4 ms·

Umm, Hayes commands are still used? That's a blast from the past. I thought those went out in the 80s or 90s?

count 8y ago
Anything talking to a modem is using them still...
puzzle 8y ago
Dialup was still a thing in this century, even if it feels like a long, long time ago. You could still reset people's connections by having them echo ATH0 back to you, if they were on a bad setup.
- acheron 8y ago
  NO CARRIER
- gnachman 8y ago
  Only if you could get the other party to type +++ first to enter command mode, though. I'm not aware of any modem that would accept commands, including ATH0, outside of command mode. Then again, there were a lot of bad modems in the world…
  - puzzle 8y ago
    Well, yeah, my "ATH0" was shorthand for "+++ATH0". All it would take was a hand crafted ping packet and a bad modem on the receiving end. The better modems implemented the Hayes safeguard of checking that no data was sent for an entire second after the third plus. Then, and only then, they would enter command mode.
jhayward 8y ago
As recently as 2001 the majority of americans used dialup to connect to the internet. AOL was the worlds biggest ISP, and carried more than 50% of all US web traffic.
askvictor 8y ago
The popular esp8266 wifi microcontroller was initially sold as a wifi interface to other microcontrollers, communicating over a serial interface, using AT commands. Indeed this was the first esp8266 I came across (ESP-01) - a cheap wifi interface for an arduino. Later folks discovered that the esp is more powerful itself than an arduino, but I think the stock firmware that comes on the chip is the serial-wifi interface using AT commands.
berti 8y ago
They're used by a variety of communication devices. I recently worked with some Phoenix Contact industrial bluetooth devices that used Hayes commands for configuration.
wenc 8y ago
Yes, I was wondering if I read that right, but it seems that AT commands are still in use. Us BBS nerds used to know AT commands by heart. We would send instructions to our 2400 baud Hayes modems using QModem: ATZ = reset ATDT1234 = dial 1234 on a touch tone phone (DP for pulse dial) Those of us who later moved to US Robotics modems started learning proprietary USR ampersand codes. ATH0.
- bri3d 8y ago
  Many peripherals with serial interfaces still use AT commands - Bluetooth <-> Serial adapters, the original ESP2866 firmwares where it was a Wifi-to-Serial adapter, most Serial <-> CANBus/OBD adapters like ELM327, basebands all spring to mind.
gsich 8y ago
Of course.
userbinator 8y ago
From what I understand, this is because GSM is based around the model of a voice/data modem.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mcbridematt 8y ago
The phone OS itself would actually use something like the QMI (Qualcomm management interface) protocol or MBIM for modem cards. The Hayes/AT commands are still used either for debug purposes, or for non-smartphone use cases like IoT.

Anything talking to a modem is using them still...

Dialup was still a thing in this century, even if it feels like a long, long time ago. You could still reset people's connections by having them echo ATH0 back to you, if they were on a bad setup.

acheron 8y ago
NO CARRIER
gnachman 8y ago
Only if you could get the other party to type +++ first to enter command mode, though. I'm not aware of any modem that would accept commands, including ATH0, outside of command mode. Then again, there were a lot of bad modems in the world…
- puzzle 8y ago
  Well, yeah, my "ATH0" was shorthand for "+++ATH0". All it would take was a hand crafted ping packet and a bad modem on the receiving end. The better modems implemented the Hayes safeguard of checking that no data was sent for an entire second after the third plus. Then, and only then, they would enter command mode.

jhayward 8y ago

As recently as 2001 the majority of americans used dialup to connect to the internet. AOL was the worlds biggest ISP, and carried more than 50% of all US web traffic.

askvictor 8y ago

The popular esp8266 wifi microcontroller was initially sold as a wifi interface to other microcontrollers, communicating over a serial interface, using AT commands. Indeed this was the first esp8266 I came across (ESP-01) - a cheap wifi interface for an arduino. Later folks discovered that the esp is more powerful itself than an arduino, but I think the stock firmware that comes on the chip is the serial-wifi interface using AT commands.

berti 8y ago

They're used by a variety of communication devices. I recently worked with some Phoenix Contact industrial bluetooth devices that used Hayes commands for configuration.

wenc 8y ago

Yes, I was wondering if I read that right, but it seems that AT commands are still in use. Us BBS nerds used to know AT commands by heart. We would send instructions to our 2400 baud Hayes modems using QModem: ATZ = reset ATDT1234 = dial 1234 on a touch tone phone (DP for pulse dial) Those of us who later moved to US Robotics modems started learning proprietary USR ampersand codes. ATH0.

bri3d 8y ago
Many peripherals with serial interfaces still use AT commands - Bluetooth <-> Serial adapters, the original ESP2866 firmwares where it was a Wifi-to-Serial adapter, most Serial <-> CANBus/OBD adapters like ELM327, basebands all spring to mind.

gsich 8y ago

Of course.

userbinator 8y ago

From what I understand, this is because GSM is based around the model of a voice/data modem.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

mcbridematt 8y ago

The phone OS itself would actually use something like the QMI (Qualcomm management interface) protocol or MBIM for modem cards. The Hayes/AT commands are still used either for debug purposes, or for non-smartphone use cases like IoT.