Bitcom

[DAVE PINNER]

If you're both reading each other's typing but not your own, you're
both (probably) in full duplex. Even two PROCOMM users are likely to
run into this problem if they just connect and try to talk to each
other as though they were talking to a BBS, because the BBS software
usually echos the caller's characters back to his console.

Since your friend isn't likely to switch to a package that you can help
him understand, I'll scrounge around the office on Friday to see if I
can find that Bitcom manual I saw floating around.

In the meantime, if you switch to half duplex, and you're fortunate
enough to get your friend to poke around through his software into
half-duplex too, you'll both see your own and each other's characters.
In half duplex, your software will do a local echo. The half/full
duplex names are really misnomers. They are better suited to the
turnaround/carrier capabilities of modems. At one time it was a big
deal to be able to talk full duplex -- communications in *both*
directions simultaneously. Half duplex dominated the modem scene, and
the circuits had to do some weird signalling for one end to tell the
other it was ok to transmit. Speed capability was degraded by the time
it took to coordinate and activate the turnaround. The v.32/.42 stuff
sure makes that all look silly these days.