jtn@potomac.ads.com (John T. Nelson) (02/19/90)
Okay, well I think I'm going to buy a Telebit Trailblazer or T1000 modem for my Macintosh II. Telebits support all the low mundane speeds 2400 bps and below and if you run in PEP mode with another Telebit you can get up to 9600 for the T1000 and 19.2 for the Plus. Telebits are real popular so I shouldn't have too much problem being compatible at 9600 and above. Besides... V.32 modems are fairly expensive. So where to buy one of these things brand new for real cheap? Any recommendations?
bobr@netcom.UUCP (Bob Rieger) (02/20/90)
Netcom Services passes Telebit modes through to there users at cost.
The current prices are as follows:
T-1000 500.00
Trailblazer + 845.00
T-2500 940.00
You can get more info by logging into the guest account.
(408) 249-0290 2400/1200
(408) 249-0576 9600
login as guest, no password required.
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// Bob Rieger Netcom - Online Communication Services //
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//______________________ JUST SAY NO TO VMS __________________________ // ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM (Norman Goodger) (02/21/90)
In article <8377@potomac.ads.com> jtn@potomac.ads.com (John T. Nelson) writes: >Okay, well I think I'm going to buy a Telebit Trailblazer or T1000 >modem for my Macintosh II. Telebits support all the low mundane >speeds 2400 bps and below and if you run in PEP mode with another >Telebit you can get up to 9600 for the T1000 and 19.2 for the Plus. >Telebits are real popular so I shouldn't have too much problem being >compatible at 9600 and above. Besides... V.32 modems are fairly >expensive. >So where to buy one of these things brand new for real cheap? Any >recommendations? 1. There is no such thing as a cheap Telebit. 2. The USR Courier HST 14.4 modem is faster than a Telebit. 3. Depending on your specific needs, in the BBS world there are far more HST's out there than Telebits. 4. For the somewhere near the same $$ you can buy a USR HST dual Standard and get HST and V.32 compatability and still be faster than Telebit. 5. The Telebit modems are notoriously hard to setup, they have more registers than I care to think about.. Bottom line...if you want speed, get an HST... -- Norm Goodger SysOp - MacInfo BBS @415-795-8862 3Com Corp. Co-SysOp FreeSoft RT - GEnie. Enterprise Systems Division (I disclaim anything and everything) UUCP: {3comvax,auspex,sun}!bridge2!ngg Internet: ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM
dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt) (02/21/90)
In article <1358@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM> ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM (Norman Goodger) writes: > 1. There is no such thing as a cheap Telebit. Nor are they inexpensive ;-} > 2. The USR Courier HST 14.4 modem is faster than a Telebit. That may be true for straight interactive sessions... although I believe I've read that the Telebit PEP protocol can yield roughly 14 kbits/second in true throughput to the user. The T-1000 doesn't go that quickly, though. My impression is that the T-2000/T-2500 running in PEP mode, and the HST 14.4 modems, provide roughly equivalent throughput when streaming large amounts of already-compressed data (.ARC or .SIT or .Z files). If you need to run vanilla (short-packet) XMODEM or Kermit file transfers over a high-speed line, there's no contest... the Telebit protocol-spoofing eliminates most of the line-turnaround delay. Spoofed transfers really scream! > 3. Depending on your specific needs, in the BBS world there are > far more HST's out there than Telebits. Absolutely true... if you want to go BBS-hopping, an HST-protocol modem is the way to go. If you want UUCP protocol support, a Telebit is the way to go. If you want to run SLIP, a V.32 modem is probably the way to go. > 4. For the somewhere near the same $$ you can buy a USR HST dual Standard > and get HST and V.32 compatability and still be faster than Telebit. Hmmm. About six months ago we bought a couple of HST Dual Standard modems and paid about $1100 each, I think. T-2500 modems are available for about that price, as I recall... they also support V.32. > 5. The Telebit modems are notoriously hard to setup, they have more > registers than I care to think about.. They do take some careful setup to work best, it's true. Once they're set up, they don't seem to need much tuning. Also, the newer Telebit modems can support two different configurations in nonvolatile memory, with an A/B switch on the front panel. This can save a lot of typing, if you switch back and forth between a couple of different modes. > Bottom line...if you want speed, get an HST... Well... it depends on what you're doing. And, speed isn't everything. Reliability is another important factor. I've been using our HST Dual Standard modems for about six months. I do like them, quite a lot, in the tasks for which I've been using them. Both the HST protocol and the V.32 protocol support work nicely... most of the time. However... one of our people took our roving HST/DS modem home to San Jose (20 miles or so) and tried to use it to log in via my workstation. We spent several days in EXTREME frustration. He would dial up, my modem would answer, the two modems would scream at each other for several seconds, and then drop carrier. They would NOT successfully complete handshaking... not in V.22bis mode, nor in V.32 mode, nor in HST mode! Nada! He plugged in a USR Courier 2400e modem and tried again... it connected to my HST/DS without hesitation. He brought his HST/DS in, and I tested it via a local phone call to my workstation, with exactly the same configuration... it worked perfectly. I tried it from my house (5 miles) and from a client's building (15 miles)... worked perfectly. But, from his house in San Jose, he could not establish a connection at any speed! His line is somewhat noisy, it's true... but the $1100 HST Dual Standard was unable to establish a connection that a $400 Courier made without even blinking. I suspect that the HST Dual Standard _really_ wants to work over a clean line. On the other hand... the Telebit PEP protocol has won acclaim for its ability to set up and maintain connections over incredibly cruddy lines. People have reported stable connections, and 800 CPS throughut, over lines that were so noisy that 1200 bps connections (Bell 212) and 2400 bps connections (V.22bis) were unusable. PEP modems will keep a connection going even if you pick up an extension phone and shout "Hello, Polly Parrot! I've got a nice fresh cuttlefish for you!" into the mouthpiece. I'd strongly suggest that anyone thinking of buying a high-speed dialup modem arrange to test-drive the modems under consideration, before making any irrevocable decision to purchase. -- Dave Platt VOICE: (415) 493-8805 UUCP: ...!{ames,apple,uunet}!coherent!dplatt DOMAIN: dplatt@coherent.com INTERNET: coherent!dplatt@ames.arpa, ...@uunet.uu.net USNAIL: Coherent Thought Inc. 3350 West Bayshore #205 Palo Alto CA 94303
bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) (02/22/90)
In article <47352@improper.coherent.com> dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt) writes: In article <1358@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM> ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM (Norman Goodger) writes: 3. Depending on your specific needs, in the BBS world there are far more HST's out there than Telebits. Absolutely true... if you want to go BBS-hopping, an HST-protocol modem is the way to go. If you want UUCP protocol support, a Telebit is the way to go. If you want to run SLIP, a V.32 modem is probably the way to go. Van Jacobson's new compressed header SLIP is reported to work very nicely with current TBs, and upcoming TB models and firmware revs will be even better optimized for SLIP support. I haven't tried it yet myself, because the folks at the other end of my most frequent SLIP connection haven't had the chance to install header compression on their end yet. Get it from uunet.uu.net:networking/cslipbeta.tar.Z. I expect (speculation time now, kids) that as SLIP fades away into obsolescence, Telebit will cram PPP (RFC1134) support in there too. 5. The Telebit modems are notoriously hard to setup, they have more registers than I care to think about.. They do take some careful setup to work best, it's true. Once they're set up, they don't seem to need much tuning. Like any other Turing-complete system (:-), the Telebit register set takes some attention at set-up time. After that, like any other modem, you can basically ignore it. On the other hand... the Telebit PEP protocol has won acclaim for its ability to set up and maintain connections over incredibly cruddy lines. You should hear missionaries talk about the hostile environments where nothing else will work but they have astounding success with TBs. Telebit is something of a standard among communities who need to communicate in out-of-the-way places. I'd strongly suggest that anyone thinking of buying a high-speed dialup modem arrange to test-drive the modems under consideration, before making any irrevocable decision to purchase. Right! Though this seems intuitively obvious, some folks (nobody here, of course :-) seem to forget to use their own brains and just follow along like bleating sheep with whatever PC Magazine recommended month-before-last.
kevin@kosman.UUCP (Kevin O'Gorman) (02/23/90)
In article <BOB.90Feb21112032@volitans.MorningStar.Com> bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes: >In article <47352@improper.coherent.com> dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt) writes: > On the other hand... the Telebit PEP protocol has won acclaim for > its ability to set up and maintain connections over incredibly > cruddy lines. > >You should hear missionaries talk about the hostile environments where >nothing else will work but they have astounding success with TBs. >Telebit is something of a standard among communities who need to >communicate in out-of-the-way places. On the other hand, I use a TB+ quite a lot from here (California) to the East Coast. I find it unwise to use MCI. I have yet to keep a connection longer than about 5 frustrating minutes before the modem just drops off the line. So now, all my dialing sequences pick AT&T right off. I don't know what it is, but I just cannot stay in PEP mode on an MCI connection. And I spend a LOT of time doing this personally, not just using uucp. -- Kevin O'Gorman ( kevin@kosman.UUCP, kevin%kosman.uucp@nrc.com ) voice: 805-984-8042 Vital Computer Systems, 5115 Beachcomber, Oxnard, CA 93035 Non-Disclaimer: my boss is me, and he stands behind everything I say.
harbula@edinboro.edu (Dave Harbula) (02/24/90)
In article <1358@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM>, ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM (Norman Goodger) writes: > > 1. There is no such thing as a cheap Telebit. > 2. The USR Courier HST 14.4 modem is faster than a Telebit. > 3. Depending on your specific needs, in the BBS world there are > far more HST's out there than Telebits. > 4. For the somewhere near the same $$ you can buy a USR HST dual Standard > and get HST and V.32 compatability and still be faster than Telebit. > 5. The Telebit modems are notoriously hard to setup, they have more > registers than I care to think about.. > > Bottom line...if you want speed, get an HST... Hmmm. As I sit here using a Trailblazer at 19.2k, I wonder how 14.4 is supposed to be faster. We have found the Telebit T1000 to be competively priced. As for being difficult to set up, all one has to do is RTFM. In our case we only had to change one register. I guess everyone has their own definition of what constitutes "difficult". - Dave Harbula