jacobson@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (02/09/89)
I am wondering if anyone out there has experience with the Smartlink 2400 modem (a hayes clone). I recently got a spare one real cheap at a users group swap/sale that had never been out of the box. For the first week I had no real trouble using it-worked fine. Then this weekend I went on long 9-12 hour binges of up and downloading. Things went fine on Saturday but on Sunday while having a major snow I started having trouble with linenoise disconnecting me and the modem getting reset in weird modes which required me to do manual resets of the modem before redialing back. On Monday I used for 12 hours, and started having some linenoise trouble when a second snow storm came through Illinois. By about 5-6PM it got real bad and I was constantly getting booted off. The modem was getting real weird also. It would get set in some mode that by even turning off the power switch for 30 seconds would not reset. I had to wait 20-30 minutes then it would work ok till the line noise got bad. Tuesday, weather was clear, and I again went from early morning to 5PM with absoulutely no trouble. Then again I started loosing the connection with the system I was uploading to. I got on for another 2-3 hours with few problems, but finally kept getting booted off each time after a few minutes. The modem started getting in its weird modes again, but the command ATZ would reset about half the time, while the power switch would do it the rest. I tried connecting with a switch to our Unix system after that (the switch is a strange digital rather than analog switch). I got nothing but constant garbage and line noise, so that I could not spend more than 5 minutes online before getting booted off. Finally gave up. The next morning I tried the switch to the Unix system before 8AM and still had the same trouble. Finally about 8:15 it all cleared up after the line wouldnUt answer for sometime, but the technician said no one had reported any trouble. So my question is this: Is the problem just that my cheaper Hayes clone cannot handle line noise when it gets bad? Or is it a chip flaking out after it heats up. I thought if a chip would do that it would occur after a couple hours. Why does this occur only in the evenings after 5PM, or on weekends. Can chips take 9-10 hours before they heat up sufficiently to fail? Or is the problem just one of bad periods of line noise, and if so, does anyone have any idea why times after 5PM would be so bad???? After the problems last night I ran the self test mode of the modem which checks the modem for problems for over a half hour, and the modem-computer circuit for a half hour. No errors reported in these tests (assuming I can believe them). Thus I lean towards line reliability problems myself, and that my modem just does not handle them well. I am using the modem with AtalkIII (my favorite package) and an Amiga 2000. Anyone who has experienced such with any modem and found the cause, I would like to hear from via email. Also if anyone knows about the Smartlink brand (good or bad) I sure would like to know. Russ Jacobson Illinois Geological Survey jacobson@uiucuxe jacobson%uiucuxe@a.cs.uiuc.edu jacobson%uiucuxe@uiuc.csnet [ihnp4,pur-ee,convex]!uiucdcs!uiucuxc!uiucuxe!jacobson