ken@visix.com (Ken Mayer) (10/11/90)
My company has acquired a MacPortable for our director of international marketing. The director spends between 75 and 85% travelling abroad (mostly Europe, but also the Far East). We purchased the portable for two reasons: First so that he could do word processing and spreadsheet work on the road. Second was so that he could dial into our local e-mail network (QuickMail). Here is the problem: What do we need so that he can use the portable to dial up our network from his hotel room in Europe. We've identified several gotcha's: 1) Cost effective telephone calls are through ATT Direct, requires operator intervention. (Using the hotel's long distance carrier is anywhere from 2x to 5x more expensive.) We have to tweak the modem settings so that once the telephone number has been dialed, our director can easily start (originate) a data connection. 2) Transmission quality. A big issue. We could start with a 2400 baud connection and work our way down if the quality is too bad. 3) Transmission routing. If the telephone connection is made via a satellite circuit, the line is half duplex. That will cause the modem to lose carrier. If that doesn't happen, transmissions usually have a 0.25 sec squelch between voice transmissions. That is, person A starts talking, person B is effectively squelched until person A stops talking. Then there is 0.25 gap before the line is open for contention again. 0.25 sec is a lot of time for a computer to wait. 4) Getting the internal Apple modem connected to foreign (potentially hostile) telephone equipment. European phones are nothing like their American couterparts. In addition most hotels keep the telephone handsets wired into the wall so that they cannot be stolen. There are probably many other things that we haven't even considered yet. I would welcome any comments or experience with this situation. -- Ken Mayer ken@visix.com Visix Software Inc. ...!uunet!visix!ken -- "The future is a place about 70 miles east of here, where its lighter." -- Laurie Anderson