OK, in my haste I left out the "why" part of my previous post. We had a similar problem where we were unable to make a connection. The modems would negotiate, the indicator lights would look good, and then the carrier would drop. We connected a protocol analyzer between the modem and system and found that the modem was sending a "RING" message to the HP. The HP apparently tried to speed sense using the "RING" message (which just so happened to begin with a <CR>). The speed sense was OK (correct rate), and the HP sent back its prompt. The modem ignored the prompt (fortunately) as it was busy negotiating the connection. When the negotiations were complete, it sent a series of lines somewhat like: CARRIER 9600 PROTOCOL LAP CONNECT 19200 There were <CR> characters at the end of each line, and the HP 3000 dutifully treated each line as a logon attempt. Three invalid logon attempts and it dropped the connection. Changing the modem configuration so that it would not send the "RING", "CARRIER", "PROTOCOL", and "CONNECT" messages solved the connect problem. John