[Coco] SuperComm and DW4 virtual modems

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 8:51 PM, Joel Ewy <jcewy at swbell.net> wrote:
>
> Hey all,
>
> Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I'm having trouble getting supercomm to
> communicate over DW4's virtual modem.  I'm using Drivewire 4.3.0 in Ubuntu
> 10.04, and booting from nos96309l2_dw3.dsk.  I've copied the scdwn driver
> and network descriptors n - n10 (should I need more than that?) from
> dw4_server_l2_6309.dsk and merged them into a file with telnet (which I'm
> also having trouble with).

nos96309l2v030209coco3_dw3.dsk on the DriveWire download site or from
the NitrOS9 nightlies has everything you need already set up.  I would
recommend not messing around with modules until you have the stock
disk working properly.

to answer the question, you need /N and as many /Nx as you'd like to
have simultaneous connections.  They must start with /N1 and be
sequential.   I'd recommend at least 2, so that you can issue dw
commands to the server while telnetted in or out of the coco.

>
> I'm invoking supercomm with "supercomm /n".  I've also tried "supercomm
> /n1".  I hit F1, change options, and turn on echo, and then try, say, Bill
> Gordon's BBS:  "atdtsq1bbs.com"  or "atd sq1bbs.com" or other variations.
> Doesn't seem to do anything.  I've tried with the baud rate set at 2400,
> 9600, and 19200 and get the same effect.  On the Ubuntu machine that the DW4
> server is running on, I can "telnet sq1bbs.com" and connect with no problem,
> so the issue isn't between my PC and the destination.  And the serial
> connection between the server and the CoCo is fine, otherwise I wouldn't be
> able to boot NitrOS-9, of course.
>

Baud rate and other serial settings have no effect, they are NOPs in
the driver, so don't worry about any of that.

You would normally want to use /N without any specific number.  This
lets the system assign you the next free channel dynamically.

The syntax to 'dial' is ATDhostname:port, as in ATDsq1bbs.com:23
Caps don't matter.  Putting a T after ATD and before your hostname
will not work.

The virtual modem will default to echo off (ATE0) when the port is
opened.  You can change this a variety of ways, ATE1 or ATZ would both
do the trick.  I usually use ATZ (it will not be echoed, but after
hitting enter you will see OK and the modem will echo going forward).
I would not recommend turning on echo in supercomm itself as this will
probably not be what you want as soon as you connect.

My typical process is simply typing "supercomm /N" at the os9 prompt,
then typing ATZ<enter>ATDhostname:port<enter> in supercomm.  No
settings in supercomm need to be changed from their defaults.

I would recommend using the dw command for troubleshooting.  It
essentially does the same thing that supercomm does as far as opening
a channel but will give better error messages.  Just type 'dw' at the
OS9 prompt.  If you get a response from the server listing possible
commands, supercomm should work fine, otherwise you'll get an error
that should help determine what is wrong.

-Aaron