Subject: From: Date:

RE: [ECS] Urgent help needed Terry, Martin G Mr SAIC Wed, 15 Nov 2000 09:38:42 -0600

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Personally I had an older rockwell based modem that worked very well with
ECS.

Then the modem failed, and I too tried several modems that supposedly used
the "rockwell" chipset. (Please note that rockwell no longer makes the
chipset - they spun off the division to a new name.)

I wasn't completely successful getting any of the other modems to work. Mark
worked with me for a few days. It really seems the commands related to the
chipset have changed. The last modem I tried was a Zoom, but not the
Comstar.

Finally, in frustration I dug out the original modem and repaired it. (Bad
diode was shorting out the phone line). I went back to this modem and had no
further problems.

I offered to send Mark my Zoom modem for testing, but was in the process of
moving, so it's now in storage while we build.

Has anyone purchased a recent modem and successfully used it? (Not a recent
purchase - a recent modem model released with a year or less).

Supporting currently available equipment is critical. Finding the original
comstar is harder and harder to do.


-----Original Message-----
From: A.J. Griglak [mailto:aj@griglak.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 9:29 AM
To: ecs-list@netbloc.com
Subject: RE: [ECS] Urgent help needed


Yes, it is the same problem I've been having.  I find it hard to believe
it's hardware/OS problem, as I've done a completely fresh install of the OS,
the machine is a PIII 500 with 384MB RAM, and as I've said - I've tried like
four different modems.

The cell notification is working fine, the problems that are occuring are
this:

1.  When someone calls and hangs up without leaving a message, it will still
record about 15 seconds of silence.  I then get cell notification of a blank
message - very frustrating.  (It is possible that when this happens, it
snoballs into the rest of the problems)

2.  The time limit is reached and the message is not recorded - I get a
message in the ECS message log "Phone-msg from 123-123-4567 Mr. Joe - time
limit reached - and the corresponding wav file is only 1 K.  Whenever this
happens, all phone calls after this will result in the same manner until I
reset the computer.  Just resetting the modem from within ECS is not enough.
I've asked several of my customers if they left messages, so I know that
they are saying something into the phone...

I've tried resetting the modem every hour at 16 minutes IF there is no phone
activity.  As far as I know, this has no effect on the problems.

There are no error messages that are shown...

Has anyone used a non Rockwell modem sucessfully?  Maybe I should try
that...

-=A.J.


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Gilmore [mailto:omnip@usit.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 9:40 AM
To: ecs-list@netbloc.com
Subject: Re: [ECS] Urgent help needed


A.J.,
Are you implying that the cell-phone notification
is somehow causing the problem ?
Does all work fine if you disable this ?

I'm very confused about what is failing:
	The recording of messages ?
	The remote session ?
	The cell notification ?

And as always, is there an error message ?

Are we talking about ONE or multiple problems ?

Is this the same "time-limit reached/no-message" problem that
you have been burdened with for many months now ?
If so (and you have tried diff modems), I STRONGLY suspect
a tentative hardware or OS failure. If it was ECS-related,
I must assume that some one would have reported a similar
problem.

But if you can determine a procedure which will re-create a
problem, I can help diagnose it (regardless of what HW/SW
is at fault). Without this, I'm probably helpless.
--
Mark Gilmore
Omnipotence (ECS home automation software)
http://omnipotencesoftware.com
423-745-0026
Hours: Mon-Sat, 9AM-8PM/EST


"A.J. Griglak" wrote:
>
> I can't go on like this....  The modem / voicemail is just not working
out.
> I've tried four different modems (including the recommended Zoom Comstar),
> switching com ports, playing with all the settings in PHNCO.SET...  I keep
> getting the same problems.
>
> I went away for ten days, hoping to be able to check my messages by
calling
> into ECS and doing a remote phone session.  Three times the modem somehow
> got hung up and the computer needed to be manually restarted.  Kinda tough
> to do from across the country.  So, I bugged my neighbor to go into my
house
> and reset the computer.
>
> Today, I was away all day, and didn't get any phone messages forwarded to
> me.  I come home to find six calls were taken, but "time limit reached"
and
> no message was recorded.  Extremely frustrating to have call people and
tell
> them that my machine didn't take their message again.  My customers are
> starting to get very upset over this.
>
> What I would like is if there is anyone out there that sucessfully uses
ECS
> to record incoming voicemail messages and then notify by cell when a new
> message is left, to email me directly with your hardware setup, and maybe
I
> can find out what is wrong with my setup.
>
> Alternatively, would it be possible to have a second modem in the machine,
> use a seperate voicemail program to record the phone messages, and still
> have ECS notify me?
>
> I really love the remote phone capability which is why I've been trying to
> get this all to work for so long....
>
> -=A.J.

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