Most of these bumps are caused by incorrectly configured software, or improperly initialized modems. Often, a single change can mean the difference between frustration, and utter bliss.

This help file is designed to help Carroll-Net subscribers have reliable error free connectivity to the Internet. It is designed as a series of questions and answers. Try to find the question that best describes your problem. Note: If there is not a perfect match, try reading 2 or 3 close matches.

Trumpet Trouble

• Why does Trumpet sometimes fail to connect?

• What modem initialization string should I use?

• What do OVERRUN messages in Trumpet mean?

General Troubleshooting

• When I login to download the software, I type archive and hit enter But I am not prompted to enter my password

• I loose my connection. It seems to happen often when I'm in Eudora

• What can I do to tell how fast my connection to the Internet is?

• I have a business email account, and occassionally I see Apparently-To: headers in my mail. What does this mean?

Web Troubleshooting

• I go to view my web page, but the graphics don't show up?

• Why when I go to upload to my web space do I get permissions denied?

Why does Trumpet fail to connect?

The most common cause of Trumpet failing to connect is an incorrectly configured modem initialization string. Each modem comes configured by the manufacturer with a set of default settings. These settings are not always compatible with every other manufacturer. For this reason, the modem makers have added an option to have the user change the operational characteristics of the modem via initialization strings.

You can change your modem initialization string by re-running the Dialler/Setup.cmd script in Trumpet.

What modem initialization string should I use?

This is a difficult question to answer with precision. Each manufacturer has the option to add their own AT commands into their modems to control the advanced features of today's modems

The modem init string we have had the most success with is:

$modemsetup = "&f&c1&d2"

If you find a better modem init string for your modem, please email us with the make and model, and the init string you use. We are compiling a database of init strings. We plan on making this available for our entire user community after it is complete.

There is an online reference to many manufacturers Init strings on the Carroll-Net Modem page

What do OVERRUN messages in Trumpet mean?

An OVERRUN message is generated by Trumpet when data arrives at the serial port faster than it can be processed. It is a warning that a piece of waiting data has been overrun and destroyed by another piece that came after it.

The most common cause of this error is that the serial card installed on your system cannot keep up with the stream of data being fed to it. To solve this problem, you may upgrade your serial card to a more advanced UART. Look into adding a 16550 serial card into your system

Note: If you have an internal modem, there is no way to upgrade the serial port. In this case, try lowering the baud rate on your trumpet connection. Continue lowering the rate until the frequency of the messages decreases

There is an excellant FAQ on the subject of High Speed communications. It answers a wide variety of questions relating to the Internet and communicating with V.34 modems. We strongly recommend you look it over. It is available at http://web.aimnet.com/~jnavas/modem/faq.html

When I login to download the software, I type archive and hit enter But I am not prompted to enter my password.

You have incorrectly specified the line protocol for your telecommunications software. The line protocol is N-8-1 (No parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit)

I loose my connection. It seems to happen often when I'm in Eudora

There are three possible answers to this question. The first is that your connection is hitting our idle timeout. We have an idle timeout of 15-minutes set on our system. If there is no communication with your computer within this period of time, Carroll-Net will hangup the call. This helps us to manage our dialup pool more effectively, and to decrease the occurance of busy signals. The second possible answer is if you have calling waiting on your phone line, an incoming call may disconnect your modem. We recommend that you disable call waiting for the duration of the call. You can do this by prefixing your dialing string with *70, Note: You must subscribe to "Tone Block" from Bell atlantic to do this. The third possible answer to this questions is poor quality connection. V.34 modems will attempt to adjust their operational speed to account for poor phone line conditions. If the line quality drops below a minimum level, the modems will give up, and drop the call. Many times, redialing can resolve the problem.

What can I do to tell how fast my connection to the Internet is?

This is a difficult thing to gauge accurately. The reason is that anytime you access resources on the internet, you are not only using phone lines, and digitial connections, but you are usually also accessing remote servers (ie: web server, ftp server, gopher server, etc...). If the remote server is slow, or overloaded with requests for services, then the response time can be lethargic.

The answer can be tested in stages. The first component is to benchmark your connection to us. We have put several files on our ftp server for this purpose. They can be accessed via anonymous ftp at apollo.carroll.com. They are in the /pub/tink subdirectory. Each file's name is also it's size; ie: 100K is a 100 kilo-byte file.

You should ftp one (or more) of the files several times. Copy down the transfer times from each download, and create an average transfer time. Note: These files are made of extremely compressable data. You should be able to see the absolute maximum transfer statistics your modem is capable of.

The next component of your speed test is to select a host on the net, that is very few "hops" away from Carroll-Net. Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, has made available their ftp server for this purpose. You can anonymous login to ftp.spc.edu. The file we usually use to benchmark is called mudbug.ps.

You should do the same with this file that you did with the Carroll-Net ftp site. Download it several times, and create an average rate. The difference between the two rates gives you an average measure of network delay.

You may want to perform these tests several times over the course of a week at different times of the day.

I have a business email account, and occassionally I see Apparently-To: headers in my mail. What does this mean?

If the header of a mail messages lacks recipient information (lacks all of the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: header lines), sendmail adds an Apparently-To: header line and puts the recipient's address from the envelope into the field of that line.

I go to view my web page, but the graphics don't show up?

Check that the graphics file name specified in the link is in lowercase. Also verify that the link is a relative link, and does not include path and references to directories on your local drive.

Why when I go to upload to my web space do I get permissions denied?

Make sure that you are using your username and password when trying to send the files over. The server will not accept an upload to your directory space from an anonymous user.