RE: Remote Dial In to AS400 -- MIDRANGE-L

I picked up a Hayes Optima modem recently for ~$260 US.  I have a license for 
Netsoft, which has an 'Autosync' router option.  This is my preferred method 
for dialing in with a PC to sites which have only an AS/400 and a synchronous 
modem (such as 7855-10).  AFAIK, this is the only _Hayes_ modem that has this 
built in sync/async thing.  

I routinely access about 20 different remote sites.  About half only have a 
sync modem, and this has been bulletproof for machines running V2R3 up to V4R1. 
 Probably works higher, but I haven't had the chance to try yet.

For best performance, I like dialing a RAS server and TELNETing.  The RAS 
server handles the burden of the async connection, and usually you can get 
higher speeds, up to the proverbial 56k over a dial up line, although I have 
yet to experience anything much greater than 33.6.

As far as the client software goes, Netsoft (http://www.netmanage.com) has 
plenty of features and it's what I use if I'm planning to be on for more then a 
few minutes.  When I'm in a hurry and want a 'quick and dirty' session, I have 
a license to mochasoft's 32 bit TN5250 emulator (http://www.mochasoft.dk).  $25 
/ seat, or $250 / site.  It fires up quick, and gets the job done.

I know that alot of people like the winappc product, and it gets mentioned 
frequently here.  One of my guys tried it out, and it just didn't work all that 
great.  Kept locking his machine.  In fact, it uses the netsoft router for the 
autosync connection anyway.  Once we figured that out (duh), we just stuck to 
netsoft.  I would say that we were mildly displeased with it.  Synapse was 
happy to refund the purchase price, and that says a lot to me about their 
customer service.

HTH

BTW: Does anyone have direct experience with a PCMCIA modem that will do 
autosync?  I've been thinking of getting a laptop, but it won't do much good 
for me without autosync type access.  The hayes website doesn't list Autosync 
as a feature on their PCMCIA Optima modem, and I notice it is quite a bit less 
expensive than the optima ISA and external modems, which tells me that perhaps 
it's not quite a 'full-up' optima.

Of course, I don't work for netsoft, mochasoft, or synapse, and this is just my 
personal opinion.  YMMV.

Regards,
Rich

============================================
Rich Duzenbury
http://rich.dyn.ml.org
http://vpsolutions.com
============================================


 Ron Sposito wrote:
 > 
 > I am looking for a reliable way to dial into my AS400 from a remote
 > PC. We are currently using a twinax protocol converter that worked
 > great under DOS. But once we went to the Windows version of the
 > software - performance went way down. Any suggestions ? Thanks
 

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