USR Sportster 56 ISA modem...anyone use this?

[PhaZe]

I just bought it from a friend like 2 days ago. I am supposed to be getting it this weekend. I was just wondering if anyone is using this modem ..tell me what you think about it.do you play games online, do you ping good, lag or what?
Just want to know!:|

 

[mikable]

The sportster isa was a good modem in it's day! you'll get ping times around 220-300, I still have one in my system as a backup for my ISDN and Gilat(starband) connections.

 

[PhaZe]

230-300 stable?
Or will I get some packetloss?

 

[OliverP]

i have that modem, and since im 21 thousand feet from CO, Icant get good DSL, and cable isnt getting to me until Nov...

and I love that modem. Just run SwiftNet if you are in windows, and reset the mtu settings until you find a combo that works. mine is reset to 64bit and 576mtu and it surfs great, and plays with little to no lag on most game servers of any game ive played...

 

[PhaZe]

What games do you usualy play? I play quake2 and i HATE packetloss.

 

[mikable]

Hmmm, packet loss isn't caused by your modem. I lost packet is just that, a "packet" of information that got lost somewhere between the senders computer and your computer. It relates more to the quality of your connection (noise), number of hops, or in uncommon cases the recieving computer is to slow to handle the info.

However, lots of people playing nowadays have digital connections like ISDN, DSL, or Cable with Much lower ping times. An analog connection will effect your ability to play somewhat.

You shouldn't have to much trouble though if everything is setup correctly



M

 

[billandopus]

Hey OliverP, was it relatively painless to reset your settings? I mean, i've skimmed over some tweak guides over at various places but i'm still a bit hazy and a bit chickensh*t to fool around with my settings since i'm a rookie at this.

Were the differences in speed actually noticeable?

In addition, i'm running System Mechanic and it has an option to "optimize" my internet connection. I'm wondering if this program has already optimize my MTU settings? Or do I still have to get into the registry to do this?

 

[OliverP]

actually, i do notice the changes in the settings with SwiftNet.exe

the point it, you are still manually changing it. It's not doing any scans to automate the changes, it just gives you all your options in nice little checkbox format so you can try every combination (beware of reboot-fever) and test them with large pages or downloads in your browser. make sure you clear your cache before east test though so it doesnt effect results drastically.

and if all else fails, just click it back to default in SwiftNet...

be weary of "optimization tools" though... i am..

good luck. added bennefit: 100% compat with linux as an isa non-winmodem! woohoo! dual booting at 1ghz is oh so nice...

 

[billandopus]

Thanks for the info.

 

[sun818]

I know a lot of these online games like Quake, Unreal send packets via UDP (Universal Datagram Package). Even with DSL, I get tons of lost packets. As far as I can tell, UDP just transmits and does not ask for acknowledgement of packet receipt. Can anyone more knowledgeable verify?