AOL on Linux

[whitnl73 at juno.com]

On Wed, 12 Mar 2003, Linux World 999 wrote:
>
> I have tried the first of the options as my Linux server is at home and am
> the only user.  AOL cannot initialise the modem.  The commands "echo atdt
> 82552569 > dev/ttyS0" do not owrk under a user or root.  The hardware
> scanner does find the modem and identify it correctly.  Penggy also finds
> the modem (configured as /dev/ttyS0 in penggy.conf) and dials.  A connection
> is made but it is slow and unreliable.

There are some modems which default to CTS only flow control.  By
default linux uses RTS/CTS hardware flow control, so a modem working
this way will be slow and unreliable.  I have one modem that needs
an AT\S3 command to fix this; at that point in the AT command set
this is very manufacturor-specific.  I hope you have doco for your
modem.  You may well need to read up on the commands it understands.
Of course, in a chat script the \S3 needs to be escaped - twice, since
the way I set it up it goes through bash twice:
(This is the entire pppd setup for this modem, except the dial command,
and user name, which you don't need to know.)  /dev/tts/3 is what devfs
calls what used to be /dev/ttyS3.

/dev/tts/3
115200
lock
noipdefault
debug
asyncmap 0
crtscts
ipcp-accept-remote
ipcp-accept-local
defaultroute
usepeerdns
connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v ABORT BUSY \
 "" "AT&FX4&C1&D2&S2\\\\Q3%C0&H0S7=60" \
 "CONNECT" "" "" ""'

>
> Do you have any other ideas?
>
> I appreciate your help and advise to date.  Thank you.
>
> LW999
>
I have never been able to work a modem with echo, or indeed with
redirection of stdin/stdout.  To unit-test the modem, install cu
(from the uucp package) or minicom.  The modem may need some
initialization before you tell it to dial...nine needs an init string
like so:

 "" "AT&FM0B1T&B1&H1&R2&K1&M4&S1S13=1S7=60"

(that is from my pppd chat script, that's why it has a null expect
string first: "".  I have a similar init string configured into my
windows mail app, but the pppd chat script is more accessible, so I
showed you that.  Try at least AT&F to reset the thing to its factory
defaults, you may well have hurt it messing around with echo.


It is in the original spec for the Hayes SmartModem 2400 that mIxeD cAse
in modem commands may cause the modem to behave in an unspecified
manner, and most modems I have experience with do hANg when commanded in
this manner, and may need to be reset.  Commands may be in UPPER or
lower case, but Please don't mix case.

Repeated
AT
AT
AT
or ATH
ATH
may work instead of a hardware reset.

I like cu, it is a very crude simple easy to use terminal emulator,
but you need something like a terminal emulator, you need to both write
to and read from the modem device with one process.

well, chat -v will do in a pinch:

/usr/sbin/chat -v "" "AT&F" "OK" "ATH" </dev/ttyS0 >devttyS0

look in syslog for any output from chat, you should see

send (AT&F^M)
expect (OK)
AT&F^M
OK
 -- got it

Now let's see if the modem still works...

Lawson
 --
---oops---



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