A numeric pager is one that can display a number -- usually the number to be called back. The number is entered by pressing Touch-Tone keys on your telephone, usually terminated by pressing the "#" or "*" key.
Numeric pagers are not modems. Therefore when you dial one, it does not return a carrier signal. Therefore, the dialing modem will not say "CONNECT" or turn on its carrier signal. Therefore, DIAL commands will not succeed.
You can type commands to your modem manually for testing. For example:
ATDT7654321,,,,,8765432#;In this example we Tone-dial the phone number "7654321", then we pause for ten seconds (",,,,,") to give the pager time to answer the call, then we send "8765432" to be displayed on the pager, then we send the "#" tone, and then we return to command mode (";"). The modem should respond "OK". The details will vary with your modem, your telephone service, and the pager you are dialing.
Let's assume we have a Hayes 2400 or higher compatible modem. Here's a sample command file to call a numeric pager:
define \%a 7654321 ; Number to call define \%b 8765432 ; Number to display on pager set port xxxxxxx ; Select the communication device set speed 2400 ; Any speed supported by the modem output AT\13 ; Make sure it's in command mode input 3 OK ; ... if fail stop 1 Can't get your modem's attention output {ATDT\%a,,,,,\%b#;\13} ; Make the call input 3 OK ; ... if fail stop 1 Can't place callYou can turn this into a macro that accepts the numbers as arguments. See "Using MS-DOS Kermit" or "Using C-Kermit" for additional script programming instructions, and your modem manual and the pager manual for details of calling and paging. Note: the OUTPUT string is enclosed in curly braces to force the commas to be taken literally (if you were using this command in a macro definition and did not enclose the OUTPUT string in braces, the commas would be command separators). Note #2 - Some modems might also support a "wait for quiet answer" feature, e.g. by using the at-sign "@" in the dialing string:
ATDT7654321@8765432#;However, even when your modem supports this feature, it might not be the right approach for every paging service. For example, some services issue a lengthy voice message and then a beep (or two or three) before they are ready for the message. So in most cases a fixed pause is safest.
What about alphanumeric pagers? You have to dial the paging service and then either go through a series of prompts, or else execute a protocol like TAP. C-Kermit 6.0 comes with a TAP paging procedure:
ckepage.ksc
You can also send an alpha page "by hand". The manual method goes like this (at least for paging services that support TAP "manual mode"):
The exact procedure and prompts vary according to the paging service, so you'll need to go through the process manually to see exactly what the prompts and sequences are. Then you can write a Kermit script to send manual-mode alphanumeric pages automatically.