Now on dialup with Puppy!

I'm using the other PC that I mentioned awhile back, that I picked up from an "opportunity shop", a Compaq Presario, with a PCTEL winmodem. Works like a dream with PupDial. I'm running the upcoming '416'.

Ah, it's nice to have a "good" keyboard. It's one of those old clunky things, makes a lot of noise, a genuine IBM brand. But I like the very definite clicking action and long travel. No missed keys when I type fast, unlike my laptop.

The problem that I had before was the external modem. Back in the days when I was on dialup, before I progressed to satellite, I had an external modem that developed a sticky relay -- it has an actual electromechanical relay inside it -- and it only worked sometimes.

So I progressed to another that I had picked up for $5 at a community "swap meet" (I remember the price because the sticker is still on it!). That's the one I was trying to use yesterday, but something is wrong with it. I have a vague memory from before that it had a problem. Maybe lightening damage, which is something that happens here.

But, I have no complaint about this internal PCTEL modem, and it sure is pleasant when Puppy detects it and everything is automatically setup, PupDial even gets the initialisation string right.

Er, except for one small detail... the line has dropped out. I just notice, I'm offline, only after a few minutes of being connected.

Back again. This thing about getting dropped out, it has been reported many times on the forum. It would be good to resolve why this happens. 'pppd' is probably to blame?

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Comments

o more 3G radio waves


DUN more
Username: Sage
""a genuine IBM brand" - whatever you do, don't lift the spacebar on IBM K/Bs (for cleaning) - the arrangement of springs makes it next to impossible to replace without the factory jig. "sticky relay" - easily replaced, how many do you need? But much more likely diagnosis is your second guess "lightening damage". I've had two modems and a pile of telephonic devices go down due to ionisation damage. There's sensitive CMOS circuitry on the front end, just like cordless & fax machines, that will die even if the lightning doesn't make a direct hit - it's the ions that cause the damage. Worse than static from wearing trainers on a nylon carpet. Apart from which - yes - all those other issues have been extensively dealt with on the Forum. Shame there's no index as the Search function doesn't always find stuff.

Hasn't dropped out
Username: BarryK
"Well, I've been online now for two hours, no dropout. Curious. Speed seems a tad faster than yesterday when I was using Windows 98 and a Conexant HCF modem. Awhile back I stumbled across a file, it may have been in /proc or /sys, where the pap/chap connection speed negotiated by pppd got recorded. But now I can't find it. Was I delusional?

Conexant HCF and Puppy
Username: happypuppy
"Is Puppy 4.3 going to support conexant [b]HCF[/b] (semi-hardware) modems out of the box?

IBM Keyboards
Username: Dougal
"This is like porno for Sage: http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,147939/printable.html

Re: HCF
Username: BarryK
"I would like to say yes, but I don't know. The modem package from Conexant, which actually came from Dell and which apparently does not have the 14.4K limit, appears to be only for the HSF modems. I have compiled the Conexant HSF modem modules for Puppy 415alpha, kernel 2.6.25.16 (same kernel as in 4.1.2 and 4.21), and I don't know if that or any other module in Puppy will handle HSF? Probably rerwin would know. Send him a pm in the forum, or find his thread where he is providing analog modem support. I there is some other modem source anywhere, that will compile on the 2.6.25.16 kernel, I certainly want to know about it.

Re: HSF modem
Username: BarryK
"This is everything in /lib/modules/2.6.25.16/hsfmodem: hsfengine.ko hsfmc97ati.ko hsfmc97via.ko hsfserial.ko hsfhda.ko hsfmc97ich.ko hsfosspec.ko hsfsoar.ko hsfmc97ali.ko hsfmc97sis.ko hsfpcibasic2.ko hsfusbcd2.ko That lot occupies 2.4MB uncompressed! But of course they are in a Squashfs file so compressed.

Tags: woof