Macintosh Troubleshooting

If you don't succeed in getting a successful connection, check the following:

The obvious:

  • Did you enter the correct number (583-3000)?
  • Are you sure that you enabled "Dial Area Code"?
  • Do you think you have call waiting when you really don't?
  • Did you read the FreePPP documentation?
  • Are all the files in the correct location?
  • Is PPP selected in MacTCP or TCP/IP?
  • Do you have Open Transport 1.08 or older? Upgrade to version 1.1 or higher.
Less obvious:
  • Your modem doesn't support the &k3 &C1 commands
  • Look at your modem manual to see how to properly configure your connection to use the highest possible rate - v.34, v.fast, v.32bis, LAPM etc.. (LAPM is usually better than MNP)
  • Are you running MacTCP 2.04 or later?

I can connect fine, but every couple of minutes I get a mssage saying "The connection has become unstable."

This is actually due to the fact that FreePPP uses a method of checking the line that is incompatible with our 56k dial-up lines. To fix this, open up your FreePPP setup and disable the "Check line every X seconds" checkbox.

The modem dials but refuses to connect either in PPP, zterm or microphone.

You may not have a hardware flow control cable - try turning off hardware flow control in both your modem settings (enable xon/xoff) and PPP settings. Go out and get a hardware flow control cable as soon as possible, as your communications performance will suffer while using software flow control.

I've upgraded to Open Transport and my Macintosh crashes when I try to connect!

For advanced users: The network software selector program simply hides the two control panels that aren't active. For unknown reasons, this has caused conflicts on some machines. If your system crashes while trying to initialze a PPP connection, we suggest that you use resedit to 'unhide' and delete the old MacTCP and Network control panels. Alternately, an easier solution may be to switch back to classic networking and delete or move the files, then return to Open Transport.

A note about Macs and high speed serial connections:

Your Macintosh hardware dictates several limitations on the speed of your connection. All Macs without a serial DMA controller (non-powermacs) have problems servicing the serial (modem) port when data flows at rates above 38400 baud. If you use a 28.8 modem with the serial port set to 115200 baud on one of the older macs, you may encounter random system crashes because the mac can't handle the data stream. Most 14.4 modems don't have this problem because their maximum serial speeds are limited to 57600 baud. Most 28.8 modems set the serial rate to 57600 by default, so if you want to try to run at 115200, you may need to issue a special command to your modem. 38400 baud is plenty of bandwidth for a serial connection, and is a significant fraction of a 56kb leased line.

If you are getting frequent disconnects:

Do you have call waiting? Place *70, before the area code (not the main number!): *70,303

If you have an Apple Express modem or Geoport Powerport, be sure to get the latest control panel software from your manufacturer. Older versions of the express control panel are prone to disconnecting PPP sessions.

1. Try lowering your serial port speed to 38400 to 57600 or 115200.
2. Increase the s10 & s24 values in your modem to double their default values.
s10 is carrier drop timeout
s24 or s25 on your modem should be the DTR drop register - double its value
Consult your manual for current values, or in zterm, type ats10? or ats24? to get current values