Some "skinny" on 56K modems

[Whyzman]

I found this read rather interesting relating to 56K modems. Especially, the addressing of the author regarding hardware and software modems...

http://www.modemsite.com/56k/buy.asp

[saphalline]

That's an interesting point of view. Most people will indeed be served well by good software/Winmodems. But I still say power users beware.

For one thing, the author describes in the article: "The Winmodem/DSP modem places less of a load on your PC's CPU - but, once you've got a processor speed of 300mhz or more, the Softmodem's CPU use becomes insignificant." Well, what if your CPU is well under 300MHz? I still have several half-completed Pentium-class machines that I'm fiddling with, so what about those? A Winmodem on these machines would bring it to a crawl! The article also talks about the various v.XX specs and how there is no perfect modem, blah blah blah, hardware-based modems are limited in burst rates by the COM port, more blah, uploading with v.92 is worse than v.34, etc.

A lot of this stuff I agree with, but I do still prefer hardware-based modems. External hardware-based modems at that. They work as well as can be expected with a slow 56K dial-up connection, and they work with just about any PC with a COM port, and any OS that connects to the internet!

You know what I find amusing, tho? The fact that there are no onboard modems these days. :p We have onboard LAN, onboard wireless on the way, onboard RAID, even onboard sound (which is even more amusing because this task involves a complex DSP also), but no desktop owner has ever wanted an onboard modem. I think that says a lot by itself.

[Paul Komski]

One possible drawback to on-board modems might just be "electricity". Following recent thunderstorms, eight people came to me following the telephone lines having been struck by lightening. All of them needed a new modem, two needed a new mobo and one needed a new mobo and HDDs! If on-board there would have been eight new mobos.

My current favorite modem: cheap, v92, hardware based and internal (pci), is one with an Intel chipset and which is supported by windows (all versions) linux and dos.

[classicsoftware]

I'll take a good old hardware modem any day. The simple ability to reset the modem without rebooting is well worth it. I also support many clients in the medical dental field and most if not all of the claims submission clearing houses recommend hardware modems,