will a more expensive/external modem make a diffrence

[novalogic88]

i have a gay a$$ internal D-link modem at the moment, when i play counter strike my ping goes to around 240 and i get lots of chokes, ive done all the tweaks tehr is, my other friend has an external modem and he gets around 160 on teh same ISP.

will it be worth investing in one of these: 56K USB Modem - Netcomm Roadster II

and i get pause on my internet connection, like pause for 20 seconds.

 

[Mday]

oh god

what you need is a hardware modem. internal or external is fine. FOR GOD SAKES DO NOT USE USB. cuz CPU activity will pretty much kill it, even if it is a hardware usb modem.

what is a hardware modem? well, it has a chip that decodes the data that is coming in, as opposed to having the host processor do it.

 

[Mavrick007]

You will tell the difference between winmodems and hardware ones usually by the price, and if you can look at it firsthand, there will be alot of components attached to the board, unlike the winmodem.

 

[Adul]

i have had great success with lucent based modems. pings stay stable

 

[corkyg]

You can't go wrong with a good external modem - there are no external "winmodems" that I know of. That is strictly internal "Cheap Charlie" stuff. Other advantages to externals, are:

1. Easier installation
2. LEDs that tell you what it is doing
3. They can be turned on/off without powering down and rebooting the whole system

And like the man said - avoid USB. Zoom makes an excellent, moderately priced external - now V92.

 

[LordAccord]

also, a lot of system heat can bring a modem down, external modems generally run cooler...they still run warm but at least theres cool air to flow into...

LoRdAccord