A last-minute edit led to an error in which I never explained what ARQ is. Automatic Repeat Request allows a modem to request the retransmission of a corrupted packet of data.
There was another step in the battle of 56k modem protocols. First Rockwell developed K56Plus and Lucent developed V.flex2, but then with the backing of Cisco, in November 1996 they joined forces to create K56Flex, a combination of the two.
Used to run a dial-up board system and the Courier was the gold-standard. Another sysop said "those things will negotiate a connection with a tree and it will work!" and he was only slightly exaggerating. I finally got my own Courier long after having stopped running a board or even using dial-up. I've made like two data calls with it.
An interest of mine is setting up a dial up networking interface at home and using that as my primary internet connection for shits and giggles. The old school serial modems are awesome. I have a 2400bps modem at home. Such great memories getting yelled at by dad for being online so much.
Thank you so much again for sending me this modem! Can’t wait to try everything tried in this video. Also thank you for explaining why 56k connections can’t be made without ISP equipment. I’ve always wondered why but every other UA-camr who mentions it always says they’re not going to explain
I actually have one of those ISDN modems you mention - USR called it a "courier i-modem". It works as both an ISDN terminal adapter (fully digital end to end 64 or 128k) and can do both the "ISP" or customer side of a 56k modem call. Many terminal adapters don't do that, instead you're expected to connect a modem to one of its analogue ports in the same way as you do with a VoIP ATA. I like how USR still has the firmware updates for this old stuff. I was able to update both the i-modem and an pre-56k courier to the most recent version and get 56k v90 support. I also have some fancier ISDN PCI cards that have the DSPs to handle 56k analogue modem calls also, and a couple of PBXes that can act as the telephone company since generally you can't connect ISDN devices back to back, unless explicitly supported. All very fun, and often quite cheaply available on eBay etc.
Oh by the way, DIAL=HUNT refers to a hunt group. It's a typically business thing where a group of phone lines share the same phone number, and when one line is in use it automatically uses the next available line. DIAL=HUNT means the modem is configured to hunt through those lines, trying to find an available line to dial out on.
@@themaritimegirl usually with a PBX setup. I think Asterisk calls it "call distribution" and it's setup on the PBX side (or telco side) rather than on the modem itself. All DIAL=HUNT does is tell the modem to keep dialing as long as it has a busy signal.
I don't know about elsewhere in the world but V.Fast modems were sold cheaply and very common in the UK - my first 28800 modems were both V.Fast! It was such a step up from 14400 at the time - everyone thought the future was here 😂 I wish I still had them for reference but all I have to go on is memory!
We had V.fc in the US. I had one. But it struggled to talk to other modems. What it DID have was the most unique connection sound I ever heard from an analog modem. It's such an unusual sound, I recently bought several V.fc modems and setup a whole POTS over VOIP line just to play with the modems and record that incredible sound sequence.
@@LatitudeSky I remember the sound was wild! I do remember having to restrict it to V32bis to get a reliable connection with some BBS's though! The only "problem" with the Courier modem is that the high quality speaker and DSP combo it used kinda smoothed out that wild V.Fast sound - the cheap internal V.Fast modems with crappy speaker made the best noise 🤣
I have a modem identical to this running with my Shiva LanRover for local dial-up connections and it's been phenomenal. Through my Nortel BCM, it has no problem getting up to a 33.6kbps v.34 connection and and works great every time. I never really messed around with it though much since it's attached to the Shiva LanRover but I'd like to get another one to have for messing around. I do want to get a Courier I-Modem since I do now have the means to use one. But that will come in time. I enjoyed the video as usual, and I would like to know what settings for the frequency you have on your grandstream ATA to get that dial tone, if you wouldn't mind sharing.
59:49 How did you get the old dial tone on your voip terminal? Mine is a Linksys PAP2T and I've heard its possible, but I've never been able to figure out how to do it lol
@@Cyrix_Instead That was my Grandstream HT802, which has a field in the configuration interface where you can type in the exact frequencies of the dial tone and I think other tones.
In this country we're in the process of having our analogue lines removed entirely - I've just had fiber fitted and don't even have a wall socket to plug an "old" phone or modem into!
@@greenmoose_ Happening here too - Bell Canada stopped maintaining the copper network years ago, and started decommissioning DMS-100s about 10 years ago. We still have two copper lines at work, but I think it's a case of whenever a copper pair goes bad, they just transfer your service over to fibre VoIP.
I don't take issue with fibre succeeding copper, as it's been happening for decades and is the natural next step, but I do take issue with that the modern telecom network is not as robust and failsafe as the copper network was, and what remaining copper network is left is not being maintained properly. These issues could be fixed if they cared enough.
@@themaritimegirl fiber will never be as robust, it needs hardware on other end to convert back to electrical signal from light and isn't self-powered. the fiber modems for phone do have backup batt often but that only lasts a few hours and what's when the battery is good/new. the best that could be done is including copper with the fiber for self-powering. real copper is also great for being able to fax and also link up computers directly not needing data-centers in an emergency. data-centres being so power hungry and requiring a very stable electric grid. if things get bad with unstable power grid etc one of the first things to go will be the internet in current form.
@@themaritimegirl agree 100%, honestly it works ok for me - my grandma however had her line "upgraded" to fibre with an adaptor to use her old landline phone but none of her extensions work and this solution relies on a battery to keep the line active in the case of a power cut - a lot more fiddly than the old system! and that's just one example!
I can recommend VoIP.ms for a service provider and the Grandstream HT802 for an ATA. Unfortunately I don't know of any good guides to suggest off-hand - I had to just learn as I went. But VoIP.ms has a wiki with some good info.
what do i need to connect at 56k via voip? today i have a PAP2t and a FreePBX running some numbers, but they connect at a maximum of 33.2k. I have USB modems, US Robotics 5685E and Sportster 33.6 with firmware upgrade to 56k. Do voip connections have limitations?
@@Marmelucos Are you calling numbers that have digital 56k-capable modems? As mentioned in the video, a 56k modem can only connect at 56k to digital modems such as those used by ISPs. Try calling the 2600 network. The connection might ultimately fall back to V.34, but you should be able to at least get to the DIL tone.
@@themaritimegirl from back from when waiting over an hour to download the 20mb netscape installer was normal. along with taking 2-3 hours to install windows 95 off of 13 floppy disks. fond memories.
@@NozomuYume Well, I'm not saying it with an AM sound, but anyway - you can thank my Data Communications professor in university for that. That's how he pronounced it, and it was not a word I ever used up to that point, so it stuck. Modem means modulator-demodulator after all, so it kind of makes sense.
A last-minute edit led to an error in which I never explained what ARQ is. Automatic Repeat Request allows a modem to request the retransmission of a corrupted packet of data.
There was another step in the battle of 56k modem protocols. First Rockwell developed K56Plus and Lucent developed V.flex2, but then with the backing of Cisco, in November 1996 they joined forces to create K56Flex, a combination of the two.
Used to run a dial-up board system and the Courier was the gold-standard. Another sysop said "those things will negotiate a connection with a tree and it will work!" and he was only slightly exaggerating. I finally got my own Courier long after having stopped running a board or even using dial-up. I've made like two data calls with it.
The Courier is iconic. There are many thousands of them still in production today believe it or not; squawking away in dark closets.
An interest of mine is setting up a dial up networking interface at home and using that as my primary internet connection for shits and giggles.
The old school serial modems are awesome. I have a 2400bps modem at home. Such great memories getting yelled at by dad for being online so much.
Thank you so much again for sending me this modem! Can’t wait to try everything tried in this video.
Also thank you for explaining why 56k connections can’t be made without ISP equipment. I’ve always wondered why but every other UA-camr who mentions it always says they’re not going to explain
I actually have one of those ISDN modems you mention - USR called it a "courier i-modem". It works as both an ISDN terminal adapter (fully digital end to end 64 or 128k) and can do both the "ISP" or customer side of a 56k modem call. Many terminal adapters don't do that, instead you're expected to connect a modem to one of its analogue ports in the same way as you do with a VoIP ATA.
I like how USR still has the firmware updates for this old stuff. I was able to update both the i-modem and an pre-56k courier to the most recent version and get 56k v90 support.
I also have some fancier ISDN PCI cards that have the DSPs to handle 56k analogue modem calls also, and a couple of PBXes that can act as the telephone company since generally you can't connect ISDN devices back to back, unless explicitly supported.
All very fun, and often quite cheaply available on eBay etc.
I took a look on eBay for I-Modems and ISDN VoIP adapters once, but they're quite expensive to procure, at least for my tastes.
I've been watching since I was a kid and I just wanna say I'm glad you're still making videos.
@@ObtainEmployment Thank you! I'm glad I still am too.
Oh by the way, DIAL=HUNT refers to a hunt group. It's a typically business thing where a group of phone lines share the same phone number, and when one line is in use it automatically uses the next available line. DIAL=HUNT means the modem is configured to hunt through those lines, trying to find an available line to dial out on.
@@FeliciaByNature Thanks! How does the modem access multiple lines? Just by being programmed with access codes like I used in the video?
@@themaritimegirl usually with a PBX setup. I think Asterisk calls it "call distribution" and it's setup on the PBX side (or telco side) rather than on the modem itself. All DIAL=HUNT does is tell the modem to keep dialing as long as it has a busy signal.
I don't know about elsewhere in the world but V.Fast modems were sold cheaply and very common in the UK - my first 28800 modems were both V.Fast! It was such a step up from 14400 at the time - everyone thought the future was here 😂 I wish I still had them for reference but all I have to go on is memory!
We had V.fc in the US. I had one. But it struggled to talk to other modems. What it DID have was the most unique connection sound I ever heard from an analog modem. It's such an unusual sound, I recently bought several V.fc modems and setup a whole POTS over VOIP line just to play with the modems and record that incredible sound sequence.
@@LatitudeSky I remember the sound was wild! I do remember having to restrict it to V32bis to get a reliable connection with some BBS's though! The only "problem" with the Courier modem is that the high quality speaker and DSP combo it used kinda smoothed out that wild V.Fast sound - the cheap internal V.Fast modems with crappy speaker made the best noise 🤣
Back in the day, I never could connect faster than 40-something, but every kilobit helped, when a 1-megabyte download took five minutes.
I have a modem identical to this running with my Shiva LanRover for local dial-up connections and it's been phenomenal. Through my Nortel BCM, it has no problem getting up to a 33.6kbps v.34 connection and and works great every time. I never really messed around with it though much since it's attached to the Shiva LanRover but I'd like to get another one to have for messing around. I do want to get a Courier I-Modem since I do now have the means to use one. But that will come in time. I enjoyed the video as usual, and I would like to know what settings for the frequency you have on your grandstream ATA to get that dial tone, if you wouldn't mind sharing.
480 Hz and 600 Hz :)
59:49 How did you get the old dial tone on your voip terminal? Mine is a Linksys PAP2T and I've heard its possible, but I've never been able to figure out how to do it lol
@@Cyrix_Instead That was my Grandstream HT802, which has a field in the configuration interface where you can type in the exact frequencies of the dial tone and I think other tones.
In this country we're in the process of having our analogue lines removed entirely - I've just had fiber fitted and don't even have a wall socket to plug an "old" phone or modem into!
@@greenmoose_ Happening here too - Bell Canada stopped maintaining the copper network years ago, and started decommissioning DMS-100s about 10 years ago. We still have two copper lines at work, but I think it's a case of whenever a copper pair goes bad, they just transfer your service over to fibre VoIP.
@@themaritimegirl it really sucks - such a short sighted move - copper self powered lines are the most robust and simple.
I don't take issue with fibre succeeding copper, as it's been happening for decades and is the natural next step, but I do take issue with that the modern telecom network is not as robust and failsafe as the copper network was, and what remaining copper network is left is not being maintained properly. These issues could be fixed if they cared enough.
@@themaritimegirl fiber will never be as robust, it needs hardware on other end to convert back to electrical signal from light and isn't self-powered. the fiber modems for phone do have backup batt often but that only lasts a few hours and what's when the battery is good/new. the best that could be done is including copper with the fiber for self-powering.
real copper is also great for being able to fax and also link up computers directly not needing data-centers in an emergency. data-centres being so power hungry and requiring a very stable electric grid.
if things get bad with unstable power grid etc one of the first things to go will be the internet in current form.
@@themaritimegirl agree 100%, honestly it works ok for me - my grandma however had her line "upgraded" to fibre with an adaptor to use her old landline phone but none of her extensions work and this solution relies on a battery to keep the line active in the case of a power cut - a lot more fiddly than the old system! and that's just one example!
Would be fun to setup a dial-up modem with VoIP, just have no idea where to start or what VoIP service to use.
I can recommend VoIP.ms for a service provider and the Grandstream HT802 for an ATA. Unfortunately I don't know of any good guides to suggest off-hand - I had to just learn as I went. But VoIP.ms has a wiki with some good info.
what do i need to connect at 56k via voip? today i have a PAP2t and a FreePBX running some numbers, but they connect at a maximum of 33.2k.
I have USB modems, US Robotics 5685E and Sportster 33.6 with firmware upgrade to 56k.
Do voip connections have limitations?
@@Marmelucos Are you calling numbers that have digital 56k-capable modems? As mentioned in the video, a 56k modem can only connect at 56k to digital modems such as those used by ISPs.
Try calling the 2600 network. The connection might ultimately fall back to V.34, but you should be able to at least get to the DIL tone.
the highest i've ever seen a 56k modem connect at is 48kbps when connecting to isp.
@@Jon-hx7pe Yes, it was apparently quite rare to achieve a 50k+ connection. It requires ideal phone line conditions.
@@themaritimegirl from back from when waiting over an hour to download the 20mb netscape installer was normal. along with taking 2-3 hours to install windows 95 off of 13 floppy disks.
fond memories.
I love how you pronounce it "mo-dam" xD What regional accent is that?
@@NozomuYume Well, I'm not saying it with an AM sound, but anyway - you can thank my Data Communications professor in university for that. That's how he pronounced it, and it was not a word I ever used up to that point, so it stuck. Modem means modulator-demodulator after all, so it kind of makes sense.