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These two devices cover both ends of net connectivity spectrum on the road. Now, don't get me wrong, under most circumstances, you don't need anything fancier than the inexpensive tools and gadgets discussed in our Street Tech's Guide to Connecting from the Road. But there are situations where you can't use conventional methods or simple hacks like clipping wires behind a telephone wall plate.
In dealing with some international phones and payphones everywhere, you need a way of connecting without damaging someone else's property (and we would never do that). The most common solution may surprise you. Remember the acoustic coupler modems of the bad ol' days, with their suction cup connectors and their blazin' triple digit baud rates? Well, road warriors worldwide still use such a device when faced with a tough connection that can't deal with anything else.
Konexx's Koupler is a fairly lightweight (9 oz. w/ battery), well-designed acoustic coupler that can handle baud rates as high as 26 Kbps (2400 baud on many payphones and older phones with carbon microphones). Bad line conditions can further lower the baud rate to a 1200 baud crawl. Obviously, use of the Koupler only makes sense when you're out of other options. Powered by a 9 volt battery, the Koupler is attached to the telephone handset by a velcro strap. The two rubber cups are adjustable to afford a truly tight fit. For "R" type rectangular phones (such as the AT&T's Merlin), an adapter is included. Once connected to the phone, the unit is plugged into the "wall/line" jack on your modem and you're ready to go. Or, at least you're ready to try. I tried the various phones in our house and they all worked except an old TeleConcepts we bought on sale for $14.95 in the early '80s. I tried everything to get connected with this phone, but no dice. Listening on the earpiece and dialing my ISP, the sound of the modem tones was twice as faint as the other phones. Everything else worked like a charm, but you've got to be a little sceptical of this thing's performance under diverse circumstances. You can always go to another phone, but what a hassle that would be if you were out in the boonies someplace where phones are few and far between. I guess if you need your email bad enough, you'll do whatever it takes to get connected and the Konexx Koupler is your best bet (Teleadapt sells the same unit for $150).
On the leading edge of the phone connectivity spectrum are the digital PBX ("Public Branch eXchanges"), now used in many hotels and offices, and all other types of digital phones. The problem here is interesting. A modem's job is to translate the digital signal from your computer into analog for transfer through the phone lines (where it's turned back into digital on the other end). If you try to connect a modem to a digital phone system, you can damage or destroy the modem. You need a device that turns the modem signal back to digital again so that it can pass through the digital phone (which, in turn, converts everything back to analog for transfer into the greater phone network). Whew! Konexx's Mobile Konnector is designed to tackle this task. Again, under most circumstances, you won't need such a digital converter. Many hotels with digital PBX provide "dataports" in the rooms that do the conversion for you (though some charge extra for such rooms). You would only need something like the Konexx box if you find yourself faced with a digital line without a dataport. Set-up and use of the Konnector is fairly easy. You plug it into the wall (it has a standard 12V AC adapter), into the "wall/line out" on your modem, into the handset jack on the telephone (it does not go directly into the wall) and then connect the telephone handset to another jack on the Konnector. The unit has a four-position switch to set the proper signal strength for the phone you'll be connecting to. There's a chart in the small user's manual that lists the switch settings for some 160 different phone and PBX (mostly US and Japanese). If your phone's not on the chart, you can find the right level through trial and error. Sending and receiving can involve some futzing with time-outs and Hayes modem commands, but under most circumstances, operation should be fairly straightforward. At $130 and $140 for the Koupler and Konnector, these tools aren't especially cheap, but if it's that important for you to stay connected, you're probably enough of a bigshot to afford them. - Gareth Branwyn [10/15/97] |
