PC-DC Server without hot swapping from phone line

[Dihnekis]

Hello,

I'm currently trying to setup a PC-DC server and I've read that you often need to hotswap from a live phone jack to get the DC to dial. I'm trying to set one of these up right now, and I am in college and currently we do not pay for a phone service, and doing so is really out of the question.
If it isn't, I'm going to give up on playing my DC online for the time being and bring the parts for the line voltage simulator back to radioshack.

My DC makes 0 noise when it tries to dial while connected to my notebook's modem and I'm beginning to doubt it has voice capability. It is a HDAudio Smart Data Fax modem with SmartCP. I'm going to try a USB modem potentially...

So my question is, and it is a really simple one...

1. Has anyone gotten a PC-DC server setup without using a live phone jack at all in the process?
2. How did you do it?
3. Does the line voltage simulator eliminate the need for a live phone jack? 4. How about a PBX intercom/exchange thing?
5. Do USB modems work for PC-DC servers?
6. Can anyone recommend a good USB modem? If yes to 5.


If you don't know the answer to any of these questions, I'd greatly appreciate suggestions or links to more places with people that will be able to answer this question. I've tried dreamcast-online, no response.

[Gary_b]

the only time you need to hot swap phone lines is when you want to play quake 3 arena. all the other games and web browsers work with out swapping. and on a side note i swap mine with a mp3 audio file of dial tone instead of a real phone line. i have rigged up a phone cord so that i could plug it into my pc speakers head phone jack.


i didnt read your whole post so i might have missed something, ill come back and read the rest later.

[Dihnekis]

Awesome thank you! I will start shopping for a USB modem, as I've realized my notebook soft modem does not have voice.

I'd love information on the mp3 rigged to the phone jack, I want to play Q3A too

How is the lag?

[Gary_b]

quake 3 has no lag with pc-dc server. it runs near broadband speeds. pso has some lag though. i cant do much about giving you the dial tone mp3 atm because my power supply died on my computer. i ordered a new one, so once it arrives i will be glad to upload the mp3 file for you. to make a jack for it, all you need is a old phone cord and an old head phone jack. splice them together and your done. you will want to use the red and green wires on the phone cord. the wires on the head phone jack should be self explanatory.

[Dihnekis]

Ok thanks it is going to be a while before I get this up and running because i have to track down a USB 56k modem that works well with this anyway, so no rush. Thanks for the info though.

Is PSO playable at least? PSO is my main reason for doing this. I have super fast internet.

[Gary_b]

yes PSO is playable. the main problem with my server is on the drops and items from boxes. some times they take to long to appear. this might only be for me though, i never heard others complain about it.

[Dihnekis]

Ok great. I'm bidding on a Dynex 56k modem that is reported by a user on dreamcast-online to work quite well, so hopefully I'll be online in a week or so.

I was also finally able to track down a copy of winroute lite 4.25, surprisingly thanks to a rapidshare search engine spam thing on google (by searching the filename on it). If anyone else ever finds this post and is in need of it, go to
http://rs79.rapidshare.com/files/132459 ... 425-en.rar or search that filename on google and you will probably be able to find it, as it is no longer hosted on the Kerio server and most freeware download sites just point to their site.

[Gary_b]

i replied to your thread over at 0nlineconsoles. i originally made a thread about how to play quake 3 with out a real phone line there a while ago. anyway i linked to my original thread for you.

[Gary_b]

here is the mp3 file of dial tone. its only 35 seconds long, but all i ever really needed was about 15. i had to zip it with 7zip so that i could upload it. the forum has a 2MB limit for files and this was 2.9MB. so use 7zip or winrar to unpack it and play it back with any program that can play MP3 files, i tend to use windows media player when i need to play it.

[Dihnekis]

Thanks for that. Can you explain in more detail how exactly you splice the connection in? I've got spare 3.5mm cables, spare telephone cables, and now a USB voice modem. How should I combine them all