[X-Newbies] AT command

[Eugene]

On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 11:58:12AM +0700, Aldo Johnson wrote:
: 
: I need your help & wisdom some more. My dial-up internet connection 
: is suddenly spotty. Yesterday, I could dial-up just fine; today, I 
: can only connect for one minute or two, then it would cut off.
: 
: The "Internet Connect" app said something along the lines of "The 
: connection was disconnected because the other side is not responding"
: 
: I called my ISP, and they said that I have to add some AT commands to my 
: modem.

Your ISP's tech support may be asking you to add certain AT commands
that tell the modem to reset itself to the factory default settings.

: I called my local Mac dealer to ask them how to add the AT commands 
: to my internal modem, and they said I have to upgrade my system to 
: 10.3.

It sounds like your Mac dealer doesn't want to deal with OS X 10.1.
And unfortunately, that's not unreasonable.  But there may be other
ways to directly interface with the modem.  I suggest ZTerm.

	<http://homepage.mac.com/dalverson/zterm/>

: So what should I do? I could connect just fine yesterday. But somehow 
: today I can't connect? Is it because the heavy rains caused too much 
: static in the phone lines, and the internal modem is too sensitive 
: and kicked the connection out anytime there's a blip in the phone 
: lines?

This is actually very possible.  Older phone equipment do not provide
proper shielding from the elements, or the shielding has worn down over
time, or both.

: In the time it took me to write this, I had to reinitiate internet 
: connection 5 times. :-O
: 
: I'm on a first-gen eMac 700 MHz, Sys. 10.1.5, 384mb memory.
: 
: Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Download ZTerm and have it ready so that you (or your Mac dealer or your
ISP tech support) enter AT commands directly into the modem.  But what I
first suggest is to bring your eMac to your Mac dealer and ask if you
can dial out from his phone lines (assuming he is okay with it and his
phone lines are working fine).  If you can establish a reliable dial-up
connection, then it's the phone lines at your home that's busted --- in
which case you call up your local phone provider and have them run a
diagostic.  Better yet, if you hear static on your phone line now where
you did not anything before the storms, definitely call up your local
phone provider and tell them you hear static.  They will have to send a
technician over to troubleshoot.

Good luck!


-- 
Eugene Lee
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/