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Lucent winmodems: What types of ping to expect? Experiences?

A

Arschloch

Golden Member
I am considering upgrading my modem from a 56k PCTel HSP MicroModem to a 56k modem based on the Lucent chipset. I understand the Lucent modems tend to get better pings than my current one (which are at least 250 at its absolute best). For anyone who has a Lucent winmodem: what kind of pings can you get? Is it playable for an FPS (Q3A, etc.)? RTS (Starcraft, AOE2, etc.)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Arschloch 🙂
 
Just my experience, but i have always had better luck with lucent based winmodems. Even over hardware modems. Pings were in the 100's to most servers and they always connected higher.
 
Check my AnandTech FAQ article on Winmodems. Basically, you're right, Lucent LT winmodems are the best of the breed. They typically match or outperform your average hardware modem for much less money. Latency and throughput are more than adequate for any online game.

Modus
 
I work for an ISP and I've talked to dozens of people with Winmodem's (software modems) and I would never recommend them. I think the hardware based modems are a much better investment. I recommend the US Robotics Performance Pro.

Although, I'm sure the Winmodems work well under good conditions. So many things that can affect a modems performance.
 
Cant stand winmodems. I had a winmodem based on the lucent chip... was averaging 2.5K/sec absolutely horrid... picked up a USR hardware modem... now I average 5.2K/sec over twice what I got with the winmodem, and my ping dropped a good 30%.
 
Just out of curiosity... can someone explain to me why one type of modem (hard, soft, Lucent, whatever) would get better pings than another? I can see that one type might do a better job modulating/demodulating data and thus deliver better bandwidth. But I would have guessed that pings (latency) were based entirely on your routing/ISP.

Edit: clarification
 

I would try the lucent first, since they run $10-15, if it doesn't work out well for you I'm sure some one here could recomend a good hardware modem.

If you do get the lucent be sure to use the newest drivers from them from the lucent website.
 
250 ping on 56k is pretty good (if your talking about games)

I had a winmodem for a couple years before getting a external hardware modem (got it for linux) my pings dropped to about 250 and my downloads were 4.9 to 5.4 k a sec...
 
I ping 130-180ms on the cs servers I play on. Find some good servers in your state and you will ping alot lower.
 
I have both a 56K hardware modem and Winmodem anyway I get the same low pings etc normally 150 & above on my usual gaming servers ,no difference for me in gaming between the two,also I get the same connection speed (49.2k),remember good quality phone line and ISP play an important role with any dial-up modem.

🙂
 
I haven't played any online games yet (still trying to learn UT in practice mode), and I don't know how to get pings stats there, but nevertheless I am quite satisfied with my Lucent winmodem. As for connection speeds, I regularly get 52kbit/sec or 53.2kbit/sec connections to my ISP. For stats on a ping to forums.anandtech.com...
Pinging forums.anandtech.com [216.151.100.125] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.151.100.125: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.151.100.125: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.151.100.125: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.151.100.125: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=241
 


<< I haven't played any online games yet (still trying to learn UT in practice mode), and I don't know how to get pings stats there, but nevertheless I am quite satisfied with my Lucent winmodem. As for connection speeds, I regularly get 52kbit/sec or 53.2kbit/sec connections to my ISP. For stats on a ping to forums.anandtech.com...
Pinging forums.anandtech.com [216.151.100.125] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.151.100.125: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.151.100.125: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.151.100.125: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=241
Reply from 216.151.100.125: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=241 >>




30ms ping on a 56k? Um no... try again
 


<< 30ms ping on a 56k? Um no... try again >>


Excuse me, but those are the results I got when pinging with no other CPU utilization, and no other network activity. Of course if you're pinging a popular game server in a game that eats up your CPU power, then the ping will be much lower.
 
nice nick, Arschloch 🙂 )

Btw. the PING times have NOTHING to do with the modem speed/quality...i never understood why people associate ping-times with the reliability of ther modems.
Btw. i work for an ISP 🙂

The ping measures (so to speak) how long it takes to send a packet over the internet from destination A to destination B....and it has not primarely to do with your modem.

Regarding lucent winmodems:

Told they're good...so i got one..i also have a creative modemblaster. Both latest generic chipset drivers (lucent/agere, ESStech/Creative). Lucent is unusuable fro my situation (for what reason ever, it falls back to slow speeds without falling forward)....creative modemblaster works fine.

Both are WINMODEMS.

It's nothing else than an urban myth that winmodems "use cpu ressources" whatever.....i think those people dont know what they're tlking about. There are progs like Taskinfo2000 showing you how much of CPU a thread uses...i never saw MORE than eg. 0.5% (zero dot five percent that is 🙂 ) or something downloading at full speed (eg. 48K connects, the best i can get where i live right now).
Even the mousepointer turning into an hourglass...or COUNTLESS other programs running in the background use FAR MORE cpu than any winmodem ever will do.....

It may be the case that USR and/or ZOOM hardware modems are better/best. Who cares. I dont buy a $100 modem just because "it's hardware"...the ZOOM or whatever modem can probably not give me a magic "faster" connect than i have right now with a $15 winmodem...

 
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