[comp.dcom.modems] Cheap Modems?

currie@alumni.Colorado.EDU (Andrew Currie) (12/12/90)

   I am interested in buying a number of modems and would like to know:
        * The cheapest 1200/2400 baud modem(s)
           (external and internal for PC & Mac)
        * People's experience (pro & con) with these cheap modems.
           (are there any quality problems or reasons why i should not go 
           with cheap modems if i don't need any "bells and whistles"?)
thanks,
andrew <currie@boulder.colorado.edu>

mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Michael Squires) (12/12/90)

In article <1990Dec11.224634.19485@csn.org> currie@alumni.Colorado.EDU (Andrew Currie) writes:
>           (are there any quality problems or reasons why i should not go 
>           with cheap modems if i don't need any "bells and whistles"?)

"Cheap" modems frequently are cheaper because of short-cuts in the design
and materials.  One case where this causes trouble is when trying to
connect to a high-speed modem (USR HST and Dual Standard a case in point)
which try to negotiate a high-speed link first (or some form of error
correction/compression) which the "cheap" modem misinterprets as a
standard carrier and then fails to negotiate a link.  I see this frequently
with 2400 bps "cheap" modems and my USR DS.  This is a BIG problem if the
modem is used dial-up; if dial-out then just add extra ","'s until the
high-speed modem has given up and fallen back to 2400.
-- 

Mike Squires (mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu)     812 855 3974 (w) 812 333 6564 (h)
mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu          546 N Park Ridge Rd., Bloomington, IN 47408
Under construction: mikes@sir-alan@cica.indiana.edu