> How can I tell if have my new modem working at maximum performance?
If the serial port can talk to the modem quickly enough (ie you have one
of those extension fast serial port thingies), and your CPU isn't being
bogged down, then your modem is being used to its full.
> I just installed a Supra 56K v90 modem. Genesis does not have a unique
> configuration file for this modem. Most of the configuration files are 14.4
> or 28 and v32 or v40. What settings should I place in the serial.device to
> maximize performance or match the genesis configuration?
Nothing. Don't set the bit rate of the serial port too high, or it'll tie
itself in knots. One notch down from the top is best. Even better, get a
faster serial port.
> I am assuming that a 56k modem transmits 56k bps.
Hmm. Well, sort of. On a normal line, it transfers around 40kbps, but it
also does compression, so you'll see figures twice that.
> Bytes are typically 8 bits.
> ASCII characters ate 7 bits and extended ASCII are 8 bits.
>
> In transfers, Voyager displays X characters per second. How many bits are in
> a character?
Each character is 8 bits. However, the modem will send those 8 bits, plus
a parity bit, plus a stop bit, plus a tiny delay between bytes. You'd be
lucky to see much more than 4 kilobytes per second down the line if the
modem isn't using compression. Luckily, it usually is, so you should be
able to get 7 kilobytes per second, depending on what data you are
sending.
Of course, that's if you are just receiving characters from a modem with a
computer at the other end (which just happens to have an upstream V90
modem exchange thing). When you start using TCP/IP and PPP/SLIP, then it's
another story entirely. SLIP/PPP take their fair share of overhead, then
IP gives you more overhead, then to cap it all, TCP takes its overhead
too. And also remember that you will only get the transfer speed of the
the slowest link in the connection. If your ISP is only being fed 1
kilobyte per second from the web site, there's not much you can do about
it. Similarly, TCP connections tend to slow down when there's a large
round-trip delay, and if a computer only allows small transfer windows.
> How does the Genesis software take advantage of a 56K modem and V90 thing?
> If it doesn't, are the advantages transparent to the user, or is there some
> software or configuration I can avail myself to?
The modem knows far better than the computer ever will how to get the data
across the line. As long as the computer can receive/send the data to/from
the modem quickly enough, the modem will be happy to work at full speed.
Matthew
--
For those of you who are into writing programs that are as obscure and
complicated as possible, there are opportunities for... real fun here
-- Computer Science Lecturer
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