OT: IT/nerdy/tech-like question about Analogue Modems

jonnyboy77

This is a work related question ....

Do any of the IT types on here have any experience of software/solutions for testing multiple remote analogue modems? Essentially a war-dialer that dials a modem, confirms it connected and then disconnects moving onto the next modem. Ideally some form of reporting built in, but at the moment looking for a starting point!

I have googled til I'm going round in circles, all I have found so far is:

http://www.xiscan.com/
http://warvox.org/index.html

Neither of which quite meet the requirements of commercially supported (warvox) and xiscan ... well, it's not clear what it does, which isn't encouraging.

There has been lots of 'develop it internally' suggestions, but frankly we (our IT teams) have a lousy track record where this has been done previously!

Cheers

Jon

estampida

3rd party it

talk to proservit or similar

they will have a guy who has done this before

wgwarburton

jonnyboy77 wrote:

This is a work related question ....

Do any of the IT types on here have any experience of software/solutions for testing multiple remote analogue modems? Essentially a war-dialer that dials a modem, confirms it connected and then disconnects moving onto the next modem. Ideally some form of reporting built in, but at the moment looking for a starting point!

I have googled til I'm going round in circles, all I have found so far is:

http://www.xiscan.com/
http://warvox.org/index.html

Neither of which quite meet the requirements of commercially supported (warvox) and xiscan ... well, it's not clear what it does, which isn't encouraging.

There has been lots of 'develop it internally' suggestions, but frankly we (our IT teams) have a lousy track record where this has been done previously!

Cheers

Jon

From your desctription this sounds like a it could be implemented using a simple expect script on a UNIX box...

I take it there's a bit more to it than that....

Cheers,
W.

jonnyboy77

Thanks folks. We may end up outsourcing a development, but to keep costs low we are hoping for an off the shelf solution ...

The expect scripting option exists, but the reporting aspect starts to complicate this and then leads us down the in house development and support route ...

- Jon

davis

Eh? What reporting things are getting complicated?

Surely it's just a succeed/fail? Datetime it and throw it into splunk.

sketchley

Had you asked me this 25 years ago I may of been able to help as I had software to do this (can't remember much from back then). A friend used to run a BBS back then as part of FidoNet and had clients and scripts doing dail ups to servers, download email and news, unpacking, dail next one etc every night. But long time ago. Before the internet this is.....

SteppenHerring

How much are you willing to pay someone to develop the software? What's the target platform?

I'll do it for £1,500.

+++ATH0

jonnyboy77

davis wrote:

Eh? What reporting things are getting complicated?

Surely it's just a succeed/fail? Datetime it and throw it into splunk.

It's hard to explain why this is difficult, to someone that clearly wouldn't find it difficult - our internal devs, well let's just say that they would find it difficult to tie their own shoe laces ...

- Jon

jonnyboy77

SteppenHerring wrote:

How much are you willing to pay someone to develop the software? What's the target platform?

I'll do it for £1,500.

+++ATH0

I wouldn't wish my company on anyone, when it comes to dealing with 3rd parties, friends, fellow bike enthusiasts or even people I don't care for much. We are horrible. I am frequently embarrassed when trying to deal with 3rd parties that we've consistently attempted to negotiate prices down to rock bottom based on all kinds of promises only to fail to pay on time ... not sure if you get the picture.

Hence the reason for an off the shelf solution, we buy the software in a box, install it and get whatever support it comes with out of the box, and no one needs to worry about anything!

Sadly, I suspect the market for anything related to analogue modems is so niche these days, that I'm going to have to make this someone else's problem

Thanks for the inputs,

Jon

mzm70

SteppenHerring wrote:

How much are you willing to pay someone to develop the software? What's the target platform?

I'll do it for £1,500.

+++ATH0

Blimey, someone else who remembers native modem commands, we must be old !!!

Hangup if I'm not mistaken

sketchley

jonnyboy77 wrote:

SteppenHerring wrote:

How much are you willing to pay someone to develop the software? What's the target platform?

I'll do it for £1,500.

+++ATH0

I wouldn't wish my company on anyone, when it comes to dealing with 3rd parties, friends, fellow bike enthusiasts or even people I don't care for much. We are horrible. I am frequently embarrassed when trying to deal with 3rd parties that we've consistently attempted to negotiate prices down to rock bottom based on all kinds of promises only to fail to pay on time ... not sure if you get the picture.

Hence the reason for an off the shelf solution, we buy the software in a box, install it and get whatever support it comes with out of the box, and no one needs to worry about anything!

Sadly, I suspect the market for anything related to analogue modems is so niche these days, that I'm going to have to make this someone else's problem

Thanks for the inputs,

Jon

I'll sell you some software in box, with whatever support that comes with it out of the box (none) for £1,500. Cash, as in folding notes, in advance please.