Equinox and HFC

[Jim Dixon]

Various issues dealing with Equinox Megaport Hardware Flow Control,
or the lack thereof.

The following is a severe flamage, written by someone who has seriously
*never*, *ever* flamed at anyone on the net publicly. I figured
I'd save it for a good cause. Well here goes:

I can't tell you how incredibly FRUSTRATED I am regarding the issue
of Hardware flow control on the Megaport 24 card running under Interactive.
I fully understand the issues of the "unusual" connections when you
use the "Full modem control" hardware option. No matter how many times
someone at Equinox tells me that I'm stupid and don't know my connections
from my ---hole, the fact still remains that, I DO, and furthermore am
quite good at following instructions in the manual. I have wired 2 separate
sites this way. *ALSO*, I'm sick to death of them telling me that they
can't imagine what the possible use of Hardware Flow Control could be.
What difference does it make. I *REALLY* *HONESTLY* *ACTUALLY* have a
valid use for it. Yes, these uses *REALLY* exist out there in the real
world!  

Then comes that really bad part.... I called them wondering what
the references to the "rtsflow and ctsflow" termio parameters were, and
they thought I had 2 heads. It took them a while to even figure out that
Interactive didn't even support these. Then they told me that since ISC
doesn't support these, that there is no way to enable Hardware Flow Control
under Interactive at all, and besides why would you want it anyway? This
sent me right through the roof! I told them that there *HAD* to be a way to
do it, or at least be able to add one quite easily. They said that they
would check in to it and get back with me. So far, I have heard nothing.
BLAH.....

Wouldn't it be nice if the card supported CTS flow control by default.
Regular serial ports that use UARTs and the like do it. Regardless
of *WHAT* software you are using, if you drop CTS, the UART's transmitter
will stop sending until you raise it again, independent of software control.
Why the h--l can't Equinox do the same thing? The control In pin (whichever
one is mapped to the CTS input, by mode) is internally pulled up on the card,
so if the CTS flow was enabled, and nothing was connected to it, it would
just operate as normal, transparently, painlessly.... it would be wonderful...

Ahh, I feel better already...

Jim Dixon
jim at lambda.uucp or dixon at info.com
Lambda Telecom, Sandy Eggo, CA
WATS: (800) SIT-ONIT (seriously, call me)
Voice: (619) 584-4100
Fax: (619) 584-4114