dcb@scirtp.UUCP (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
=========================================================================
From: <decvax!hplabs!hpfcla!hpcnof!barrett>
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 $650.
I would expect 1200 bps modems to get dirt cheap within the next year
or so as a result of one-chip modems and competition from the 2400's
and inventory of the 1200's.
Dave Barrett
Hewlett-Packard
Colorado Networks Operation
hplabs!hpcnof!barrett
--------
From: <decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!gwsd!man!jack>
Personal experiance with the anchor automation modems has been that
they are unreliable, extermely slow to connect ( often the modem at
the other end will timeout ) and cannot differentiate between a busy
signal and a no answer condition. To be honost, after trying *many*
1200 baud modems for bulletin board and E-mail applications, the only
inexpensive (?) modem i can recommend is the Hayes. This is one area
in which you seem to get exactly what you pay for.
James Carius
The Pacific Century Group
sdchem!man!jack
--------
From: mcnc!ulysses!t12tst!chip (Chip Rosenthal)
I've got a pair of USR 2400 modems, I'm pretty happy with. I've been
using them for a lot of talking with another site about 120 miles
away. They have worked very well when the other site uses USR 2400's.
However, when the other place had Hayes 2400 I couldn't get a 2400
baud connection. I suspect the Hayes, but I don't have one in-house
to play with.
Complaints:
1) the DIP switches are underneath. Real pain when you have six modems
stacked up in the bowels of a VAX like I do. You can't see or set
switches without pulling the whole fricking thing apart.
2) the volume control is a slide control with a press-on knob. i've
knocked it off before.
3) i can't figure out any reasonable way of dealing with a lot of them
due to their packaging and those %*^$@$# 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
--------
From: <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)
--------
From: decvax!ukma!ukecc!edward
I HIGHLY recommend the Prometheus ProModem 1200.
---
Edward C. Bennett
UUCP: ihnp4!cbosgd!ukma!ukecc!edward
--------
From: <decvax!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
--------
From: <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
--------
From: <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
--------
From: 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
--------
From: 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.
Carl S. Gutekunst, Software R&D, Pyramid Technology
P.O. Box 7295, Mountain View, CA 94039 415/965-7200
UUCP: {allegra,decwrl,nsc,shasta,sun,topaz!pyrnj}!pyramid!csg
ARPA: pyramid!csg@sri-unix.ARPA
--------
From: "Dr. Jack Carlyle" <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.
--------
From: 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
--------
From: <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.
--------
From: ihnp4!t!levy
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 |
--------------------------------
From: ..!ihnp4!ttrdc!levy
or: ..!ihnp4!iheds!ttbcad!levy
--------
From: 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
--------
From: <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.
--------
From: <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.
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
--
David C. Bennett
SCI Systems, Inc.
{decvax, akgua}!mcnc!rti-sel!scirtp!dcb