Rather than paying $40 for a quality factory-made HWHS cable (as you would for Farallon's) or even $28 to $30 for a technician-reworked cable (Compunication's), you might want to consider the following...
I can offer high quality, six foot long, double-shielded, factory made cables for a much fairer price. These cables are of the same quality as genuine Apple modem cables. They have gold coated pins, molded connectors, etc. The cost is $14 (plus shipping). Shipping should run around $3.00 for normal mail service (allow 7-10 days), or $10 for overnight service.
If you are interested, give Chris a call (Mon-Fri, days) at 301-832-8931.
There are three basic methods of flow control available to modems. They are 1) RTS/CTS hardware flow control -commonly referred to as Hardware Handshaking-, 2) XON/XOFF software & firmware flow control - the modem MUST support "transparent" XON/XOFF, and 3) XON/XOFF sofware flow control.
Anyone using a high speed (error correction/suppression capable) modem should seriously consider obtaining a hardware handshaking cable. Any modem which employs MNP, HST, PEP, LAPM (v42), v32, v32bis or v42bis will benefit from HWH flow control. Most high speed modem manuals indicate that HWHS is the "preferred" method of flow control, and for good reason...
HWHS accomplishes two things. First, because it is a more efficient means of flow control, it increases throughput significantly. (On the Telebit, an increase of as much as 300 cps.) It accomplishes this in two ways. First, HWH doesn't require the transmission of control characters. This reduces overhead (size of data transmitted). It also improves reliability, because the data itself may contain the same control characters as those being used by other flow control methods, causing 1) slow-down from re-transmission of data packets, or 2) the loss of data resulting from the acceptance of a "false" control character. Also, by not utilizing software-based control characters, the "reaction time" of the modem-to-computer link is improved. There is also an advantage to using HWHS for impaired lines, as it is a more forgiving flow control than XON/XOFF, and because the likelihood of data loss or spurious data is that much greater on an impaired line.
Following is a list of the most common pin-outs for Mac HWHS cables.
The cable I am offering can be used as either a Hermes (sysop) cable or a normal dial-out Hardware Handshake cable. It has been thouroughly tested with USR, Telebit, and Hayes modems.
Following are some S-register and Nram dumps for setting up HWHS with either a Telebit or US Robotics modem.
Use this init string for an HST Dual Standard:
AT &F M0 X6 &A2 &B1 &H1 &R2 &S1 &X1 S24=25
Should look like this:
USRobotics Courier 14400 HST Dual Standard Settings...
B1 C1 E1 F1 M0 Q0 V1 X6
BAUD=38400 PARITY=N WORDLEN=8
DIAL=PULSE ON HOOK TIMER
&A2 &B1 &C1 &D2 &G0 &H1 &I0 &J0 &K1
&L0 &M4 &N0 &P0 &R2 &S1 &X1 &Y1
S00=000 S01=000 S02=043 S03=013
S04=010 S05=008 S06=002 S07=060
S08=002 S09=006 S10=007 S11=070
S12=050 S13=000 S14=001 S15=000
S16=000 S17=000 S18=000 S19=000
S20=000 S21=010 S22=017 S23=019
S24=025 S25=000 S26=000 S27=000
S28=008 S38=000
The only important settings for a USR & HWHS, which you MUST have set correctly are "&I0, &H1, and &R2". The rest are up to you. Just be sure to use error control on the modem side, and to turn it off on the software side. (if you're in ARQ mode do not use X/Y modem protocols, because you will be checking the integrity of the data twice - the ideal protocols for ARQ, (whether its LAPM or MNP) are Zmodem, or best of all, YmodemG.) USR users should see a minimum improvement in throughput of 50 cps. Calling boards that have been optimally set-up, you should see an improvement of around 100 cps.
Use this init string for a Telebit:
AT M0 S50=255 S51=5 S58=2 S67=0 S68=2 S95=0 S111=0
Remember that the only potentially important S-registers for the Telebit and HWHS are S52 (DTR Interpertation), S58 (DTE Flow Control), S67 (CTS Interpertation), and S68 (DCE Flow Control). If you are having problems, you may want to recall the factory settings and examine the values of these registers. Remember to set the flow control inside of your communications program, but only AFTER making your S-reg changes (otherwise you may lose the ability to communicate with the modem).