BEST HARDWARE MODEM ??

[fitzm]

I need one for my un-used ISA slot. Any advice appreciated.

 

[Slikkster]

Yo Fitzm! Get yourself a Lucent Technologies ISA on the cheap...excellent modems, very inexpensive. Get a hot one here:

Lucent 56K V90 ISA Modem on the cheap

Then, get the latest drivers here:

Lucent 56K V90 Drivers Version 5.92 (Latest)

 

[realcoffee]

Creative Labs

 

[Andrew99]

If this modem is going to have a primary host ... like an ISP ..
Then check with the ISP for the best choice of modems...

I was a client-side network troubleshooter when I was at A&M ...
we had USRobotic X2 modems upgraded to V90 .... most of the problems we had were with users connecting with Flex modems upgraded to V90 ..

If your ISP is Flex/V90 then get a Flex/V90... If it is X2/V90, then get X2/V90 ... I'm not sure how stable V90 is now, but back when I was messing with this, they still had a ways to go.

for some reason my memory tells me avoid terms like "WINMODEM" and "HCF".
But like I said, we were on X2.

 

[Supergax]

3com/USR Winmodem, Lucent/LT Winmodem = Good.
Anything with the words HCF, Connexant, Rockwell, PcTel, HSP, Motorola or SM56 = bad.

3com (and USR, same difference) windmodems and Lucent (also known as LT) windmodems are fine really, the others though, which usually run under 20 bucks, tend to have problems connecting, especially if there is line noise. I have noticed many Connexant (formerly Rockwell) chipset based modems have problems connecting to Cisco equipment such as as5300's.

For hardware based modems, Zoom or 3com/USR are nice.

 

[Rankor]

If you can get your hands on one, I would recommend the Courier V.Everything Hardware modem.

The one I bought off Compuwiz1 was an ISA 33.6 model, but it kicks.

 

[fitzm]

Hey Slikkster, what up. Thanks all for the info. I have a lucent winmodem right now (w/ the latest drivers)I got from buy.com last year for 5 bucks delivered. I use my Universities server to connect to the web. The winmodem has never got over 44,000 bps which my last Conexant modem always connected at 49,000. I have heard that hardware modems are the way to go but I have always had a decent connection with winmodems. I just want to see if the hype is just that, hype.

 

[Slikkster]

Remember, it's not the connect speed that counts, its the "fallback" speed and actual throughput. Doesn't make a difference if something connects at 49K and immediately "falls back" to something much lower which you would never see by the connect rate returned via Windows. I judge by actual download speeds. This guy's got the entire scoop on LT Winmodems:

Richard's LT Winmodem page

 

[macssuck]

What brand of modem would you recommend when connecting to a Cisco AS5300

 

[Supergax]

For as5300's (mostly what we use), I'd say Lucent or 3com have no problems really from all the connection issues I've seen, most hardware modems have no problem (then again, we dont' receive many calls from people with hardware modems). I have seen a bunch of people that live in the sticks having problems connecting to the ciscos with their Connexant chipset modems, seem to work better when connecting to port masters. HSP's are about the same, but they seem to have more problems connecting than the Connexant based modems.

 

[macssuck]

Supergax Thanks for the info.

Slikkster Is that Lucent modem a winmodem or hardware?