gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (05/22/87)
(You can find further information in comp.org.fidonet. Also, there is a
LONG article in there detailing all the various modem standards
(frequencies, fallback strategies, Hayes commands, etc) including
various European standards. Some parts of the article looked to me
like he didn't quite understand, but overall it was pretty good. You
can get to the FidoNews issue containing these with the "p" command in
{v,read}news. -- John)
FidoNews 4-19 Page 23 18 May 1987
Ryugen Fisher
What's Hopp-ening?
...
Recently, there have been many questions about the new 9600 baud
modems. Some of you may have them, most do not. Of course, those
folks that do have them are anxious to see them on the weekly
nodelist, and I can not blame them for this. At the present
time, the 9600 baud modems are not listed on the "official"
nodelist although Mr. Mike Johnson (Tulsa) is preparing a list of
9600 HST modems that you can add with XLATLIST to the official
list if you have a 9600 HST and wish to try to link with someone
else that has one. Many people have asked why the 9600 baud modem
is not on the official list, and explaining that is the second
reason for this column.
The first reason that the 9600 baud has not become a "standard"
is that Fido, in any of its versions currently available, will
NOT work at 9600 baud. Opus and SEAdog will handle the 9600 baud
throughput, but Fido just won't do it. I'm sure that you will
agree that this is an important consideration. We hope that as
the new Fido 12 and Opus 1.XX finish their testing, more sysops
will change to one of these systems and thus support 9600 baud
modems. But, while software development is one issue, it is not
the only (or even the major) one.
The major issue is compatibility. Simple put, unlike the 2400
baud modem that was designed to a standard so that Hayes and USR
and Multitech, etc could all produce a modem that could and would
talk to another brand, in the evolving world of 9600 baud modems,
there are not two brands of reliable modems that can talk to each
other at 9600 baud. Nor do all the brands "step down" to a slower
speed in the same way.
What this means is that a U S Robotics 9600 HST cannot connect
with a 9600 Telebit and neither of them talk to a 9600 Microcom.
And such major modem manufacturers as Racal Vadic, Hayes, Anchor
and Multitech have not yet even released a product! But, they are
going to. And as each of them is released, we will do our best to
test and evaluate, hoping that a common industry standard will
soon be reached. When that happens, when two diverse brands of
modems are able to repeatedly connect with each other at 9600
baud and can pass the committee's other tests, you can be certain
that you will read about it HERE before you see it in PC WEEK or
INFOWORLD.
What we are hesitant about is that at this time the FidoNet
network is the largest network in the world and our adoption in
the nodelist of a "non-standard" modem might well (artificially
and prematurely) serve to create a "defacto" standard that
actually RETARDS the development of a really great 9600 baud
modem. At this time, NONE of our testers were willing to spend
their $$$ on the products. And as long as that remains true, we
can not, in good conscience, actively or BY IMPLICATION encourage
you to purchase a 9600 baud modem.
--
Copyright 1987 John Gilmore; you may redistribute only if your recipients may.
(This is an effort to bend Stargate to work with Usenet, not against it.)
{sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4,ucbvax}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@ingres.berkeley.edu