Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!twg.com!david From: david@twg.com (David S. Herron) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems Subject: Re: New Modems Message-ID: <8353@gollum.twg.com> Date: 26 Nov 90 18:21:24 GMT References: <9Naus3w163w@isishq.fidonet.org> <5@ivysoft.UUCP> Reply-To: david@twg.com (David S. Herron) Organization: The Wollongong Group, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 55 In article <5@ivysoft.UUCP> tonyl@.UUCP (Regular Tony Lin id as normal user) writes: >In article <9Naus3w163w@isishq.fidonet.org> evanc@isishq.fidonet.org (Evan Champion) writes: >>I was planning on getting myself a US Robotics Courier HST/Dual Standard, as >>it was the most highly recommended by my friends. Depends.. do your friends know a lot about modems in general? > 2. If you want to use your high speed modem for UUCP, wouldn't the > TELEBIT be a better choice because it has PEP protocal support? > But be aware of the fact that PC Magazine said it failed in their > impaired line tests. Eh? How? By *ALL* reports I've heard, and *ALL* the testing I've done with telebit's they work excellently on "impaired lines". My first test was to pick up an extension line and start whistling and playing my Casio keyboard into the phone and etc. This was back in the "v4" days, surely it's gotten better with v5 ROMs? At any rate, the only effect was to slow the transmission down a bit .. *every* other modem I've worked with, admittadly only 300-2400 baud modems, would die immediately the first time a weird sound would be heard. There have been numerous reports here of Trailblazers being used to connect with *all* *sorts* of Weird Places -- Chile, India, over satellite to the Antarctica or ships at sea, etc. And it "just works" -- often these reports are accompanied by saying that some V.32 modem was tried first and couldn't even connect up. The advantages of PEP are basically that the modems are frequently sampling the line & adjusting themselves in *small* increments to fit the characteristics of the connection. This is good because the adjustments are much less drastic than on, for instance, V.32 where you go 9600->4800->dead, or even V.32bis where it will be 14.4->9.6->7.2->4.8->dead. It also helps in making and keeping connections in bad conditions. The only downfalls of PEP are 1-- it's not a "standard" .. regardless of the fact that it's a Very Good protocol. That's worth something. Especially now that V.32 chipsets are out allowing for these inexpensive V.32 modems coming on the market lately. 2-- It's half-duplex. The rapid-turnaround mode is a help, but I haven't ever used v5 ROMs so I don't know what improvements were in them. Still -- the UUCP spoofing is extra development cost & effort that wouldn't be necessary of it were full-duplex. -- <- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <- <- Use the force Wes!