>I figure atleast one of the following must be true:
>	- modem does not do hardware flow control properly (the
>	  manufacturer claims it does)
>	ATI 9600baud modem
>	boca 16550 serial board

I owned one of these modems for several years (an external one).  It
was an excellent modem, with rock-solid reliability.  I never had a
flow-control problem.  I was also using a Boca 16550 board at the
time.

Did you try using the &K3 option?

Also, are you sure your cable is not the culprit?

>	- netbsd/kernel is not doing flow control

As far as I know, when told to do so, the NetBSD kernel does correct
hardware flow control.

>	- kermit is not turning it on

If it's compiled correctly, it will.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Michael L. VanLoon                                 michaelv@HeadCandy.com
       --<  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x  >--
     NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4, PC532,
                           DEC pmax (MIPS R2k/3k), DEC/AXP (Alpha)
     NetBSD ports in progress: VAX and others...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------