[RESOLVED] Just Curious... "good" modems?

I had a UPS tech come into the shop to fix what they thoght was a bad modem. When he got there he realized that it was not the modem at all. So... he askes if anyone would like the modem he brought with him since he has a trunk full of them in his car. I said why not, and stuck it in a drawer in my desk. Last month I started to put together a new system for myself, and found that I would have to wait until mid March 01 for DSL at my house. So I dug out the modem that the UPS tech had given me, to my surprise, it was a USR Courier V.Everything Internal! This is flat out the best modem I have ever seen. Have you seen the prices for these things?!?!?!?!?

I have known US Robotics have hardware conflict issues in the past. I would recommend a Rockwell based chipset modem for performance and reliability.

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I want to know everything.

WOW, a lot of conflicting information here:

My 2 cents:
USR are typically great: sofware based modems can be tricky; they seem to be 'allergic' to certain machines.

PCI vs ISA internals: while pci is a 32 bit interface & most isa modems are now 16 bit; 115k is kinda slow for either bus to have trouble.

conflicts: strange stuff going bump when working with it & the modem.

normal HW use 2 resources; SW [ winmodems, lt is Lucent Tech.] use 3, if there are any conflicts; strange things can occur.

An external hardware modem invariably performs better than an internal and, if the modem is on a networked pc, it cannot clash with the nic. Trying to get a 3com winmodem out of irq bed with a 3com nic is about the most frustating exercise I can remember



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Never ever say out loud or even think to yourself near a computer "I'll just do this quickly...."

We recommend to our customers to install USR modems but they usually decide on the cheaper LT win modems(we avoid Conexant whenever on new systems & upgrades). Only problem with the LT modems is they don't like to share IRQs with anything else. Otherwise they seem to connect consistently from 38-52k.
The best modems we've come across are actually one particular cheapo ISA Rockwell R21 based model(KTX unknown manufacturer). They connect consistently at 56k(Confirmed with multiple downloads from different locations). I wish they still made them!

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"It wasn't me... honest"

US-R Modems rock! Don't buy though, a US-R Winmodem. You might have trouble.

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"Matter is passive. In spite of its power, it can't be controlled without the human mind." - Sokrates

My Hardware Info, Hardware Media and Computer History page

100 tech's cant be wrong usr modems are excellent modems.

But when your are shopping for a modem you don't want a winmodem not only are they less reliable and slower but you lose valuable system rescources.

Alot of modems are sold with very little to say about what kind of hardware is actually on the card (Instead you get three hours worth of sales pitch about "connecting yourself with the rest of the world.)

If you can find one get a linux compatible modem.(yes even if you don't use linux!) The linux os cannot support winmodems (yet.)and so you are assured of getting a hardware modem if you get one that is linux compatible.

USR 2976 for around $60 is the best internal modem you can get. also try to tweak you internet connection

3COM/USR ARE THE TOP DOGS, except their winmodems, but they do cost more.
(Didn't 3com and usr just split apart a couple of months ago???)
Love GVC modems especially their ISA ones for older PII's or pentiums and so on.

Sell assorted modems by Jaton and Smartlink for the el cheapo people or cheap systems. They do work pretty good for being cheap.

Avoid Motorola modems at all costs!!!! https://forums.windrivers.com/ https://forums.windrivers.com/

Ya, Motorola not only just announced an additional 7k layoff; but like 3 years ago sold their modem division.

Quote:

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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Robert Humphrey:
he askes if anyone would like the modem he brought with him since he has a trunk full of them in his car....So I dug out the modem that the UPS tech had given me, to my surprise, it was a USR Courier V.Everything Internal! This is flat out the best modem I have ever seen. Have you seen the prices for these things?!?!?!?!?</font>

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You got a great modem there. Do yourself a favour, don't ever sell it and keep it forever. Those things were/are legendary in the old BBS days...

DID YOU GET ANYMORE OF THEM??!?!?!?!?!

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Tech: "You need to pack up your entire computer and bring it back in to us."
Customer: "Why?"
Tech: "BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO STUPID TO OWN A COMPUTER!"

Quote:

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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by bluewest11:
I have known US Robotics have hardware conflict issues in the past. I would recommend a Rockwell based chipset modem for performance and reliability.

</font>

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Sorry, but I absolutely cannot agree here. In their best days, Rocwell was what I'd call "passable", as in it would work as absolute last choice alternative. Ever since they were bought out by Connexant, Rockwell has degraded, and their modems are absolute junk.

The only Winmodem I trust is Cirrus Logic, end of story. But I'll take a hardware modem any day, and USR is the cream of the crop.

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"COMPAQ.

They are not created on a manufacturing facility's floor, they are spewed forth from the bowels of Hell."

-Renee

LOts of WinModems out there, I buy SmartLink PCI Modems no problems, But still like the Hardware modems. I belive smartlink makes hardware modem also. For Win 2K Hardware Modem is the only way to go.

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Computer Shop Owner A+ COMPTIA Lifes a Beach

The other day I asked for help with Internet connection sharing... I was on a job where I had just 3 PC's sharing a winmodem. They can all surf the net and send email which was all that was needed through a $20 modem...
You get what you pay for but that was all they needed.. https://forums.windrivers.com/

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And Control Enter STILL wont let me post a reply.
:)