CompuServe Messages

>I'm noticing that my local access number to CIS has been very erratic. Before this started, my connections were always very quick and stable at 14.4. Since this started, I am sometimes unable to connect, and have to redial several times. My connection sometimes occurs at odd baud rates (other than 14.4).< Me too! B-) Let me explain. It started for me around February-March. I cannot tell you exactly because the problem occurs in a random manner. I joined CI$ around autumn '92, and I remember that the connection in Madrid was rather reliable. Only few times the line was busy, but that was all. I started to connect from Munich on autumn '93, and I remember that the connection was even more reliable, and it was really difficult to find the line busy. Then, I moved to berlin in March '94, just to find the same connection reliability. But since February-March this year, sometimes I have to call even 4-5 or 6 times to get a connection, and then, a much longer time than usual passes from the "carrier detected" light on until I see CONNECT 14400. Right after that, the CI$ node starts to send question mark characters like crazy (something like ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????, and so on) and I have to abort the connection, because this can last for several minutes. If I get a CONNECT 14400/V42 I now that everything is OK. I complained to customer service, and they said that, due to the higher connection speed, the commands in the init string should be more accurate. They gave me a init string for my modem (GVC 14400 V.42bis/MNP5) and MacCIM (for the Emplant side of the Amiga) but the problem remains the same. I know that the problem is on their side for sure, because I find the same sympthoms in both AutoPilot and MacCIM and MacPPP. I blamed the CI$ congestion, but after thinking twice about it, what really should occur should be that you should find the line busy, and that's it, because here in Germany every local call costs 0,23 DM and every four tries I spend 1DM (=0,70$), so it's not funny at all!!! I've been trying to complain all last week, but the customer service phone was engaged all the time. I'll try again this week. You had no problems before with the GVP '040 serial port, right? Why should you have problems now? Now you know who is the culprit. Hope this helps Rafa <Motorola Inside> …via AutoPilot 1.80 from Berlin