Re: dial up modem

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.hardware, in article
<74ts35xiee.ln2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, Peter Chant wrote:

Moe Trin wrote:

Most RS-232 externals (the old serial port) work just fine (USB
wasn't well supported then), while PCI internals tend to be loosers.

Remember having fun with internal modems - most turned out to be winmodems.

Well, avoiding those that were selling (new) for less than 15 currency
units would reduce the problems. US Robotics introduced the "Winmodem"
(and trademarked the name) because their costs were high, and they
needed some means of producing a cheap retail product. When dealing
with commercial retail products, you can often estimate the selling
price by multiplying the parts costs by "a" factor (varies by product
type, but 5 to 15 times the material costs is a good first guess).
Where they failed to think out their solution was that other
manufacturers would follow (indeed go even further) to make a
cheap product, but also that the 'win' prefix (winmodems, winprinters,
heck, there is probably win-power-cords) would come to represent a
cheap and shoddy product. None-the-less, I recall seeing a local
big-box (electronics) store selling some no-name winmodem for US$9,95
(plus US$0.83 tax) with a ten dollar mail-in rebate card (meaning the
out-of-pocket costs were 78 cents plus postage) - under a buck and a
quarter... and worth every penny of what you paid.

Upthread, I refer to Rob Clark's "Winmodem Web Page" which was a
tremendous resource at the time. Not only did it list the exact
model numbers of working and non-working modems, but there was even
a mail link to the individuals who had reported on each modem. I was
listed for about six, and got to the point where I had a 'canned'
response giving exact steps needed to get the modem recognized and
running. If you review the page, you would find

Type OK (works as is) LM (needs driver) WM (crap0 ? (unkn)
RS-232 Ext 113 0 0 149
ISA Internal 157 10 62 186
PCI Internal 17 69 216 254
PCMCIA Card 44 1 17 81
USB External 8 4 10 69
TOTAL 339 84 305 739

Bought an external US Robotics sportster flash - it took longer to get
it out the box than it did to get it working, though my ppp scripts were
already in good shape.

Yeah, but that wasn't helped by the fact that some manufacturers
packaged their products in consumer proof packages - you needed
explosives to get the d4mn package open, and everything was in it's
own sealed plastic bag that also had to be opened using illegal
weapons... except for the instruction book that spent more time/pages
telling you not to put the product into the bath tub while it was
operating.

Not sure what the best option is nowadays.

Upthread, modems are getting harder to find, as everyone is transitioning
to some form of broad-band (DSL, cable, satellite). Last time I looked,
the selection at the big-box store noted above was two devices, both
USB externals, compared to an 90 foot long aisle full (possibly 40 types)
back in the mid-1990s.

Old guy
.

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