RAS Enter Manual Commands Feature Problems (103499)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1

This article was previously published under Q103499
Remote Access Service (RAS) for Windows NT has a new feature called Manual Dial. With this feature, you can manually enter AT commands directly to the modem. This is particularly useful when troubleshooting RAS modem problems. However, there are a few minor problems with this feature that may affect its usefulness.

You can enable this feature in RAS Phone by editing a phone book entry. In the RAS Phone utility, choose Advanced, and then choose the Modem button. Select the Enter Modem Commands Manually check box at the bottom. Now when you dial the phone book entry, you will be presented with a new terminal screen. You are now able to directly interact with the modem using AT commands.

Possible Problems

Cut\Paste commands:

If you cut and paste modem commands into the terminal screen, they are not sent to the modem. Only manually typed commands are accepted. This can be troublesome if you are tweaking long initialization strings. You need to type the entire command for each test.

668\620 Error: If you are not connected when you choose the Done button, you will receive the error message "All devices connected. Error 668: The connection dropped."

On your next dial attempt, you may receive the error message "All devices connected. Error 620: There are no endpoints."

This will be followed by the 668 error again.

  1. Dial Phone Book Entry with the manual commands check box selected.
  2. Enter ATDT (phone number) in the terminal.

    The modems will connect.
  3. Choose Done to close terminal as normal.

    You will probably receive 620 error.
    If you dial a nonmanual entry from the phone book, it should work. You may need to exit the RAS Phone utility to correct this behavior.
Change Initial Speed bps:

If you change the bps speed in the Modem Button Screen in RAS Phone, you may receive garbage in the manual command terminal screen.

For example, if you change from 38400 to 9600 bps, the manual command terminal works but sometimes the system will not see connect string.

More often, if it fails with 668 or 620 error for some reason, the next dial command will get garbage from the modem on first screen line.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.1 and Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/20/2003
Keywords:kbnetwork KB103499