[comp.sys.amiga] Amiga and HST

jones@uv4.eglin.af.mil (Calvin Jones, III) (10/04/89)

Chris Brand <wizard@sosaria.uucp> Writes:

> I'd like to buy a HST 9600 bd modem.

I felt the same way a little over a year ago. 

> However, I've heard quite a lot like "It's great" or "It's bullshit".

I have heard of very few owners that have had any real problems that 
were not due to either:  (1) Failure to read the manual.  This is NOT a
                             Hayes modem, and some things are a bit
                             different.

                         (2) Some 'low cost' 2400 bps modems have 
                             trouble connecting.

> Now, how is the thing? 

Mine is working fine on the BBS.  It's been operational since June '88 
and I've never had a problem.  I leave it set to CCITT, and both 
European and American callers are able to connect regularly.

> Is it worth buying? 

That would certainly depend on your particular "calling profile".  If 
you call a lot with high line charges and do a lot of file transfers, it 
could pay for itself quickly.  But if you just spend time reading mail, 
you won't see much difference in speed ('though the MNP error correction 
may help a bit.)

> What about problems?

No problems here. (I Read The F****** Manual!)

sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (10/06/89)

In article <766@nigel.udel.EDU> jones@uv4.eglin.af.mil (Calvin Jones, III)
writes:
>Chris Brand <wizard@sosaria.uucp> Writes:
>
>> I'd like to buy a HST 9600 bd modem.
>
>> However, I've heard quite a lot like "It's great" or "It's bullshit".
>
>I have heard of very few owners that have had any real problems that 
>were not due to either:  (1) Failure to read the manual.  This is NOT a
>                             Hayes modem, and some things are a bit
>                             different.
>> is it worth buying?
>That would certainly depend on your particular "calling profile".  If 
>you call a lot with high line charges and do a lot of file transfers, it 
>could pay for itself quickly.  But if you just spend time reading mail, 
>you won't see much difference in speed ('though the MNP error correction 
>may help a bit.)
>

One word about file transfers:
In the 9600 bps mode, it is divided up into
one 9600 bps and a 300 bps channel. It automatically gives the
higher speed channel to the direction of highest traffic. So if you use 
a file transfer protocol with small packets like kermit or xmodem with 128 byte
packets, the  speeds keep switching on ya. The result is that if you need
to use kermit or xmodem, it's faster to use the modem in 2400bps mode. That
way you get 2 2400 bps channels. 

However with Zmodem and Ymodem, the HST
flies at 9600 bps. Some of my terminal programs have trouble keeping up
with the incomming data using the 9600 and Zmodem. It seems to lose data and
can't tell one incomming packet from another. But then it might be the unix
system I am calling into. I can't be sure without more experimentation.

The HST also has a 19200 bps mode that really only works on text. It sorta
crunches text at the sending modem (like arc or zoo) and uncrunches it at
the receiving modem. This doesn't work so hot when trying to transfer 
arc or zoo files because they are already crunched down.

-- 
John Sparks   |  {rutgers|uunet}!ukma!corpane!sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps
|||||||||||||||          sparks@corpane.UUCP         | 502/968-5401 thru -5406 
A virtuous life is its own punishment.