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Thanks to good help from the staff at The World (world.std.com), I'm having good luck connecting to their local modems and staying online. Here's what I've found, and I'd like to solicit your comments on it: 1. Emmanuel's suggested init string (at&f1&c1&d2&k3&q5s95=41): The &c1, &d2 are default settings for either the &f or &f1 factory settings, anyway, as can be seen by using at&v to view them. The &k3 is bolded in the manual to show that it's also a default (bidirectional hardware flow control), but it doesn't show up in the at&v display of settings, however \q3 does show up and has the same meaning. Note also that the &q5 sets MNP autoreliable mode, but that's also what the &f1 does. Finally, the s95=41 must be a throwback to some earlier modem of his. Therefore, Emmanuel's string can just as well be at&f1, and that will get you MNP autoreliable mode, but it doesn't solve the problem -- or didn't for me. 2. I haven't verified the manual's claim that "commands you enter must be entirely in uppercase or entirely in lowercase. A command such as At&f will not be recognized by the modem" (page 5), but maybe I've had problems there without realizing it. 3. Someone recently posted a reply to the 701C modem-problem thread to the effect that the 701C's modem supports 19200 bps data mode, but only with other V.32 Terbo modems. This finally made sense to me in working with the staff at World today, and I think it's the answer to _my_ connect problems. World's modems are all the same brands, and I could connect and stay on if I called their Brookline modems, but not their Lowell ones, I think because the Lowell ones were influenced more by peak usage demands. Maybe. I could also connect to CompuServe and to the Microsoft Network without getting thrown off. (However, downloading from CompuServe and perhaps downloading in general is perhaps a different issue.) The diagnosis: user greed. The answer: use %b14400 to limit the speed at which your modem will talk to someone else's. I know that all those connect at 19200 messages are gratifying to see, but either the other guy's modem has trouble maintaining the connection, or my modem has trouble. My init string is now at&f%b14400w1. I use the w1 to tell me what connection details result from the modem's negotiations. 4. I've only had luck setting my port speed to 19200. The manual says "a speed of 19.2Kbps will almost always work with any computer" (page 39). 5. Someone asked, "When the modem says 'Connect 38400/REL, is it kidding?" What's really happening is that this is the speed at which your serial port is willing to talk to your modem. It's not the speed at which your modem will talk to another modem. This is a little more clear when you use the w1 command, as in this capture of my connection: atdt 9349753 CARRIER 14400 /* max per %b14400 command */ PROTOCOL: LAP-M /* result of &f command */ COMPRESSION: V.42BIS /* ditto */ CONNECT 19200 /* my port speed */ If I didn't have the w1 command, I think all I would see would be "CONNECT 19200/REL." 6. Following the suggestions from Tech Support at IBM, I updated my system's BIOS to version 3O by using the sys7013o.exe file that you can find on CompuServe or http://www.pc.ibm.com/files.html. I don't think that it made a difference, and it's kind of scary. You need to download it, run sys7013o to unpack it and put it onto a blank, formatted diskette, read the directions, boot the 701 from the diskette, and, in my case, hold your breath when the screen goes blank and you (I) turn the 701 off and on before you see the message telling you to do so. (It must be a bug in the program, or maybe the 5 minutes I waited wasn't long enough.) 7. I also updated my modem's BIOS with the file bfmod611.exe, which has a basically similar procedure to updating the system BIOS, and I went from Rev A6.09 to Rev A6.11a for my firmware. Again, I wouldn't recommend that you do this, as I'm not sure it made any difference. This file isn't in their general customer area anyway. Well, that's it. The last three (!) times I've connected to World, I've been able to stay on as long as I've wanted. This is quite a change from the two-to-five-minute connection I've had since the machine arrived two weeks ago. Now, if anyone has suggestions for avoiding the "death spiral" when down loading from CompuServe, where the speed goes from 2000 bps down to 250 or so before hanging, I'd really like to know. I don't know if I'll have problems with that now after what I've learned so far. But you never know. I also don't know if my suggestions will produce a reliable Netscape session. If these suggestions work for you, will you please let me know? Thank you. - Rod Owen Rod@acm.org Owen@world.std.com