Msg: 6574 *Conference*

06-01-96 08:35:01

From: RICHARD HANSON

To : TILDEN GASPARD,JR.

Subj: REPLY TO MSG #6571 (DISCONNECTED)

I really appreciated reading your concerneds about dropping carrier.  Allow me
to assure you that dropping carrier happens all the time, for a wide variety of
reasons.  And, many, many years ago, we sysops and host software designers
wrote recovery solutions into our programs.  Dropped carriers have not been a
problem for a long time.

There was a time, I recall, back in the late 70's - early 80's when dropped
carriers (...heck, almost anything) caused the host to cough and die.  I
clearly recall rebuilding the file allocation table in HEX when this service
was run on a Model III under NewDOS80 and TBBS.

The TBBS part ran flawlessly, as it always does, but the Z80 chip and
perpherials of the Model III, being "pushed" by NewDOS80, was just not up to
the task.  A caller would drop carrier, the hardware would not respond fast
enough to close the file and update the file allocation table within the time
settings of the DOS and ... ALL STOP!  Throughout the day, I would go into the
lab/office and look over at the machine.  I always knew when it was ...
crashed!  It had that ... dead look. :)

I did learn to speak a foregn languarge, however ... Sie sa habla HEX!