I needed a new modem to work with my new AMD box since my good modem is ISA. I got an external 3Com/USR Courier 3453 off eBay for $49USD and have been struggling to get it working.
I looked everywhere I could think of for help but didn't find the answer anywhere. I searched: The modem documents: finding the Command Reference (the really big pdf) was difficult since its not on USR's North American support page. I finally found it on the UK support page. Without this document its hard to get the best out of the modem. I used the modem-, serial-, and ppp-HOWTOs Searched the debian mailing lists to no effect. I finally stumbled across it and thought that others may be having the same problem so thought I'd post my log here so it goes to the archives. The problem I was having was that pon courier would show in plog -n 30 -f that chat would send an AT command to the modem but nothing would come back. It would just sit there until it timed out. However, from minicom all was fine. I finally clued into the fact tht minicom has the init string as ~ATZ whereas ppp just had ATZ. I tried changing this to ~ATZ with no effect. Then, having read chat's man page, I found \d and put that in the chat script. That fixed it. I've included here my whole log of this problem incase it proves usefull to someone. It either demonstrates how to step-by-step track down a problem, or how long it can take me to clue into what's going on. I've enjoyed great support on the Debian mailing lists and wanted to put something back. Thanks, Doug. ---- Problem log: Courier modem will not work with pon. Nov 26 15:51:35 pluto pppd[1725]: pppd 2.4.3 started by dtutty, uid 1000 Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: abort on (BUSY) Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: abort on (NO CARRIER) Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: abort on (VOICE) Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: abort on (NO DIALTONE) Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: abort on (NO DIAL TONE) Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: abort on (NO ANSWER) Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: abort on (DELAYED) Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: send (ATZ^M) Nov 26 15:51:36 pluto chat[1727]: expect (OK) Nov 26 15:51:37 pluto chat[1727]: ATZ^M^M Nov 26 15:51:37 pluto chat[1727]: OK Nov 26 15:51:37 pluto chat[1727]: -- got it Nov 26 15:51:37 pluto chat[1727]: send (ATDT6138870104^M) Nov 26 15:51:37 pluto chat[1727]: expect (CONNECT) Nov 26 15:51:37 pluto chat[1727]: ^M Nov 26 15:52:22 pluto chat[1727]: alarm Nov 26 15:52:22 pluto chat[1727]: Failed Nov 26 15:52:22 pluto pppd[1725]: Connect script failed Nov 26 15:52:24 pluto pppd[1725]: Exit. However, it does work with the Aopen: Nov 26 15:53:52 pluto pppd[1766]: pppd 2.4.3 started by dtutty, uid 1000 Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: abort on (BUSY) Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: abort on (NO CARRIER) Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: abort on (VOICE) Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: abort on (NO DIALTONE) Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: abort on (NO DIAL TONE) Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: abort on (NO ANSWER) Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: abort on (DELAYED) Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: send (ATZ^M) Nov 26 15:53:53 pluto chat[1768]: expect (OK) Nov 26 15:53:54 pluto chat[1768]: ATZ^M^M Nov 26 15:53:54 pluto chat[1768]: OK Nov 26 15:53:54 pluto chat[1768]: -- got it Nov 26 15:53:54 pluto chat[1768]: send (ATDT6138870104^M) Nov 26 15:53:54 pluto chat[1768]: expect (CONNECT) Nov 26 15:53:54 pluto chat[1768]: ^M Nov 26 15:54:16 pluto chat[1768]: ATDT6138870104^M^M Nov 26 15:54:16 pluto chat[1768]: CONNECT Nov 26 15:54:16 pluto chat[1768]: -- got it Nov 26 15:54:16 pluto chat[1768]: send (\d) Nov 26 15:54:17 pluto pppd[1766]: Serial connection established. Nov 26 15:54:17 pluto pppd[1766]: using channel 2 Nov 26 15:54:17 pluto pppd[1766]: Using interface ppp1 Nov 26 15:54:17 pluto pppd[1766]: Connect: ppp1 <--> /dev/ttyS2 The courier just sits there with no dialing or off hook happening. The log seems to show that the courier is not echoing back the dialing string giving "alarm" (which seems to be the chatscript timing out) instead of the AOpen's "ATDT..." The ppp config scripts are identical except for the port and the words "courier" vs "internet", as in pon internet vs pon courier. Dip Swtich Settings: 1 off DTR Normal 2 off verbal result codes 3 on display result codes 4 off echo offline commands 5 on supress auto answer 6 off normal carrier detect 7 off display all result codes 8 on enable AT command set 9 off disconnect with +++ 10 off load NVRAM defaults on power-up ----- Get modem into known state: load the hardware flow control template: at&F1 at&w which gives: B0 ITU-T answer sequence C1 Transmitter enabled E1 Command mode echo enabled F1 Online local echo disabled L2 Training tone volume medium M1 Speaker control on during dial through connect Q0 Result codes enabled V1 verbal result codes X7 Extended result codes: all except VOICE &A3 Full protocol codes &B1 Serial port fixed higher than connect rate &C1 Normal carrier detect &D2 Normal DTR &G0 USA/Canada (off) &H1 Hardware flow control &I0 Record data software flow control disabled &K1 Analogue data compression enabled &L0 Normal (not leased) lines. Also gives (per ati4) &M4 Normal/ARQ (error correcting) mode &N0 Fixed serial port speed &P1 ??? undocumented &R2 Set CTS when get RTS &S0 DSR always on &T5 Ignore remote loopback test requests &U0 Fixed serial port speed &X0 For syncronous timing &Y1 %N6 #CID=0 S registers 000 except: S02=043 Escape char code S03=013 Carrage return char code S04=010 Line feed char code S05=008 Backspace char code S06=002 Number of seconds waits for dial tone S07=060 Carrier wait time seconds S08=002 Dial pause, seconds S09=006 Carrier detect time in 100 ms S10=014 Carrier loss wait time in 100 ms S11=070 Tone duration spacing ms S12=050 Escape code guard time, 500 ms S14=001 Bit map: Disconnect on escape code S21=010 Break lenght, in 10 ms S22=017 XON char code S23=019 XOFF char code S24=150 Pulsed DSR duration in 20 ms S25=005 DTR recognition time in 10 ms S26=001 RTS/CTS delay time in 10 ms S28=008 Duration in 100 ms extra V.32 Handshaking S29=020 V.21 handshake time, 100 ms S32=009 voice/data switch S42=126 Remote access char code S43=200 Remote guard time in 200 ms S44=015 Leased line delay timer S54=064 bitmapped: disable call indicate S59=001 bitmapped: enhanced V.42 bis pon courier: no change ----- Refer to the USR Unix howto: says to set dip switches 3,5,8, and 10 on. Already have 3,5,and 8 on, but 10 loads the 9600 low-capability default. Usefull if can't access the modem, but we don't need that. Already have &H1&R2 for hardware flow control Already have &B1 for fixed port speed Already have &K1 for compression enabled Already have &M4 for error correction enabled Want to keep DSR on, &S0, not &S1 (after dialing) Set S13.1=1 to reset when DTR drops ATS13.0=1 at&w No change, its still not dialing. Yet it does when use minicom. DTR light is on when it tries, but try &D0 YES it works, but there is a long delay. I wonder what's up with DTR? What about S25 DTR recognition time? I wonder if its just that ppp gives up too soon? Sometimes it fails; its intermittant. When it works, the log looks like a failed attempt just that before chat times out, the modem dials. Tried setting TIMEOUT 120 in /etc/chatscripts/courier with no effect. The modem did not dial out in that time. Try increase S25 from 5 (50 ms) to 100 (one second) No change, put it back. With &D0 back, its still failing. Minicom's initstring is ~ATZ^M~ Put that in ppp config, no help. Try adding \d (chat's delay), also noticed that chat doesn't have ^M after number to dial, add that too. Succes (this time, could be fluke), with no long delay. Remove the \d,~ and leave the ^M No. Remove the ^M and put in the \d before ATZ and ATDT Yes Try with &D2 YES with no waiting. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]