dcb@scirtp.UUCP (David C. Bennett) (10/07/85)
I resently posted an inquiry about "inexpensive" modems, because
we wanted to purchase several. These are the responses
I received from the inquiry. I want to thank all the folks who
responded. It helped us a great deal in making our selection.
Thanks,
David C. Bennett
SCI Systems, Inc.
{decvax, akgua}!mcnc!rti-sel!scirtp!dcb
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!decvax!hplabs!hpfcla!hpcnof!barrett> <barrett@.UUCP>
I would strongly reccomend NOT getting a USR PASSWORD. I have found them
to be so flakey that they are not real useful. I would also consider getting
2400 bps modems instead unless you are never planning to use long-distance
lines. Many systems on the net are switching to 2400 bps so connectivity
may not be a problem. 2400 bps modems are available for as low as $400 if
you look around. In particular, I own a USR Courier 2400 and it seems to
work just fine. The Hayes is a nice one as well, but it usually costs about
$650.
I would expect 1200 bps modems to get dirt cheap within the next year or
so as a result of one-chip modems and competition from the 2400's and
inventory of the 1200's.
Dave Barrett
Hewlett-Packard
Colorado Networks Operation
hplabs!hpcnof!barrett
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!gwsd!man!jack!j
Personal experiance with the anchor automation modems has been that they are
unreliable, extermely slow to connect ( often the modem at the other end will
timeout ) and cannot differentiate between a busy signal and a no answer
condition. To be honost, after trying *many* 1200 baud modems for bulletin
board and E-mail applications, the only inexpensive (?) modem i can recommend
is the Hayes. This is one area in which you seem to get exactly what you pay
for.
James Carius
The Pacific Century Group
sdchem!man!jack
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From: rti-sel!mcnc!ulysses!t12tst!chip (Chip Rosenthal)
I've got a pair of USR 2400 modems, I'm pretty happy with. I've been
using them for a lot of talking with another site about 120 miles away.
They have worked very well when the other site uses USR 2400's. However,
when the other place had Hayes 2400 I couldn't get a 2400 baud connection.
I suspect the Hayes, but I don't have one in-house to play with.
Complaints:
1) the DIP switches are underneath. Real pain when you have six modems
stacked up in the bowels of a VAX like I do. You can't see or set
switches without pulling the whole fricking thing apart.
2) the volume control is a slide control with a press-on knob. i've
knocked it off before.
3) i can't figure out any reasonable way of dealing with a lot of them
due to their packaging and those %*^$@$# power supply transformers
all modem manufacturers seem to use. about all i can see is that
you stack them, dangle cords all over the place, and hope that you've
got enought AC outlets for the transformers.
4) One of our two modems arrived DOA. Repair went OK. Took about two
weeks, which I suppose is reasonable, but I would have been much happier
if the distributor appologized profusely and gave me a brand new one
immediately.
In spite of all these things, I would have no qualms buying them again.
This might suprise you, but the problem which irks me the most is #3.
If I could find a good way of storing these turkeys it would keep #1
and #2 from being intolerable. I'm willing to chalk #4 up as bad luck
and catagorize it as reasonable response.
What is good about them is that they seem pretty noise tolerant, they
seem to establish connection and baud rate reliably. It has two commands
I really like. The ATX6 tells me what is going on with the modem. BUSY,
RINGING, etc. The answer I like best is VOICE. That's always good for
a moment's panic. (Especially when I'm doing my dialing at 1:30am.)
Also it has a command to display the current settings, which is obviously
useful. (It impressed me, but then again I'm used to working with Hayes
1200's).
Is there a reason why you aren't considering Hayes 2400, besides cost?
Do you know something I don't? (PS. I wouldn't mind being forwarded
a copy any interesting messages you might receive.)
--
Chip Rosenthal, Intel/Santa Clara, (408) 496-7651
{intelca,idi,qubix,cbosgd}!t4test!chip
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!tektronix!reed!omss
We have been using the US Robotics 212A modem on a 24 hr a day basis for
over a year now with NO failures. We had 4 US Robotics PASSWORDs that could not take the constant usage and gave up from 4 to 12 months into
their life.
I have not had any experience with the other three brands you mentioned.
The only other brand that I have used is the Hayes Smartmodem which is also
holding up extremely well.
Hope that this helps a little,
Bill Edmark
(bse@omssw2)
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From: rti-sel!mcnc!decvax!ukma!ukecc!edward
I HIGHLY recommend the Prometheus ProModem 1200.
---
Edward C. Bennett
UUCP: ihnp4!cbosgd!ukma!ukecc!edward
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!vax135!petsd!petfe!evan>
Well, we use 1200 baud modems. We were less than satisfied with Password
modems, but it depends on the application. We tried to use them as both
auto-dial and auto-answer modems, on a terminal server network. failed.
We use Hayes Smartmodems for this application and use the Passwords as
auto-answer only. We are happy with them in this application.
Hayes are worth the extra money, we feel.
Good luck...
--Evan Marcus
{ucbvax|decvax}!vax135!petsd!petfe!evan
...!pedsgd!pedsga!evan
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!tektronix!upvax!mar
I've never used any of the other modems you asked about but we've been using
US Robotics Passwords for over a year now, and they're wonderful. We have
them answering on the VAX as well as at home for faculty.
Mark Faust
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!ihnp4!islenet!richard>
I used the (boat) Anchor when it first came out, had all kinds of problems
with noise. And it's number buffer is too small to make some long distance
calls, especially using alternate long distance services.
A friend who also bought a boat Anchor, and had worse noise problems than
I did, has since purchased a Rixon which he just raves about. I forgot
the model number.
Hope that helps some.
Richard Foulk ...{dual,vortex,ihnp4}!islenet!richard
Honolulu, Hawaii or ...!islenet!bigtuna!richard
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From: rti-sel!mcnc!seismo!gumby!astroatc!vid (Dave Greunke)
We have been using 35 US Robotics Password modems here over the past
1.5 years with very good sucess. I have not used any of the other
modems mentioned in your article so I cannot offer any comparisons but
our experiences with the Password modems have all been positive.
Dave Greunke
Astronautics Technology Center
Madison WI
608-221-9001
...!uwvax!astroatc!vid
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From: rti-sel!vrdxhq!seismo!topaz!pyramid!csg (Carl S. Gutekunst)
We have a number of employees who have the US Robotics at home and swear by it.
Our site (pyramid) also has six of the UDS modems used for dial in. I am not
familiar with the other two.
For casual and home use, the US Robotics is a good choice; you should also
consider Ventel's Hayes compatible if you can get it at the right price. Also
Cermetec makes a number of nice cheap modems, although their cheap ones are
not Hayes compatible and their "Hayes Compatible" doesn't work well with
autodialing software. The UDS units seem to do OK for us, although I thought
they were expensive relative to their quality and ease of use.
For any production/critical application, I'd recommend you blow the wad and
go with a Hayes. We have a bunch of them, and they are consistently more
dependable and provide more reliable communication than any others we have
used.
--
-m------- Carl S. Gutekunst, Software R&D, Pyramid Technology
---mmm----- P.O. Box 7295, Mountain View, CA 94039 415/965-7200
-----mmmmm--- UUCP: {allegra,decwrl,nsc,shasta,sun,topaz!pyrnj}!pyramid!csg
-------mmmmmmm- ARPA: pyramid!csg@sri-unix.ARPA
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From: "Dr. Jack Carlyle" <rti-sel!vrdxhq!seismo!LOCUS.UCLA.EDU!jwc>
I have used both the UDS 212LP (a manual unit, requiring a
telephone to dial, but having the advantage of being telco-line
powered so no ac wall plug is needed) and the Prometheus Promodem
(autodial, and with a wall transformer for power). Both have
performed well, under mostly local phonecall conditions,
from my home to our UCLA departmental network of
machines running Locus (distributed unix). They have been used
with a Wyse 50 terminal, an Apple //e running Softerm 2 with vt100
emulation, and a GT101. The only instances of garbage characters
on the screen (occasionally), etc., seem to be
attributable to the inevitable telco line disturbances,
and not especially to idiosyncracies of these modems in particular.
If a plain-vanilla modem is required, the UDS seems to be fine.
If autodial, Hayes compatibility, etc., are desirable, the
Prometheus is fine; its command set is a superset of Hayes --
for instance, ATDnumber will autodial the number using tone or
pulse (without the need to specify, as in ATDT), since the modem
interrogates the line first to determine if tone dialing is
supported. Basically, both modems have performed transparently in
no-hassle fashion and likewise offered no configuration
difficulties for initial installation. I expect that the same could be
said of several others on the market, now that 1200 baud has become
commonplace and 212A-type modems almost a mass consumer item. (Radio
Shack has one now too.) Some of my colleagues have
used the Password with no hassles, likewise
the Popcom. I have also used the Apple 1200 baud model with no
problems; this is reputed to be manufactured by U. S. Robotics (so
may be similar to the Password). These three autodial modems don't
have sets of LEDs to indicate status (the Prometheus does); a
minor point, which might be of significance in troubleshooting
or analyzing the progress of problem calls.
Some people have mentioned that the cable included (possibly
attached to?) the Password is too short, but again this is a minor
point, since cables and DB25s usually have to be obtained or
jury-rigged for most setups anyway. So far as long-term
reliability is concerned, I can only report that I have been using
the UDS for two years and the Prometheus for more than one year,
with no service required yet on either one. Prices have dropped
dramatically, of course; the Prometheus is less than $300 for
quantity-one retail at discounters, and manual types like
the UDS 212LP are less; quantity purchases should be
negotiable downward, of course. I have not done too much with
calling long-distance (e.g., remote BBs, etc.) using these modems;
primarily my use has been for local dialups, but the connections
have gone through more than one telco central office.
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From: rti-sel!mcnc!decvax!sunybcs!loverso (John Robert LoVerso)
We have had for about 2 or more years now a bunch (>3) of Anchor Automation
Signalman Mark XIIs, being used for uucp and the like. They emulate Hayes
Smartmodems (300/1200) and do fairly well. I've never had line degradation
that was the fault of the modem. The only problems I can list with them are
that (1) they need some pauses inbetween commands - the vanilla hayes dialer
needed some `sleeps' added before it would work, and (2) they wont drop carrier
even when you drop DTR. This is bad if you are using them to dial in - the
caller must drop carrier. This has not really annoyed us too much.
Nowadays they go for <$270 which is about half a hayes 300/1200.
John
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!ihnp4!ihlpm!levine>
I currently use ,at work, a Rixon R212A Intelligent Modem and have had
no probelms what so ever with it. I would highly recommend it. It allows
you to program certain commands such that you can dial up a computer
and the modem will type in all the needed information to get you logged
in. I am not exactly sure of the price as I didn't pay for it, so I
don't know if it is a good buy for the money. For reliability
I highly recommend it.
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From project!doc!scirtp!rti-sel!mcnc!ihnp4!t!levy Sat Sep 7 00:17:00 1985
Comments on VOLKSMODEM 12 (which I am currently using from home):
Usually pretty good about being error free on phone lines which have little or
no audible noise. Susceptible to garbage characters from interference like
nearby fluorescent light being turned on. Sometimes goes into zombie mode at
1200 baud when being hung up on (no "NO CARRIER", just carrier light goes out
and you have to power-cycle to continue--this seems to depend on the system
being called, Unix will not do this while VMS will). Supposedly 5 year extended
warranty. Need special "volks-cable" (extra, about 10 bucks or so) to inter-
face with terminal; no RS232 connector. The advertised "5 registers" are not
for phone number storage (except the last-command buffer, which if the last
command was dial such and such number, then would store the number). Other
4 registers are for things like echo on/off state and status message format.
Supposed to be Hayes compatible, which it seems to be except for that default
echo state is on, not off.
--
------------------------------- Disclaimer: The views contained herein are
| dan levy | yvel nad | my own and are not at all those of my em-
| an engihacker @ | ployer, my pets, my plants, my boss, or the
| at&t computer systems division | s.a. of any computer upon which I may hack.
| skokie, illinois |
-------------------------------- Path: ..!ihnp4!ttrdc!levy
or: ..!ihnp4!iheds!ttbcad!levy
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From: rti-sel!mcnc!decvax!ittatc!long (H. Morrow Long [Systems Center])
Why use inexpensize 1200 baud modems when you can now get
inexpensize 2400(/1200/300) baud modems ($399) from US Robotics?
Morrow
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!seismo!philabs!ttidca!ttidcb!moss>
I have a Rixon R212a modem (not necessarily the one you mentioned).
I would recommend it for use with a dumb terminal (i.e. VT100) since
it is very user friendly.
I do not recommend it for use with a computer since it can not take
commands (as opposed to data) at 1200 baud. It's Hayes compatibility mode
is a pain to use. It sometimes forgets its internal state. It sometimes
locks up and requires a power off/on to reset. And, finally, I can't
seem to keep it from doing an auto answer.
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From: <rti-sel!mcnc!ihnp4!ihu1e!jee>
I have both a RIXON modem at work & a US PASSWORD mode at home. I prefer the
PASSWORD overall because it is much more reliable. The RIXON although having
more functionality has less reliable hardware. It behaves very badly when
there is a power drop or surge. It is very sensitive to the slightest
transient on the power line, which requires it to be unplugged & plugged
into the wall to get it back to a sane state. In some extreme states I
have to short out pins 9 & 10 to get it to properly initialize itself.
How often does such things happen? Sometimes once a day, but usually not
more often than once every couple of weeks. Incidently I have used other
modems at work in the past without such problems as exhibited by the RIXON.
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--
David C. Bennett
SCI Systems, Inc.
{decvax, akgua}!mcnc!rti-sel!scirtp!dcb