flexfax: quick tip for 3Com/USR chassis modem users

["David N. Lewis" <dlewis@appp.ci.in.ameritech.com>]

Hi all,

	I wanted to pass along a tip that has really helped our fax
throughput.  We have a 3Com/USR 'Total Control' chassis, with 32 Courier
modems, split roughly evenly between two Hylafax servers (send-only
configuration).  We were experiencing a large number of "Communication
failure in phase B/C" errors;  about 5-10% failure rate since this chassis
was installed 4/98.  These errors were always timeouts at the AT+FDT
command. 

	Briefly, we found that pulling the Network Management Card (NMC)
from the chassis helped considerably, by greatly reducing the number of
phase B/C errors.  For the past few weeks, our error rate has dropped to
well under 1% for any given day.  Although certainly not an elegant
solution, pulling this card has made such an improvement, that we dare not
re-insert it into the chassis.  The modems appear to behave just fine
without it, and hopefully the card will be used only when upgrading the
modem firmware, if need be.  If anyone wants more info, I'll be happy to
oblige. 

Thanks, Dave