At 16:03 Uhr +0200 04.10.1998, Daniel R. Killoran,Ph.D. wrote:

>My problem: I set up a PB540 with Mac OS 7.5.5 and a 19kb Global Village
>Powerport Mercury modem for a friend who lives in Diesdorf, Sachsen/Altmark
>in the former DDR. Her phone, howerver, was installed only 5 years ago, and
>appears to be modern Jappanese equipment.
>
>Using the Global Village software supplied with the modem, everything works
>perfectly here in the US.
>
>In Diesdorf, however,
>
>1) It doesn't recognize the dial tone. I fixed this so it ignores the dial
>tone.
>
>2) It dials the number, but the phone system seems not to recognize the
>tones - in any event, the phone at the other end never answers. Thinking
>that there might be a lot of capacitance on the lines, I tried setting the
>tones to their maximum length (S11=170), but that had no effect.

Do you know whether her phone uses tone or pulse dialing? Former standard
here was pulse dialing; only the newer (digital) switches support tone
dialing.

>A friend has suggested that the German Post has a monopoly on modems, which
>it has jiggered the phone system to preserve. Is this true? I thought that
>they had tried that but had given up.

This has been true some ten or fifteen years ago, but is not anymore. With
a correct setup, any US modem should "just work" here. Mine has a vanilla
Rockwell chipset.

	hauke


--
"It's never straight up and down"     (DEVO)