Detecting of modem's turned on?

[Don]

On Fri, 2003-12-19 at 01:51, Juan Lupion wrote:
> Neil Bird wrote:
> > 
> >    If I 'ifup' to dial up via my modem, I get a pppd that never works
> > nor returns a failure if my modem's turned off.
> 
> 
> What's the problem with having your modem -assuming it is a external
> one- always on?

... what's the matter with issuing an ATZ (or other) command to the
modem and waiting for an OK, or a timeout to occur?