jbier@sim.Berkeley.EDU (Jeff Bier) (03/19/88)
A couple of weeks ago I posted a request for information on the quality and compatibility of Practical Peripherals modems. I received ten replies. Almost all respondents were satisfied with their modems. One received a modem that was dead on arrival; another reported a compatibility glitch. The replies, edited for brevity, are included below. Based on these recommendations, I went ahead an purchased the 2400 baud external version. I have had it for about a week now, and have used it with three different communications packages and about six hosts with no problems whatsoever. Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond! /**** From Erich Nahum@topaz.cs.wisc.ed (University Wisc-Madison) ***/ I got a PP 1200 baud external modom from PC Connection ... They recommended it, and it has a five year warranty, BUT... it didn't work when I got it. It would not dial. Anyway, PC Connection is sending me a new one. /**** From Kevin Sweet, sweet@scubed.arpa Fri Mar 4 ****/ I purchased a PPI 2400b internal modem a couple of months ago. I have experienced no problems with Hayes compatibility. When making a connection, however, I can't really hear what's going on like a used to be able to do with my old Anchor 1200b ... Another advantage is that you become a registered user of the Procomm communications package. ... /**** From Tony Mason, mason@polya.stanford.edu Fri Mar 4 ****/ I have the 2400b internal, which I picked up 3 mo. ago for two reasons: (1) it was < $200 (2) it had procomm 2.4.2 with it. Since I got it, I have used it to download 60-70MB of material at 2400 baud. I've had no problems. I took it out, flipped the switches to set it to COM2, plugged it in and it ran fine. Particulars: Everex 1600AT, 8Mhz, ... /**** From John Mauney, mauney@cscadm.ncsu.edu Fri Mar 4 ****/ I recently bought a Practical Peripherals 2400bps external modem. I have only used it a little so far, but it works fine. I got it through my cousin, who is a dealer; he has used their internal 2400bps modem for some time and is satisfied. /**** From John Sin, jsin@SEAS.UCLA.EDU Fri Mar 4 ****/ I have been using both 1200 and 2400 modem for few months now, and I am quite happy with both. I have had no problems whatsoever, and I like the programmable features of the 2400 modem, like storing phone numbers in their ROM, setting volumes from keyboard, etc. I'd say they are a great value for the money. By all means, get one. John /**** From Mark Storin, uwvax!uwmcsd1!lakesys!mark Sat Mar 5 ****/ I've been using a Practical Peripherals 2400 baud external for a couple of months now. Have two friends with the same modems (all attached to Atari ST's). I have had problems with sensitivity to line noise at 2400, though I think the lines in my area are just plain noisy, my friends have little or no problems of this sort. Other than that no problems. I do wish that the speaker volume could be reduced more. It is controlled by an internal register with three settings and even the lowest is too loud for my tastes. I believe that for the price, you can't get a better 2400 modem (I payed $179 for mine!). /**** From sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Robert_F_Breedlove Sat Mar 5 ****/ I am calling PORTAL over the Practical Peripherals PM2400SA right now. For the most part, I have had no problems with the modem. I have found one program to be incompatible. That's ICEX11.ARC. It's a dialer for PCPursuit. I'm not sure if the problem it's having is with the modem, my Toshiba T3100 or what. It connects OK with PCPusuit, but then insists that there is no CTS!?!? Otherwise, it's given me flawless service with Zcomm (I'm using that now), GT and other comm programs that I've tried. /**** From Ron Tsur, tektronix!psu-cs!foobar!lvi Wed Mar 9 ****/ I am using both the internal IBM-PC version and the stand-alone 2400 modems for several month now. My experience has been very positive so far. Practical Peripheral is using the Rockwell chip set, which uses Digital Signal Processing techniques to achieve a high signal to noise ratio over a selective bandwidth. When compared with other modems, using the same telephone lines, PP modems generally produced very few error bursts. In some cases I found that even the Hayes 2400 modem, which uses the same Rockwell chip set, was inferior to the PM2400SA. In my opinion, the PP modems are the best buy in the market today. /**** From Jerrold Gray, decwrl!pyramid!toad.pilchuck.Data-IO.COM!jgray Wed Mar 9 ****/ I am presently using (even as I type) a Practical Peripherals PM2400SA external modem. I am very happy with it. I have only driven it with Procomm and a UUPC package but with no negative surprizes. I was surpized to find that it could recognize busy conditions for example. My only negative comment is that is appears to run a bit warmer than I would have expected. /*** From Mark Mason, @relay.cs.net:mmason@psu-cs.cs.pdx.edu Thu Mar 10 ****/ We've been running 13 of them for the past 4 months, and have experienced virtually no problems (unlike a couple other brands we paid twice as much for). About once per month one of them needs resetting to factory settings via at&f, but this may be due to user-error. With one major exception, they seem to be fully hayes compatible. That exception is: DTR modem control is required to reset the modem back to answering at 2400 baud after a 1200 buad call. This isn't a problem for most installations, but we have several lines without modem control and they simply won't answer at 2400 after a 1200 baud call. They must be reset via software control, which kills the line. Overall I'm very impressed with them. /*************************** END OF REPLIES ****************************/ /***********************************************************************/ Jeff Bier jbier@sim.Berkeley.EDU Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Unversity of California Berkeley, CA 94720 (415) 642-8884