lgy@pupthy2.PRINCETON.EDU (Larry Yaffe) (10/07/87)
I recently received a "Desktalk II" 2400 baud modem, made by Incomm, distributed by Comark Inc. in Ill. (800-872-3539). $199. I decided on it primarily because I received more positive recommendations for it than any other < $200 2400 baud modem in response to my recent recommendation request. In the belief that others may be interested, here are a few impressions: 1) It works. 2400 baud is much much nicer than 1200. The 1 non-volatile stored phone # is quite convenient. 2) It has a plastic case. Construction not flimsy, but not as solid as (for example) a $400 Ventel 2400 baud modem I tried previously. (What did you expect ... ?) No sign of masking-tape based internal construction or similar abominations, such as were mentioned in some recent horror stories about other modems. 3) The internal speaker makes a small amount of noise even when you tell the modem to completely disable the speaker. In a quiet working environment, you can hear your data being transferred! This is my only significant complaint - I find it sufficiently annoying that I will simply unsolder the speaker. 4) The documentation is ok, but not great. One major undocumented "feature": If you use the "save configuration" command (at&w) when connected to the modem at 1200 baud, it completely disables 2400 baud connections !!! Not a word about this in the docs. Cost me a week of needless suffering at 1200 baud. Standard disclaimers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Laurence G. Yaffe Department of Physics lgy@pupthy.princeton.edu Princeton University ...!princeton!pupthy!lgy PO Box 708, Princeton NJ 08544 609-452-4371 or -4400