dpz@convex.com (David Paul Zimmerman) (09/06/89)
Well, I called Practical Peripherals and talked to Roland, the PP Supervisor of Tech Support. I read your message to him, and after calming him down, he suggested that I call their support BBS (1-818-706-2467) and talk to the sysop, who's been using PP modems on it. Roland is not aware of any recurring problems with the series, and claims that they're fairly studly beasts. He also mentioned that they're being bought by Hayes, but that they will still be "Practical Peripherals". That's got to mean something, even if you don't trust what companies say about their own products. Here's the replies I got from the BBS: From: David Zimmerman Pvt Rec'd To: Paul Hansen Msg #234, 05-Sep-89 01:12pm Subject: PM2400SA Check out this article that I found on USENET... I'm about to recommend purchasing 8 PM2400SA modems for dialup access to a terminal server, but this article makes me nervous about the quality of PP modems. Perhaps you can quell my fears? . David . In article <513@wet.UUCP>, epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) writes: > In article <984@urbana.mcd.mot.com> feldman@urbana.mcd.mot.com (Mike Feldman) writes: > >Also, can anyone recommend any of the low-priced modems, eg. Practical > >Peripherals? My father's under $100 1200 baud modem-in-a-plastic-box > >cooked itself in under 10 hours of use, and I don't want to see him or > >me sink $$$s into that level of quality again. > > We have/had 2 Practical Peripherals 2400SA modems from younger > -and-more-(penny-wise-and-pound-) foolish days. They've never > quite worked right, and multiple firmware replacements have > helped, but not cured them. I say "had" because one of them > recently failed completely, and has been sent back to the > manufacturer. As soon as we get the bucks, tthese turkeys are > history. . Sounds like my experience wasn't unique. I have purchased a total of four Practical Peripherals over the years and two of them were out-and-out defective. One of the remaining couldn't be used in uucp service because of firmware screwyness. It would not really honor the "AT&D3" mode which calls for resetting the user parameters when the DTR line goes false. As a result, the modem would get into death-grip with the getty and shut down the line. Calls to the manufacturer were useless. They had never heard of the problem. A second one did this intermittantly. From: Ken Johnson Pvt To: David Zimmerman Msg #238, 05-Sep-89 10:39pm Subject: Re: PM2400SA David, I am a SYSOP of the PPI BBS along with Paul Hansen as well as being the Manager of Technical Support for PPI. I know when you hear of someone having trouble with a device of any kind that you are planning to purchase, it can make you uneasy. And I know that people do have some problems with our modems but when the number is measured against the thousands of units produced per month, the failure rate is less than 1%. I realize that you have not had that experience but the units are considerably better than you may be imagining. This BBS had been running on 1 2400SA for over 1 and 1/2 years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without a problem. Now for the past several months the task has been taken over by our 2400SA MNP without interruption of service. In fact it is usually busy not down and unavailable. Yes, I believe that the &D3 was a problem several EPROM revisions ago but that has been corrected and works fine. In our tech group we have an avid Xenix system user and he has been constantly checking the new revisions with his system and found no problems using the &D3 or with the system hanging up. If you could identify the revision of the EPROM in the units you are having trouble, we should be able to verify if the revision has the problem and send you the newer revision to allow you to test them for yourself. Let me know what we can do for you. Ken* From: Paul Hansen Rec'd To: David Zimmerman Msg #241, 06-Sep-89 04:27am Subject: Re: PM2400SA David, I have great difficulty with messages such as the one you have posted here - because it is 'out of context' to say the least. As Ken has pointed out to you in his message, the return rate for the PPI modems are less than one percent. Relative to the specific claim that 'one of these fried itself,' I am not sure what that means. But, if the unit is stacked in a stack with a dozen other modems creating heat - and there is inadequate ventilation - there can be sufficient heat to do all sorts of 'unfriendly' things. As Ken points out the PM2400SA was used on this BBS 7 days a week, 24 hours a day for more than 18 months without a failure. During that time it was sitting on top of the monochrome monitor. This is NOT the best way to treat a modem - but it worked flawlessly and never 'melted' the case. As to the &D3 thing - well, Ken is younger that I am and has a better memory - but I do not recall any problems with that particular parameter on any revision of the firmware that I have dealt with. There really is no addressing the sort of 'anger' expressed in that message. The PM2400SA remains, in my opinion, one of the best values in the 2400bps modem market. It is a solid operator and the company provides the very best support available anywhere, regardless of what this angry person has had to say. - Paul 09/06 04:43 David Paul Zimmerman dpz@convex.com CONVEX Computer Corp convex!dpz
pechter@scr1ocpt.ccur.com (Bill Pechter) (09/08/89)
In article <1673@convex.UUCP> dpz@convex.com (David Paul Zimmerman) writes: > >Well, I called Practical Peripherals and talked to Roland, the PP Supervisor >of Tech Support. I read your message to him, and after calming him down, he >suggested that I call their support BBS (1-818-706-2467) and talk to the >sysop, who's been using PP modems on it. Roland is not aware of any recurring >problems with the series, and claims that they're fairly studly beasts. I'm going to have to check on the firmware variations. Thanks for the tip on the bbs. I've used an old (one of the real early) SA2400's with no problems under MS-DOS and Xenix-86 for about 3 years with no problems. I wish my Racal Vadic 2400-VA/MNP was as reliable. Wanna swap 8 ->. -- Bill Pechter -- Home - 103 Governors Road, Lakewood, NJ 08701 (201)370-0709 Work -- Concurrent Computer Corp., 2 Crescent Pl, MS 172, Oceanport,NJ 07757 Phone -- (201)870-4780 Usenet . . . rutgers!pedsga!tsdiag!scr1!pechter ** MS-DOS is CP/M on steroids, bigger bulkier and not much better **
pel@unhd.UUCP (Paul E. Leclerc) (09/11/89)
I recently (3-4 months ago) bought one of theses Practical Peripherals and
was having a bear of a time getting it to work with as a BBS modem with
QuickBBS. I could get it to work with normal PC telecom packages. After
much playing around, I found out the problem was with my I/O card and
not the modem. It seems some of the lines were just not sending the
signals needed to drop DTR and to detect the carrier signal. Once
I popped in a new card, everything worked out fine. I have had no problem
with it yet. I do think it gets hotter than I want it to but...
Note: this is the NON-MNP modem.
Cheers..
Paul Leclerc
--
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Paul Leclerc, Computer Specialist III |Bitnet: P_LECLERC@UNHH.BITNET
University of NH |UUCP: ...uunet!unh!peljdm@hodge.UUCP (jdm) (09/14/89)
In article <PEL.89Sep11123721@unhd.UUCP>, pel@unhd.UUCP (Paul E. Leclerc) writes: > I do think it gets hotter than I want it to but... > I've been using PP2400SA modems since they came out and they do get quite hot if you've got them wedged in a small space, piled under books, papers, and equipment, or resting on carpet. Most of the problems people have come to me about the PP2400SA were because of erratic operation resulting from excessive heat build up. I just tell them to switch the modem off for an hour or stick it in their freezer for 10-15 minutes. That always clears it up. If you have an older PP2400SA then it's possible you need a zener diode shorted. It seems when the modem was orginally in the prototyping stage an engineer added a zener diode between some point and ground as a test. This was accidentally left in the orginal design (there should have a grond connection, but without the zener diode). The fix is to solder a wire across the diode to "short" it out. Contact PP tech support for more on this. Also, and I can't emphasize this too strongly, get the latest ROM upgrade from PP. Since the PP2400SA has a five-year warrenty, and the modem has been out for less than 5 years, all PP modes are still under warrenty. This means ROM upgrades are free. The current ROM version is 1.09, I believe. Each new version clears up a few bugs and adds a few new features. I don't have a list of the changes made in each revision, however. Didja hear that Hayes just bought PP? They musta been doin' sumptin' right. -- "I'm an anthropologist, not a computer systems architect, damit!" jdm@hodge.cts.com [uunet zardoz crash]!hodge!jdm James D. Murray, Ethnounixologist TEL: (714) 998-7750 Ext. 129 Hodge Computer Research Corporation FAX: (714) 921-8038 1588 North Batavia Street Orange, California 92667 USA