04-05-2018, 09:52 AM
I'm always in CBM graphics mode. 
I'm not familiar with ANSCII. Is that some hybrid of ANSI and ASCII??
Sure enough, the WiModem is responding well to the ":". Novaterm's dialer isn't always working, however. Sometimes the WiModem just ignores it. It does not help that the phonebook has limited character space. I can understand. It was only originally designed for phone numbers. This is one advantage that Striketerm has over Novaterm. Part of my confusion about the "," vs ":" usage comes from other platforms. On my Amiga and in my Mac terminal window, you use the comma but I know I saw the WiModem echo back the use of a comma on a successful dial. It might have been Striketerm or CCGMS2017. I will need to verify that.
I decided I would start with a fresh 1581 copy of Novaterm 9.6c I remembered I had. I made a backup first. When you boot without an existing config file, it will run a wizard to step you through it. The defaults chosen were close to what I already had but something may have changed for the better. I will get to that in a bit.
Starting fresh, I was hoping maybe I could avoid the freezes when changing some settings but it still froze when I tried to change the download protocol. I removed the WiModem, booted Novaterm back up and was able to change all settings without it locking up.
I chose Xmodem as the default protocol since I've had the most success with that. I tested a handful of sites, connecting through terminal mode. I did some test downloads and was surprised to receive zero retries. Not sure yet what helped here. Perhaps due to the 1581's somewhat faster serial speed? I'm using the stock ROM kernal, mind you.
I tried switching to Punter while already in terminal mode (C= P in Novaterm) and to my surprise, it allowed me to change it without freezing! I also successfully completed a Punter download without errors.
I will next want to try Multi-punter downloads. Hopefully I can change to that protocol without freezing also. Since Novaterm and Striketerm both have problems with settings changes while the WiModem is installed, any idea what might be going on here?
Getting back to my error free downloads thus far-- I should mention I have been connecting to sites claiming to support speeds above 2400 baud so I know it is not due to a slower connection speed. It might be the Hardware flow control setting that was enabled by default from the Novaterm wizard. I already knew this was a possibility that would help but from the posts I've read, I was not certain if Software flow control was the better choice for the WiModem.
This next question is not WiModem related but perhaps someone can answer. I could have sworn Novaterm had a configuration setting that allowed you to use the REU as a download drive and not just as buffer space. I cannot seem to locate where to set this up. I remember back when the Swiftlink was introduced, there was talk saying this was a must if you were to going to download with connections above 9600bps since the 1541 could not keep up.
I'm not familiar with ANSCII. Is that some hybrid of ANSI and ASCII??Sure enough, the WiModem is responding well to the ":". Novaterm's dialer isn't always working, however. Sometimes the WiModem just ignores it. It does not help that the phonebook has limited character space. I can understand. It was only originally designed for phone numbers. This is one advantage that Striketerm has over Novaterm. Part of my confusion about the "," vs ":" usage comes from other platforms. On my Amiga and in my Mac terminal window, you use the comma but I know I saw the WiModem echo back the use of a comma on a successful dial. It might have been Striketerm or CCGMS2017. I will need to verify that.
I decided I would start with a fresh 1581 copy of Novaterm 9.6c I remembered I had. I made a backup first. When you boot without an existing config file, it will run a wizard to step you through it. The defaults chosen were close to what I already had but something may have changed for the better. I will get to that in a bit.
Starting fresh, I was hoping maybe I could avoid the freezes when changing some settings but it still froze when I tried to change the download protocol. I removed the WiModem, booted Novaterm back up and was able to change all settings without it locking up.
I chose Xmodem as the default protocol since I've had the most success with that. I tested a handful of sites, connecting through terminal mode. I did some test downloads and was surprised to receive zero retries. Not sure yet what helped here. Perhaps due to the 1581's somewhat faster serial speed? I'm using the stock ROM kernal, mind you.
I tried switching to Punter while already in terminal mode (C= P in Novaterm) and to my surprise, it allowed me to change it without freezing! I also successfully completed a Punter download without errors.
I will next want to try Multi-punter downloads. Hopefully I can change to that protocol without freezing also. Since Novaterm and Striketerm both have problems with settings changes while the WiModem is installed, any idea what might be going on here?
Getting back to my error free downloads thus far-- I should mention I have been connecting to sites claiming to support speeds above 2400 baud so I know it is not due to a slower connection speed. It might be the Hardware flow control setting that was enabled by default from the Novaterm wizard. I already knew this was a possibility that would help but from the posts I've read, I was not certain if Software flow control was the better choice for the WiModem.
This next question is not WiModem related but perhaps someone can answer. I could have sworn Novaterm had a configuration setting that allowed you to use the REU as a download drive and not just as buffer space. I cannot seem to locate where to set this up. I remember back when the Swiftlink was introduced, there was talk saying this was a must if you were to going to download with connections above 9600bps since the 1541 could not keep up.