glendwer@cats.ucsc.edu (Craig Steven Bell) (05/30/91)
O.K., all of you deal-doers, where can I find the CHEAPEST and/or BEST deal on the USR HST Dual Standard v32bis modem? I'm sure th- at many people at this node could use your help. any posts or el- ectronic mail would be appreciated. Thank Yooou! Where's the cheapest source for USR products? -Craig glendwer@cats.ucsc.edu
conrad@popvax.uucp (M20400@c.nobili) (05/30/91)
<16309@darkstar.ucsc.edu> glendwer@cats.ucsc.edu (Craig Steven Bell) writes: > > O.K., all of you deal-doers, where can I find the CHEAPEST and/or > BEST deal on the USR HST Dual Standard v32bis modem? I'm sure th- > at many people at this node could use your help. any posts or el- > ectronic mail would be appreciated. Thank Yooou! > >Where's the cheapest source for USR products? > >-Craig > >glendwer@cats.ucsc.edu I posted what I thought was a good price a couple of weeks ago. I didn't see any comments yea or nay, so I don't know if that was in fact the best deal.... But here it is again.... Elek-Tek, inc. quoted me a price of $599 for an ex- ternal USRobotics Courier V.32bis modem.... They are at (800) 395-1000.... There are a couple of things worth mentioning. First is that Elek-Tek is un- abashedly just a best-price mail-order company. I think they may even say in their catalog somewhere that they don't do any after-sale support.... I guess that thought makes me a little less unhappy that I found out about this price a couple of days after having spent $649 each for a pair of the same modems from a very nice dealer with whom I have had pleasant experiences in the past (upgrading ROMs and all...).... (If people are interested in more info on THAT dealer, let me know....) Also, Elek-Tek is in Skokie, IL. This is where USR itself is located. I don't know if this means anything at all, but it seemed like an interesting observation. (Ok, I guess I just think that "Skokie" is a very strange name for a city, and that knowing TWO companies from there sur- prised me....) Of course, the prices I mentioned were NOT for the dual standard model. W A R N I N G -- BRIEF RAVE FOLLOWS!!! The USR Courier V.32bis is a truly AWESOME modem. I am OVERWHELMED by my new setup with a pair of them. For what I am doing they are going about exactly TWICE as fast as a pair of Telebit T2500s could POSSIBLY achieve. I.e., I do not even have to wonder about what throughput I could eke out of T2500s in all of the various configurations, as NO MATTER WHAT it would top out at their max DTE rate of 19,200 bps.... I have been monitoring performance of my network bridge for the past two weeks semi-regularly, and have seen very consistent results. Essentially, I am getting almost 38,400 bps out of the bridge in both directions. I am very sorry, but I apparently saved the results on my Mac's internal 80M drive, which I just reformatted the other night when I obliterated a copy of A/UX and put on System 7.0! I will save the next results I get some- where safe if anyone wants to see them. I would have to shut down this bridge to get them now.... Actually, I think I recall having seen a slight asymmetry in the throughputs. I think I was consistently getting a bit closer to 38,400 bps with stuff sent from my home site than received by it.... I guess that is reasonable, as I am one of those leeches who downloads more (compressed) code than I upload. Significant portions of the network traffic leaving my site are just my typing (like that which you are reading) (packetized in various ways, I suppose...). I guess all of these results seem pretty much in line with what most people here have been reporting. I.e., compression rates of around 2.7:1 using V.42bis. I have never tried "cooking" a file for benchmarks, but I think that the "manufacturers' claims" of 4:1 compression would rarely be seen. (The 38,400 bps max DTE rate of the USR modems (at which speed the network interface is running) is 2.66666666 times the link rate of 14,400 bps at which they are connecting. I was seeing throughput figures that indicated compression rates of something like 2.5:1 on the way out and 2.3:1 on the way in.... I hope this has been informative or interesting to someone.... +---- C o n r a d C . N o b i l i ----+ | | | Harvard University | Internet: conrad@harvarda.harvard.edu | | Office for Info. Tech. | conrad@popvax.harvard.edu | | Information Services | BITNET: CONRAD AT HARVARDA | | Technical & User Services | CONRAD AT HARVSPHB | | 1730 Cambridge Street | voice: (617) 495-8554 | +---- Cambridge, MA 02138 | fax: (617) 495-0715 ----+
baughmankr@stat.appstate.edu (06/01/91)
> O.K., all of you deal-doers, where can I find the CHEAPEST and/or > BEST deal on the USR HST Dual Standard v32bis modem? I'm sure th- I would say that the best place to look would be in a FidoNet echo, where BBS SysOps chat. USR gives SysOps an incredible deal on Dual Standards ($514 the last time I looked). If a SysOp is closing down, theres a chance they may want to get rid of there modem, probaly really cheap. A couple of months ago in the North Carolina Sale Fido echo, I saw one for $450 dollars. If you do decide to go this route, please try to find a legitimate SysOp who is honestly closing down and would like to sell his/her modem. USR has had some problems in the past with unscrupulous SysOps taking advantage of the deal to make a profit.
jws@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (John Schmidt) (06/01/91)
FYI - Elek-Tek also runs stores in the Chicago area (don't know where else, if any). Their returns policy is very restrictive, which also helps them keep costs down. (For the previous poster's benefit -- Skokie is a moderately large suburb of Chicago, located on the northern edge of the city.)
larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) (06/03/91)
baughmankr@stat.appstate.edu writes: >I would say that the best place to look would be in a FidoNet echo, where BBS >SysOps chat. USR gives SysOps an incredible deal on Dual Standards ($514 the All SysOp's (not only fidonet sysops) qualify for the discounts on the USR products - call 1-800-DIAL-USR for details. HST's are $399 and dual standards (HST+V.32+v.32bis+v.42bis) are $495. -- Larry Snyder, NSTAR Public Access Unix 219-289-0287/317-251-7391 HST/PEP/V.32/v.32bis/v.42bis regional UUCP mapping coordinator {larry@nstar.rn.com, ..!uunet!nstar.rn.com!larry}
editor@wet.UUCP (Eric Swanson) (06/05/91)
larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes: >All SysOp's (not only fidonet sysops) qualify for the discounts on the >USR products - call 1-800-DIAL-USR for details. HST's are $399 and >dual standards (HST+V.32+v.32bis+v.42bis) are $495. Hmm. This piques my interest. Do they have a rackmount line? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ editor@wet.UUCP {ucsfcca,hoptoad}!wet!editor wet!editor@cca.ucsf.edu make my funk the p funk; i want my funk uncut make my funk the p funk; i wants to get funked up
larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) (06/06/91)
editor@wet.UUCP (Eric Swanson) writes: >larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes: >>All SysOp's (not only fidonet sysops) qualify for the discounts on the >>USR products - call 1-800-DIAL-USR for details. HST's are $399 and >>dual standards (HST+V.32+v.32bis+v.42bis) are $495. >Hmm. This piques my interest. Do they have a rackmount line? yes -- -- Larry Snyder, NSTAR Public Access Unix 219-289-0287/317-251-7391 HST/PEP/V.32/v.32bis/v.42bis regional UUCP mapping coordinator {larry@nstar.rn.com, ..!uunet!nstar.rn.com!larry}
peterc@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter Creath) (06/06/91)
How much is an _upgrade_ from HST to Dual Standard, and how much for sysops? --
larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) (06/07/91)
peterc@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter Creath) writes: >How much is an _upgrade_ from HST to Dual Standard, and how much for >sysops? there is no upgrade available - you have to trade in your modem - and it ends up being much cheaper to sell your old modem on your own and purchase a new one using the SYSOP price ($399 for HST and $499 for HST/V.32bis) -- Larry Snyder, NSTAR Public Access Unix 219-289-0287/317-251-7391 HST/PEP/V.32/v.32bis/v.42bis regional UUCP mapping coordinator {larry@nstar.rn.com, ..!uunet!nstar.rn.com!larry}