Here it is. You guys voted for your favorite modem to be used to serve
out reliable, dependable, easily configured, friendly, high-speed,
dial-up connections. The results are as follows...
Recommended Modems
votes modem spec price
----- ----- ---- -----
6 US Robotics, Courier V.Everything V.34+ About $379
1 US Robotics Total Contral Rack
1 Telebit Fastblazer 8840 V.34
1 Practical Peripherals Proclass V.FC/V.34
1 GVC V.34 About $159
1 Hayes Optima V.34
1 Microcom Deskporte FAST modems V.FC/V.34
Modems complained about... complaint
----- ---------------------- -----------------------------------
1 Zyxel Elite 2864 frequent drops,poor support
1 US Robotics, Sportster "all kinds of trouble"
1 Zoom "tempermental talking to others"
1 RPI (?) not good for unix - software compression
1 Zoltrix
1 US Robotics, Courier dip switch override has been problem
caused &D3 to be lost (reset of DTR drop)
which is essential with bi-directional
also, bad batch of power supplies known to
overheat
I supplied prices above when they were supplied to me. No one seemed to
know what the maximum port speeds are on SPARC workstation. Apparently at
least 34,800bps. One manager did say that running multiple modems on
one machines serial ports at high speeds can be a severe load to the
CPU and suggested the use of a terminal server or special multiport SBUS
card from Xyplex (http://www.xyplex.com).
Correction on my behalf... I said V34bis. There is no such thing. Oops!
There is a V.32 (9600), V.32bis (14400), V.34 (28,800), and a V.34+
(34,800), but no V.34bis! Get it right! Sorry for the confusion. :-(
Jay Lessert supplied a document (in the form of a compressed html page)
which discusses and compares various V.34 modems. Here's some interesting
data I found in regard to the above mentioned modems.
Modem and features Flash Call- Syncrhonous Leased
Epromm Passwd back Communicats. Lines
----------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------------ ------
US Robotics Courier V.Every.. yes yes yes yes 2-wire
US Robotics Sportster no no no no no
Telebit Fastblazer yes yes yes yes 2 or 4
Practical Peripheral Proclass no no no yes 2-wire
Hayes Optima no no no yes no
Microcom Deskporte Fast yes yes yes yes 2-wire
Zoltrix V.34 FM ZX288SE no no no no 2-wire
Zoom V.34X 450 no no no no no
---So, I'm planning on buying the US Robotics Courier V.Everything. It got the most votes by a wide margin. And seems to have all the features. In regard to the complaints against this modem... I'll make sure the dip switches are set correctly to support bi-directional and if I get a bad power supply I'm sure US Robotics will be glad to send another. Others specifically said they found this modem to be entirely plug-n-play. That's what I want.
Thanks to the following managers: Thomas J. Blauvelt" <blauvelt@aldus.NorthNet.org> "Walter Reed" <walt@caligari.com> Salvatore Saieva <saieva@ppllc.com> Reto Lichtensteiger <rali@meitca.com> andre@infoteck.qc.ca (Andre Roberge) mal@getech.leeds.ac.uk sweh@mpn.com (Stephen Harris) simes@tcp.co.uk celeste@celestial.stokely.com (Celeste Stokely) "Lyle E. Miller" <lyle@ocs.com> craig@data (Craig Hadix) Tox Gunn <tox@remarque.berkeley.edu> Jay Lessert <jayl@lattice.com>
-drp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ | Dan Penrod - Unix Administrator | | _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ | USGS Center for Coastal Geology | | _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/_/ | St. Petersburg, FL 33701 | | _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ | (813)893-3100 ext.3043 | |_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ | penrod@whiplash.er.usgs.gov | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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