The C&C meeting was well attended with probably 20 turning up to
listen to the guest speaker, Todd McCutcheon, the engineering and
technical expert from Maestro.

	Todd took the floor and conducted the meeting in a Q&A format.
The following is a summary of those Q&As. I hope I got most of
right as at times, it was fairly complex.

Can a 96FME be upgraded to a 144FME?
.....Yes, but it is expensive as the chipset is superceded and
thus possibly not cost effective.

Can a VFC be converted to a V34?
.....Yes, but again it is not worth the expense.
VFC is a Rockwell standard released before V34, if you have V34,
use %E2(full forward and backward retraining), if you have VFC,
use %E1.
Note that the Motorola chipset does not do VFC, and the best
spped you will get with a connect to VFC is 14400.

How can you test line quality?
.....When connected to a BBS, at a pause, like Press enter to
Return, Type +++, then issue AT%l %Q. The response will give an
indication of your line quality. Refer to your manual for
interpretation of the results.
After doing this test, send ATO(that's OH not naught) to get back
on line.
If you have a Fax modem and fax software, you can ring 03
96400999, Test Fax Plus and will fax you back the results.Be sure
you have the correct TSI(dentifier), ie, +61 6 245xxxx.

I have a 28800 VFC, but can never get it to stay on line long
enough to do any proper downloading, but it works perfectly OK at
a friends house.
.....There is a fair chance that you are a fringe area dweller.
If you can have a normal conversation on the phone, then Telecom
will say that there is nothing wrong, but for a fee will upgrade
your line to data quality. I lost 7db overnight, and now suffer
the same problem as you do. Telecom do not know why the extra 7db
loss suddenly appeared.
Another problem is the older model touch phone which would sieze
the line once the memory was drained below a certain point.

What was the problem with the speaker?
.....It was basically a design fault and occurred in a 2 week
production run. The design has been modified, and anyone with
trouble can be fixed up on the spot so as to speak.

What's best...An external or internal modem?
.....There are lots of arguments for and against either type of
modem. I prefer the external type because it is easier to
maintain, and can be moved from one machine to another.

Do many modems break down?
.....Very very few, but the biggest killer is lightning. In the
three days after the storms in Canberra, we had 10 modems back
for repair, some were irrepairable. Another time after a storm in
Darwin we had 33 back for repairs!

What can be done about lightning.
.....I highly recommend you disconnect your telephone line and
power to your modem, and of course your computer. There is a
Tasmanian(?) firm, Crytec that makes a reasonable lightnig
protector, but this is not a 100% surety against failure due to
the nature of lightning and the way it travels. You can be 7km
from the exchange, and the lightning can strike another 5 kms
from that, and you can still be zapped.

Comment.... some discussion re insurance policies, it seems that
you must have a statement from the repairer to the effect that
damage was caused by lightning.

I have only one line, how do I switch from Fax to Voice?
.....There are gizmo boxes made by National Communications, and
Banksia even make a reasonable product that will answer your
phone and decide whether to send it to your answering machine or
Fax machine. Likewise if you answer the phone and find it's a
Fax, you can switch straight to fax. About $300.

How can Maestro be contacted?
.....We have a BBS on   291 9779
     Tech support is on 230 3105
     The office is on   242 9755

	Todd gave out a lot more information, like he has 16 applications
all running at once in Win95. If you have a 16550, make sure you
get a proper driver. comm.drv wont do. Windows tend to slow
things (like transfer speeds) down, this is due to interrupt
latency problems(Phew) and the S95 register is best set at 47.

	All in all a throughly enjoyable and lively meeting for which we
are indebted to Todd for his time and expertise.



Owen

Return to the Index or the Coffee and Chat Page