Recommendation for dial-up modem for Elk M1 Gold

[DickLamb]

I'm a homeowner (not a pro installer) installing an Elk M1 Gold in my own home. I'm encountering problems with the dial-up modem access--either with an in-house phone or calling from outside. With the modem on an external line I can dial OK, and I get a various messages, including instructions to dial the number manually, but nothing I do results in a connection to the panel. Using the option "Local connection via house phone" I get a message to dial my own number. The option "Telephone connection already established," after connecting manually doesn't work, either. In all cases the little indicator picture of connection progress just shows never-ending animation.

I should add that my direction serial connection to the M1 board works fine. I'd just like the capability for remote access.

My modem is a cheap fax data modem--no name, but Windows 7 control panel reports it as Conexant brand and the driver as USB Softv92 Data Fax Modem. I've spent hours trying various combinations of options. I'm thinking the modem must be the problem. I don't mind buying another, they're cheap enough, but I'd like to select one that someone has had good results with. any suggestions?

 

[DickLamb]

After hours of experimenting, and a zillion reboots of the PC, I finally got success. My $10 software fax modem works fine. A couple tips I learned: Unplugging the modem to the PC USB jack, and plugging back in, then reconfiguring in the RP Setup, can help, particularly if you get a pop-up message about Windows detecting a com device has been removed. Also, using the same physical USB port for the modem each time, and using a different and consistent USB port for direct serial port connection to the Elk M1 board, helps. Make sure com port in Windows agrees with the one selected in Elk configuration. Finally, I learned not to bail out too quickly: the little pop-up screen for connecting kept churning away, suggesting failure, when really it had already connected and was scanning the two databases for comparison. The manual warns that this compare can take a long time. Another tip is to first make sure the modem works with terminal software like PuTTY, which have stronger diagnostics for modem problems than the Elk RP.

 

[tmbrown97]

Or just get the M1XEP Ethernet Module, then you can lose the ancient modem interface altogether and open up your panel to possibilities like eKeypad, M1ToGo, etc.