It seemed simple enough two weeks ago. I was contacted by an iMac
owner who was referred to me by the local ISP to help hook up an ISDN
modem to a Rev B iMac.
The customer (who I will refer to as Joe) could not get his 3Com/US
Robotics ISDN modem to work on his computer; he had tried time and time
again installing the software with no luck getting the modem to
work.
As a Mac consultant, I assumed he missing a key step, so I went to
his house to get him up and running. Joe and his wife were very happy
to see me and had hopes of getting online at high speed. I tackled the
problem in usual fashion: I opened the manual, which was no more than a
quad fold 14 x 24 poster, and followed the steps.
The first thing I looked for was the requirements: OS 8.5 (iMacs
need firmware update 1.1 or better) and an available USB port. Well, we
had OS 8.6, firmware update 1.2, and an available USB port with 64+
megs of RAM available. After following the instructions, which said
installer would install appropriate drivers, and installing the
software, the iMac would not recognize the modem.
I had to resort to instinct at that point, because the poster didn't
not elaborate on setting up the modem beyond instructions on how to
plug in and running the setup software.
I checked the Modem control panel, and USB modem was not
available. I checked TCP/IP - no luck there either. As I scratched my
head, I came to the conclusion that we must be missing a modem script,
so I scoured the CD contents and found one that was not mentioned
anywhere and was not installed. Once installed, it was of no help. I
searched the 3Com and USR website with no luck, so I did what
consultants hate to do - that was to call the tech support number.
This is where it got bad.
I called 3Com, who immediately said that they do not support that
item and referred me to USR. Once I got a USR tech online and explained
the problem, he said that the iMac was missing some software (well
duh!). I told him that, yes, of course something was missing. Could
he elaborate?
Of course not. He said that the item was plug and play and required
no drivers to be installed and tried to explain to me how the OS works.
(Gee, thanks for the lesson, as if I didn't know.) I explained to him
that the setup software doesn't see the modem and that USB does not
show up in the Modem control panel. He quite rudely said that it was an
Apple issue, and he could not help me any further. Oh, I forgot to
mention that when I gave him Joe's phone number, he said, "Oh, this guy
has called us before, and we informed him that it was Apple's
problem."
I ended the call with, "Thanks for nothing, and I will call you when
I find what the problem is." Since Joe had already called Apple and was
informed that this was not an Apple issue but a manufacturer
issue, I saw no need to waste time calling Apple. I left the job to do
my own research and return when I get more info.
I spent several hours searching 3Com/USR/Apple/Forums and reviews
with no information in regards to our problem, so I resorted to writing
a letter to USR tech support. Here is the letter with their
response:
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 12/03/02
Subject: USR Tech Support
Date Submitted: 3/13/2002 1:03:07 AM
Name: J. Dugan
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Address1:
Address2:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Model Number: 3CP3468A
Telephone(home):
Telephone(work):
OS: Macintosh
OS Version: 8.5x
Description of Issue: Hello, I hope that you can help with this
problem. I am a Macintosh consultant and I am writing in regards to a
problem one of my customers is having with the ISDN Pro TA and his
iMac.
The iMac 233 96 megs of RAM running OS 8.5 with internal 56k modem
does not recognize the Pro TA on the USB port; the owners manual that
came with the TA was followed step by step to no avail. I have spoken
to people at 3Com, and they referred the problem to you (US Robotics).
When I spoke to a USR technician about this problem, he immediately
blamed the problem on the Mac OS, but he was not able to tell me
exactly what was missing (that leaves too many holes to be plugged) and
was borderline rude when I tried to get more specific answers, he said
QUOTE "The TA is supposed to be plug and play and does not need a
driver, something is missing in the OS." When Apple was contacted about
this problem they referred back to you folks.
So here we are with no answers to the problem. I must say that I was
none too impressed by the tech that I talked to. If you can't identify
the problem, DON'T HAND IT OFF. If you make a product for a specific
OS, know that OS and have specific solutions. My customer bought your
product and needs YOUR help, I am under the impression that the ISDN
PRO TA was not a good venture with 3Com by the customer reviews I have
read, but that does not clear either company of any responsibility to
the product in question. If the problem is with the Mac OS could you
please give me some guidance as to what may be missing so we can
download the appropriate cdev/init/script or patch. Problem described
in detail below.
Installed ISDN PRO TA on USB ports 1 and then 2, installed software
several times, installed the ISDN PRO TA script in modem scripts folder
in preferences folder. Connection manager could not locate the Pro TA
connected to the computer. Apple Profiler does see the TA on USB. iMac
has firmware V1.2 installed. I have selected the TA script in modem
control panel but USB port does not show in "Connect via" window.
I have thrown my hands up on this one and NEED YOUR HELP! My
customer and I have made phone calls and have sent emails; this is our
last attempt to get the TA working before my customer returns the TA
for a different brand never to buy a USR or 3Com product again. This is
NOT a threat but your chance to prove that you can support your
product.
Thank you in advance for your help.
3/13/2002
Re: Email ID xxxxxxx
Dear :
Thank you for choosing U.S.Robotics.
All that is needed for modem to work is for MAC to detected and
setup a USB connection.(USB Only for MAC). And assign a modem script if
a ISDN TA script is not available use USR high Speed. The modem needs
to be configured for the ISDN Line. SPIDS, Switch, PPP etc... This is
usually done with the Control Center software. On some of the CD's the
Control Center software included has problems detecting the modem. In
this case you need to access the modem via a terminal application like
Zterm and configure with AT commands. The commands are listed
below.
If you cannot see what you are typing in the Terminal window
enter
ate1<enter>
Then to view the current line settings enter:
ati12<enter>
If you cannot see and verify that the setting are correct you can
enter or modify them with the following commands
at*p0=(area code)<enter>
at*p1=(Directory Number 1)<enter>
at*p2=(Directory Number 2)<enter>
at*s1=(SPID 1)<enter>
at*s2=(SPID 2)<enter>
atz!<enter>
Alert light should go out.
For 128k connection enter:
at*vo=5*ppp=3*b=0&w
After that you just need to tell whatever PPP dialing software to
dial with this modem.
If you need someone to help you with this please call 801-401-1142
M-F 8am-4pm MST.
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to assist you. Should
you require further assistance with your U.S. Robotics product, please
feel free to contact us again.
Again, thank you for choosing U.S.Robotics.
Your feedback is important to us. Please visit our web site at
www.usr.com/emailsupportfeedback in order to rate your support
experience.
Sincerely,
Tech support guy
So that's what we had to go with. I again took a trip to Joe's house
to try and tackle the problem, this time toting my iBook. I again tried
a few things, but none of them worked. I hooked the modem to the iBook,
and it was recognized immediately with no software installed. Well, OS
9.0.4 on the iBook had something OS 8.6 didn't, so I copied all the USB
extensions over to the iMac, but that didn't work. I then called Apple
and asked the tech is OS 8.6 needed an update for external USB modems.
Their conclusion was that OS 8.6 had support for USB modems, but they
wanted to charge us $49.95 to give us further information. I told her
that we would not spend $49.95 to only have them tell us to update the
OS, so her only advise was to search the Knowledge Base on the Net, but
she highly suggested that we update the OS. Well, updating the OS was
an option but a last resort, and the Knowledge Base was of no help at
all.
I decided to take the iMac home with me to do further testing with a
Rev B iMac of my own - but with OS 9.0.4. When I hooked the modem to my
iMac, viola!, it worked, so on to updating the OS on Joe's iMac. First
step: update to OS 9. Well, at that point I tried the modem, and it was
not found, so on to 9.0.4 - it worked! At least we could see the
USB modem in the modem control panel.
I set up the script for the modem and tried to dial in. The script
was bad, and it was bad again when recopied from CD, so I resorted to
using the generic USR script that the tech suggested in his email. No
errors at that point, so it was onto the connection manager to set up
the Modem for ISDN.
Modem not recognized. So I tried a dumb terminal program to check
the setting of the Modem. Well it managed to configure itself to my
ISDN setup, and the iMac finally went online.
So here's the deal: USR and the poster/manual recommends OS 8.5 or
better blah blah blah. 9.0.4 is a long way off. I had to make many more
settings than the poster/manual mentioned, and I had to resort to a
dumb terminal to set up the modem because their software didn't work.
We would have been better off if 3Com/USR admitted that they knew
nothing about the Mac and that we would be better off tossing out the
manual and CD and figuring it our ourselves - at least we would have
saved time not calling them.
The ISDN Pro TA Modem works on Windows via USB and a Mac via serial
or USB. My thoughts are that the manual OS recommendations were for a
serial based Mac but failed to mention OS requirements for USB based
Macs. The Tech got one thing right - the software was bad. But the
modem is not plug and play. Not mentioning settings in the Modem
control panel was a bad error on their part. Even with the appropriate
OS, I feel bad for the average user who tries to set this beast up.
With such poor tech support, I imagine many of these Modems will be
sent back as defective. It's too bad, because the Modem was very well
designed, if only the software designers/manual writers/Q&A and
tech support got off their cottage cheese arses and did their job, this
would have been a plug and play scenario - not to mention a much more
successful product.
My recommendations: Buy an ethernet modem. You can share the
connection, and you only have to have Open Transport present for full
functionality. I have OS 7.1 through OS 9 connected to an ethernet
modem with no glitches whatsoever.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
