56K modem woes. advice needed

[daveman]

Hello,
I started playing Nascar Racing 2002 online a couple months ago and joined a league. I had been using a 56K Aopen winmodem. I was having some trouble with warping and wraping. I was advised to purchase a good hardware modem. I did a little research and decided to go with the US Robotics Proformance Pro USR5610B.
So far this modem hasn't perfromed as good as the old winmodem. I use to average 50.6k connection now its 45.2K. Last night while racing online it kicked me out 3 times. The modem was still showing connected to the internet but it wasn't strong enough to maintain game play. I have emailed US Robotics but haven't received a reply.
Not sure what I should do at this point. I can try to tweak it and hopefully get it working ok. Or I can return it to Staples and get my $75.00 back and buy a differen't one or stick with the winmodem.
Anyway I was hoping someone here knew of this modem or had a good suggestion for a replacement.

Running Windows XP

Thanks for any help.
David

 

[JackMDS]

You are the innocent victim of Internet Conventional Wisdom.

If you search this forum you will find that every time when someone complain about Modem, there are few ?Jr. Gurus? that press the person to buy External USR Robotic modem.

This advice comes from the old days when WinModem came out, and the average computer was running 486, or Pentium 166, with 32MB memory. There are differences between Software, and hardware modems, and in some cases Hardware modem are much better, but it is not a general ?Magic Rule?.

USR Robotic is a very good modem, but it is not a Miracle cure, to a DialUp situation.

56K is a symbolic industry number, the Max. Speed possible is 53Kb/sec (the FCC does not allow more then 53K).

There is a strong possibility that what you get is it (50Kb/sec), given the quality of your Telco lines, and ISP delivery.

I would return the USR to Staples. Install back the Aopen, and try to play a little with Modem Init string, and TCP setting.

Log here to find ways to spend your time tweaking your modem:

SPEED UP YOUR MODEM.

 

[daveman]

thanks Jack, I took the USR Proformance Pro out last night & put the old Aopen Winmodem back in. My connection jumped back up to 50.6K.
I called my ISP & they don't support V.92 anyway. I keep hearing hardware modems are better than winmodems and they will make a difference in game play. Is there ANY truth to this?
Open to any suggestions.
Thanks,
David