bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) (02/22/90)
Archive-name: vj-compressed-slip/21-Feb-90 Original-posting-by: bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) Original-subject: Re: Where can I buy Telebit (or other modems) cheap? Archive-site: uunet.uu.net [192.48.96.2] Archive-directory: networking Archive-files: cslipbeta.tar.Z Reposted-by: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) 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.