[Dxspider-support] Watch out for power management

[Bill Coleman]

[ I may have posted this in the wrong place, apologies if you've already
seen this]

Greetings, I thought I would pass along my early experience with DXSpider &
the AGW Packet Engine.

I installed DXS and AGW on an IBM 1Ghz machine with WIN/XP PRO.  The initial
install had no RF ports due to good old MFJ removing KISS support without
telling anybody.  The install went smoothly and Charlie K1XX graciously
provided a 'feed' and lots of tips along the way - THANKS Charlie!

Once I got the RF side working, the system would rather randomly 'go to
sleep'.   RF connects would time-out and drop.  The only indication on the
cluster system was the tiny AGW TNC icon had a solid ON green light - I
still don't know for sure the meaning of these indicators.

Restarting DXS and AGW cured things.   Then about 16 hours later it happened
again - the RF port was inaccessable,  TNC icon green light on solid.

A post to the AGW reflector gave me a pointer to the PC's power management.
BINGO.   I turned off APM in the PC's BIOS, and told WIN/XP to never power
back (Control Panel / Power Options:  kill hibernate & APM).  I also moved
the TNC to an add-on async card which I am fairly sure does not have any
power management function in it.

My little test station in the next room would have been connected 5 solid
days now if there hadn't been a slightly larger power management issue
yesterday afternoon.

My apologies for being long winded.  The NET:  turn off power management in
the hardware and software.

Thanks to Dirk for a great piece of software & again to Charlie for being my
Elmer.

Best 73,  Bill   N2BC