Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!medar!jseymour From: jseymour@medar.COM (James Seymour) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems Subject: Re: New Modems, Telebit Fails under impairments in PC Magazine tests Message-ID: <20@hdwr1.UUCP> Date: 27 Dec 90 04:34:12 GMT References: <5791@holston.UUCP> <405@beagle.UUCP> <138332@pyramid.pyramid.com> Organization: Medar, Inc. Farmington Hills, MI Lines: 109 In article <138332@pyramid.pyramid.com> csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes: > One thing no one has mentioned so far was PC Magazine's "Editor's Choice" > modem, the MultiTech V.32. I think this choice says more about the magazine The choice they made reflected the tests they ran, which many seem to consider as complete and correct. It's reasonable to argue the technical merits of their testing procedure, but if the test procedure is valid you can hardly criticize their choice when made as a result of it. > than their drubbing of the Telebit. Personally, I didn't regard PC Magazine's comments regarding the TeleBit product as a "drubbing", but then I'm not a TeleBit owner/fan. > I purchased a pair of these, based on MultiTech's impeccable reputation with > their 224E V.22bis MNP5 modems. A logical move. > I can say without hesitation that the Multi- > Tech V.32 modem is the worst piece of garbage I've ever seen turned out as a > finished product by an American modem manufacturer. Now _that's_ a drubbing! > Its performance over *any* > line condition was poor. Within the same CO over nearly flawless lines, the > MultiTech simply would not hold a connection for more than 30 minutes or so. > Over long distance it was almost totally unusable. I have not had this experience. I have extensively tested several versions of MultiTech v.32 modems within my area code, and less extensively tested them over long-distance lines (within the continental U.S.) without these problems. I regularly use my MT v.32 modems for extensive on-line sessions (hours at a time) to the UNIX/Xenix systems at work and only _occasionally_ is the line dropped. When the line is dropped, it usually happens fairly soon in the session, indicating to me that the connection was probably poor in the first place. I've been running MultiTech v.32 modems on UNIX/Xenix systems and on a BBS 24 hours a day, and on my personal computers, and they have worked well for me. > I wouldn't dream of trying > over international lines. Given your experiences, I can't argue with that. > Needless to say, my ancient Telenet TrailBlazer+ runs PEP almost perfectly > over all these same connections; never mind a T2500. (I haven't tried the > T2500 enough in V.32 to make a fair comparison. I plan to, soon.) The consensus of opinion seems to be that the TeleBit modulation method _is_ more robust than v.32. I have no personal experience with it. > If that wasn't bad enough, there were all the firmware bugs in the MultiTech. I haven't noted a _lot_ of firmware bugs. > Without warning, the modem would lose all of its saved configuration. I have experienced this. MT acknowledges the problem and there is a fix. I understand the fix requires _some_ ability with a soldering iron. See later comments regarding technical support. > Or it > would go catatonic, and need a power cycle to come back. Or it would set all > the S registers to 255, or all to 0. Or it would flow control off, and never > turn it back on. (Power cycle, again.) I haven't seen this. Maybe it's related to the above problem and fix. > They're on the shelf now, collecting dust. No one is willing to use them any > more. You don't mention whether or not you contacted MultiTech's technical support about your experiences. Since you didn't mention it, I suspect you haven't. I think you would be pleasantly surprised. They have a toll-free number: (800)328-9717. My understanding is that everything except major firmware/hardware _upgrades_ is covered under their liberal two-year warranty. I've been dealing with MultiTech for three or four years now, and I've yet to find a problem they haven't been willing to resolve. > Like any other leading-edge product, MultiTech products sometimes do have problems. Can any other (modem) manufacturer claim otherwise? MultiTech modems usually rate at or near the top in technical performance reviews (most notably under impaired line conditions). Admittedly such tests are limited in nature, but I doubt that a product line could fare well time after time in performance tests without there being a similar experience by end-users. Furthermore, I've found that you get much more useful results by contacting a vendor and precisely describing a problem than by simply complaining that "it's broke and I'm unhappy". If a vendor's products consistently perform poorly, or if a vendor is reluctant to resolve problems with their products, they certainly deserve a good, healthy flaming, but in this case I think you have unfairly maligned a good manufacturer on limited experience. So there :-). Disclaimer stuff: In addition to owning MultiTech products, I beta-test for them as well, so I may be somewhat biased in my opinions. On the other hand the company I work for pays me good money to make sound engineering decisions for them. It wouldn't be good for my job security to work with blinders on. Lastly, the opinions expressed herein are mine alone, and are not necessarily shared by my employer or any cited manufacturer, vendor, or other entity. -- Jim Seymour | Medar, Inc. ...!uunet!medar!jseymour | 38700 Grand River Ave. jseymour@medar.com | Farmington Hills, MI. 48331 CIS: 72730,1166 GEnie: jseymour | FAX: (313)477-8897