Two macs using the same phone line

[John Wain]

We have an ethernet LAN of two macs running OS 8.6 set up in distant
rooms. They each have their own modem, but they use the same phone line
for dialup internet.

If A tries to dial while B is connected, we would expect A to get a busy
signal and its call simply to abort with a message from Remote Access.
But this has never worked. What regularly happens is that B gets
disconnected and A usually fails to connect.

I have been trying to do two very simple things: 1/ check that the other
mac does not have an active ppp connection before dialing myself. 2/ If
all is clear, set up some sort of lock with a warning message on the
other machine for the duration of my own phone connection.

I thought a couple of rather straightforward applescripts should be able
to accomplish that. But I am not getting anywhere.

Thanks in advance for any help.


--
John

[Mike Rosenberg]

John Wain <john@disneyland.com> wrote:

> We have an ethernet LAN of two macs running OS 8.6 set up in distant
> rooms. They each have their own modem, but they use the same phone line
> for dialup internet.
>
> If A tries to dial while B is connected, we would expect A to get a busy
> signal and its call simply to abort with a message from Remote Access.

That's not what you should expect at all. Pretend you're talking about
a voice line instead. Person B is on the phone already. Person A picks
up another phone and doesn't even dial, hearing that the phone is
already in use. If person A tries to dial anyway, he doesn't get a busy
signal, because the call can't go through at all.

You're in the analogous situation with the modems. It sounds like the
Modem control panel is set to ignore dial tone. (Or is this in Remote
Access? I'm running OS X right now and these control panels aren't
supported in Classic.) If you change it to NOT ignore dial tone, when B
is using the phone line, A won't get a dial tone, won't attempt to dial,
and B's connection will be maintained.

--
Mike Rosenberg

<http://www.macconsult.com> Macintosh consulting services for NE Florida
<http://bogart-tribute.net> Tribute to Humphrey Bogart

[Bob Harris]

In article <1g0vpyd.b2ge4buzaarqN%john@disneyland.com>,
[email]john@disneyland.com[/email] (John Wain) wrote:

> We have an ethernet LAN of two macs running OS 8.6 set up in distant
> rooms. They each have their own modem, but they use the same phone line
> for dialup internet.
>
> If A tries to dial while B is connected, we would expect A to get a busy
> signal and its call simply to abort with a message from Remote Access.
> But this has never worked. What regularly happens is that B gets
> disconnected and A usually fails to connect.
>
> I have been trying to do two very simple things: 1/ check that the other
> mac does not have an active ppp connection before dialing myself. 2/ If
> all is clear, set up some sort of lock with a warning message on the
> other machine for the duration of my own phone connection.
>
> I thought a couple of rather straightforward applescripts should be able
> to accomplish that. But I am not getting anywhere.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.

As another reply has said, check the modem control panel to see if
"Ignore Dial Tone" has been set.

Another more expensive option is to get an Airport base station with a
modem, upgrade one of the Macs to a version of Mac OS that supports the
Airport base stations admin software, and then get the Airport base
station to dial your ISP, and share the same dial-up connection with
both Macs on the ethernet. I did this with my Wife for about a year
before we got a DSL connection (and I still use the Airport to share the
connection, I just don't need the modem part :-)

Yes the wireless functions would be unused. And yes the Airport base
station with a modem is an expensive modem and router combination even
if you are doing wireless, but it would work. You could use an original
Graphite, a 2nd generation Snow, or the current Extreme Airport base
stations.

If the idea sounds appealing, but you do not want to spend that much
and/or you do not want to upgrade one of the Macs to a newer Mac OS,
then you could consider getting a 3rd party Cable/DSL router. Find one
that allows you to connect up a PC modem as an alternate network
connection (I have a D-Link that allows that; may be some of the other
do as well - LinkSys, Netgear, D-Link, ...). You should be able to pick
up one of these routers for something like $50 (maybe a lot less with
rebates). Try looking for one on <dealmac.com>. I've seen generic
CompUSA 56K modems for under $100 (I forget how much under).

You would then use a web browser to configure the router to dial up your
ISP, and then have the router share the connection with all the Macs in
the house.

This would work fairly well unless one of you decided to download a
several megabyte file(s). Then they would tend to hog the connection.
But for just browsing the web, email, etc... sharing a single 56K line
is possible and not too much of a performance hit for both users.

Bob Harris

[Mike Cohen]

In article <1g0vpyd.b2ge4buzaarqN%john@disneyland.com>,
[email]john@disneyland.com[/email] (John Wain) wrote:

> We have an ethernet LAN of two macs running OS 8.6 set up in distant
> rooms. They each have their own modem, but they use the same phone line
> for dialup internet.
>
> If A tries to dial while B is connected, we would expect A to get a busy
> signal and its call simply to abort with a message from Remote Access.
> But this has never worked. What regularly happens is that B gets
> disconnected and A usually fails to connect.
>
> I have been trying to do two very simple things: 1/ check that the other
> mac does not have an active ppp connection before dialing myself. 2/ If
> all is clear, set up some sort of lock with a warning message on the
> other machine for the duration of my own phone connection.
>
> I thought a couple of rather straightforward applescripts should be able
> to accomplish that. But I am not getting anywhere.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.

Are both machines capable of using an airport card? If so, get an
airport base station with a built-in modem and use it to share a single
dialup connection with both computers.

Alternately, if you can install 10.2 on one of them, it can share the
dialup connection with the other one.

--
Mike Cohen - mike3k <at> onepost <dot> net
Personal: [url]http://www.mc-development.com/[/url]
Mac News: [url]http://www.macmegasite.com/[/url]

[John Wain]

Mike Rosenberg <mike@POSTTOGROUP.invalid> wrote:

> John Wain <john@disneyland.com> wrote:

> > If A tries to dial while B is connected, we would expect A to get a busy
> > signal and its call simply to abort with a message from Remote Access.

>
> That's not what you should expect at all. Pretend you're talking about
> a voice line instead. Person B is on the phone already. Person A picks
> up another phone and doesn't even dial, hearing that the phone is
> already in use. If person A tries to dial anyway, he doesn't get a busy
> signal, because the call can't go through at all.

Yes, of course. Silly me!

> It sounds like the
> Modem control panel is set to ignore dial tone. (Or is this in Remote
> Access? I'm running OS X right now and these control panels aren't
> supported in Classic.) If you change it to NOT ignore dial tone, when
> B is using the phone line, A won't get a dial tone, won't attempt to dial,
> and B's connection will be maintained.

It's true that ONE of the dialers was set to ignore dial tone. I
suddenly remembered that we had to set it that way because that modem
did not recognise our line's dial tone. Since then the line quality
having changed as far as other experiences tell me, I might be able to
revert to the default setting.

However, the problem of interrupting the ongoing communication occurs on
both machines. It seems that just listening for the tone is enough to
trip the other modem, just as is often the case if someone picks up an
extension handpiece.

Now there is a secondary problem. Suppose A wants to dial while B is
already on line, and all goes as it should: no dial tone. I haven't done
extensive testing of this on system 8.6 (which is the one used on my
LAN), but I seem to recall Remote Access hanging forever on some
occasions, probably waiting for a tone. And when this happened I
actually had to crash the machine to get out of Remote Access.

This behaviour is in any case what I get on my 3rd machine (ibook not
networked running OS 9.2.2). I think the whole communication software in
9.2.2 is buggy. RA worked every other blue moon when I tried to dial for
internet, until I imagine the kludge of sending a whole string of AT
commands to the modem each time I get RA to dial. (No problem at all
with the modem when I am booted in system X.) Before that, when RA
failed to dial there was no way of regaining control apart from a hard
reset of the machine.

Now I would very much like to know if there is a way to set a timeout on
RA itself.


--
John

[John Wain]

Bob Harris <harris@zk3.dec.com> wrote:

> Another more expensive option is to get an Airport base station with a
> modem, upgrade one of the Macs to a version of Mac OS that supports the
> Airport base stations admin software, and then get the Airport base
> station to dial your ISP, and share the same dial-up connection with
> both Macs on the ethernet.

Yes, a neat solution, but I'm afraid that's beyond our means for now.

> If the idea sounds appealing, but you do not want to spend that much
> and/or you do not want to upgrade one of the Macs to a newer Mac OS,
> then you could consider getting a 3rd party Cable/DSL router. Find one
> that allows you to connect up a PC modem as an alternate network
> connection (I have a D-Link that allows that; may be some of the other
> do as well - LinkSys, Netgear, D-Link, ...). You should be able to pick
> up one of these routers for something like $50 (maybe a lot less with
> rebates). Try looking for one on <dealmac.com>. I've seen generic
> CompUSA 56K modems for under $100 (I forget how much under).
>
> You would then use a web browser to configure the router to dial up your
> ISP, and then have the router share the connection with all the Macs in
> the house.

Thanks Bob. This sounds like an interesting idea.


--
John

[dangdangdoodle]

I think electronic supply places may have a small physical devise to
plug in that locks out other phone access.


r.






In article <1g11asr.1ohdhpl1ywpjoaN%john@disneyland.com>,
[email]john@disneyland.com[/email] (John Wain) wrote:

> Mike Rosenberg <mike@POSTTOGROUP.invalid> wrote:
>

> > John Wain <john@disneyland.com> wrote:

>

> > > If A tries to dial while B is connected, we would expect A to get a busy
> > > signal and its call simply to abort with a message from Remote Access.

> >
> > That's not what you should expect at all. Pretend you're talking about
> > a voice line instead. Person B is on the phone already. Person A picks
> > up another phone and doesn't even dial, hearing that the phone is
> > already in use. If person A tries to dial anyway, he doesn't get a busy
> > signal, because the call can't go through at all.

>
> Yes, of course. Silly me!
>

> > It sounds like the
> > Modem control panel is set to ignore dial tone. (Or is this in Remote
> > Access? I'm running OS X right now and these control panels aren't
> > supported in Classic.) If you change it to NOT ignore dial tone, when
> > B is using the phone line, A won't get a dial tone, won't attempt to dial,
> > and B's connection will be maintained.

>
> It's true that ONE of the dialers was set to ignore dial tone. I
> suddenly remembered that we had to set it that way because that modem
> did not recognise our line's dial tone. Since then the line quality
> having changed as far as other experiences tell me, I might be able to
> revert to the default setting.
>
> However, the problem of interrupting the ongoing communication occurs on
> both machines. It seems that just listening for the tone is enough to
> trip the other modem, just as is often the case if someone picks up an
> extension handpiece.
>
> Now there is a secondary problem. Suppose A wants to dial while B is
> already on line, and all goes as it should: no dial tone. I haven't done
> extensive testing of this on system 8.6 (which is the one used on my
> LAN), but I seem to recall Remote Access hanging forever on some
> occasions, probably waiting for a tone. And when this happened I
> actually had to crash the machine to get out of Remote Access.
>
> This behaviour is in any case what I get on my 3rd machine (ibook not
> networked running OS 9.2.2). I think the whole communication software in
> 9.2.2 is buggy. RA worked every other blue moon when I tried to dial for
> internet, until I imagine the kludge of sending a whole string of AT
> commands to the modem each time I get RA to dial. (No problem at all
> with the modem when I am booted in system X.) Before that, when RA
> failed to dial there was no way of regaining control apart from a hard
> reset of the machine.
>
> Now I would very much like to know if there is a way to set a timeout on
> RA itself.

--

X-No-/Archive: yes

[Wayne C. Morris]

In article <noteathanks-F9BBCC.01230220092003@news.islandnet.com>,
dangdangdoodle <noteathanks@islandnet.com> wrote:

> In article <1g11asr.1ohdhpl1ywpjoaN%john@disneyland.com>,
> [email]john@disneyland.com[/email] (John Wain) wrote:

....

> > However, the problem of interrupting the ongoing communication
> > occurs on both machines. It seems that just listening for the tone
> > is enough to trip the other modem, just as is often the case if
> > someone picks up an extension handpiece.

....

> I think electronic supply places may have a small physical devise to
> plug in that locks out other phone access.

They do. It's a small electronic gadget called a busy line switch or
blocker. Any store that sells phones will probably have them.

I bought one years ago. It connects to a phone and prevents anyone from
using that phone if the line is already being used by another phone or
modem elsewhere in the house. It has an override button, so if someone
yells up the stairs that I'm wanted on the phone, I can take the call
upstairs instead of running downstairs.

You need one for each location that's to be blocked. For example, if
you have 2 modems and 3 phones in 5 different rooms of the house, and
want all of them to be blocked when one of them is using the line,
you'll need 5 busy line blockers.