do you have a Buggie external powersupply by any chance? When
I installed one, my RamFAST would give me that error upon powerup
unless I turned it off for _several_ minutes and waited (I think
it caused some capacitor to retain too much charge on the RF and
messed things up until it could drain. Just a wild guess).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca