Thanks Dean, Gregg, and others -- that's what I wanted to confirm, to make sure I understood there was another ("digital connection") component required to enable "56K", and that there wasn't some simple method like using two Courier I-Modems. I assume a line simulator alone won't do this since the reddit poster used: a Dial-up server, an ISDN simulator, a T/A ISDN terminal, and an ATA to make it work. I got out of the BBS scene a little early in 1994 (visit from Microsoft and Novell), so I was familiar with HST, V.34, and compression methods, but when I eventually got back into computers "with the internet", I never took the time to learn how 56K really worked before switching to cable modem. Is anyone aware of any "hacks" that can simulate ISDN / DS0 stuff using a Raspberry Pi or similar? or is it pretty much - go source old hardware that does this if you want 56K for a home lab test environment? I can't seem to find any via searching. Thanks! John On Mon, Jul 1, 2024 at 10:55 AM Dean Notarnicola <dnotarnicola@gmail.com> wrote:
56K modems were never meant to direct connect to each other when both ends were terminated on analog POTS lines. I remember having to explain this to people back in the day that wanted to connect house to house or connect branch offices faster than 33.6K. Service providers had dialup Points of Presence that had incoming digital connections and could negotiate 56K. The upstream connection was established at 53K to 56K (under the right conditions) and the downstream connection back to the user was 33.6K max (analog.)
David was right and you will definitely need to simulate a digital connection to get 56K.
On Sun, Jun 30, 2024 at 7:12 PM John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hi Gregg!
Right now they're just direct connected via q phone cable. No phone line simulator was required for the 33.6kbps speed I'm getting. (Ignore dial done on one modem works while the other answers via ATA).
I'm just trying to understand all that is required to enable 56K capability.. Thanks!
On Sun, Jun 30, 2024, 6:40 PM Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello! How are you connecting them together? You'd need two phones and and a phone-line simulator, or two phones and an ATA, see here for advice, https://gekk.info/articles/ata-config.html Finding them things is easy, oddly enough the one I used was from our free pile from a recent (not this year) swap meet.
And the dinos are dancing in the light rain. ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8@gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."
On Sun, Jun 30, 2024 at 4:09 PM David Ryskalczyk via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I found a few other Reddit posts with details but don’t have them
immediately on hand. Pretty much yes, you’ll need digital phone line / ISDN hardware.
David
On Jun 30, 2024, at 4:04 PM, John Heritage <john.heritage@gmail.com>
wrote:
Thanks!
I was reading this reddit thread earlier, and was having a little
trouble following, so I wrote below to verify what I took away.
(Thanks again)
On Sun, Jun 30, 2024 at 15:43 David Ryskalczyk <d235j.1@gmail.com>
wrote:
There is a good writeup of what you’ll be facing here:
https://old.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/t5m6od/56k_upgrade_to_...
David
On Jun 30, 2024, at 3:01 PM, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hi folks!
I'm messing around with a bunch of modems at home, and would like to
know
what's required to set up one system to receive 56K calls from another system.
I'm able to get 33.6kbps bi-directionally (or 31.2K) with just a phone line between the two modems, and using ATX1D and ATA commands.
I think to get 56K I require some equipment to simulate a digital connection, and I'm also not sure if a 56K analog modem can even receive 56K calls. Is this true?
Modems I have on hand: - a USRobotics Courier I-Modem - 2 x USRobotics V.Everything, and a USRobotics 56K/X2 Sportster external modem
I am also unable to get the I-Modem to connect to any of the analog modems, and although it does have the protocols to support analog, it seems like it's expecting a BRI / ISDN connection to allow that connection. Is this true?
If the above are true - what's the minimum / cheapest solution for being able to at least establish a V.90 connection given the equipment I have already?
Thanks for your help! John