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modem <-> performance weirdness



i have an old 486DX2-66. it happily does pppoe/pppd + iptables
MASQUERADE + bind9 + dhcpd for my home network all day long. it's
system load usually doesn't exceed 0.20. it's running sarge with
a custom 2.4.18 kernel.

there's also a modem connected to the machine on ttyS0, linked to
/dev/modem, simply because i need to establish some non-ISP PPP
connections with the outside world and send faxes.

here's a problem that baffles me:

  when i use /usr/bin/pon or minicom to simply dial out to another
  modem where there's a pppd+mgetty waiting to accept calls, the
  system goes gaga. with that i mean this:
    - as soon as the connection is started (i.e. the modem screams),
      the system load just keeps climbing. i just had it at 76.00.
    - i can't see the top output, because top doesn't update anymore
    - the entire system is unresponsive
    - only when i physically turn off the modem, then the computer
      goes back to normal

i have experimented with the above to a point where i've disabled
as many processes as possible, and then tried again. but even with
only 14 processes running, the same happens.

how should i go from here? what can i try to narrow in on the problem?

-- 
martin;              (greetings from the heart of the sun.)
  \____ echo mailto: !#^."<*>"|tr "<*> mailto:"; net@madduck
 
q:      how did you get into artificial intelligence?
a:      seemed logical -- i didn't have any real intelligence.

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