Comma Magic

Comma Magic

Normally, you enter the phone number you want to dial to make a connection as just the phone number: 434-1224 (dashes and spaces are optional and don't affect anything).

One of the legal dialing 'digits' is a comma which has a special meaning to your modem: wait 2 seconds*.

Some connectivity trouble may be solved by the use of comma's:

By placing 1 or more comma's at the end of the phone number to dial, your modem will not finish dialing until the time defined by the comma's has ended. Some modems are confused by the V.8bis calling tone generated by some server modems, and by adding the appropriate number of comma's, these tones will occur before your modem starts listening for the server modem. [In some cases, the problem could also be corrected by using a custom Init String.] 434-1234,,

By placing 1 or more comma's at the beginning of the phone number to dial, your modem will not start dialing until the time defined by the comma's has ended. This may help in situations where you have custom calling features that produce a stuttered or delayed dial-tone: ,434-1224

Windows98 DUNs Screenshot of Connect To Phone # entry

If you are using a PBX system that requires digit(s) to be dialed to reach an outside line, placing a comma after the digit(s) will allow the modem to pause while the outside line is connected: 9,434-1224

* The duration of the pause invoked by a comma defaults to 2 seconds on most modems. Most modems allow you to set the duration of the pause by changing the S8 register: for example, S8=4 in the init string would change the pause duration to 4 seconds.

Also received note of connectivity (dialing) problem solved by adding comma's between all the numbers: 4,3,4-,1,2,3,4. Note that if this fixes problem, it may be solved more effectively by adjusting the modem's tone dialing duration & spacing (s11=## in milliseconds - try 100).