F15 III Modem Play -- One user's solution

For those of you who also have had problems with playing over the 
modem, I hope this will help.  We finally got our modem setups compatible.  
Once
we did, it was incredible!  We played over a 9.6 line, each using a 486/50 
Mhz PCs with soundblasters -- and the added benefit of two lines and hands 
free speaker phones.  The result was the most exciting simulation I've done
outside of the military.

The major symptom we experienced was after (occasionally) connecting, we each
went into the flight screen.  From then on, we got mostly "Waiting..." with
the modems obviously transmitting lots of data.  On two occasions out of 
dozens we went into flight -- but there was some jerky movement, especially 
when attempting to tail another plane or flying in close formation.

Our solution finally came by factory resetting the modems, and turning off
speed conversion, error correction and break handling.  We we using Penril 
V.32 modems (which are actually running many "inside" many other V.32 modems
on the market.

For our specific brand (Penril Alliance V.32) we did the following:

1)  HARD reset to factory defaults by disconnecting power, and holding the
    right arrow key IN during the power up sequence.  A brief message 
    "Factory default" flashed on the screen.  

2) Entered a terminal emulator and issued a SOFT reset using AT&F

3) Disabled speed conversion using AT\B=0

4) Disabled error correction using AT\N=0

5) Disabled break handling (to normal) using AT\K=0


Once we each did this, F15 connected, and flew like a champ EVERY TIME.  The
screen updates of the other plane improved dramatically as well.  In addition,
we found the mission would restart each time if we both went into the phone
phone off the main screen after each mission.  We were off and flying another
head to head mission without having to redial, connect, etc.

You can combine the soft AT commands into a single line, or put them in a quick
basic program and run from a batch file to launch F15III.  For example:

QBASIC /RUN MODEMSET
F15


In general, I would recommend you try to find a HARD reset of your modem (if 
it stores setup info in proms).  We tried similar setups without success until
we completed a hard reset).  Start by disabling the options above (if present
on your modem).  If that is not successful, disable every feature you find
in the modem documentation.  (MNP, buffering, compression, etc).  We found 
that one side of the communication could keep the whole works stuck in the
now infamous "Waiting..." mode.

I hope this helps others.  If I can help, you can reach me on America On-line
(User TURBY) or the Geneal BBS (public line is 2400-N-8-1 919-471-6026).  I 
usually check each system at least once a week.


Keith Turbyfill