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From: root@zswamp.uucp (Geoffrey Welsh)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Which is better to have?
Message-ID: <7223.280D280F@zswamp.uucp>
Date: 17 Apr 91 18:56:34 GMT
Organization: Izot's Swamp BBS (FidoNet), Kitchener, Ontario
Lines: 33

In a letter to All, mike carr (MCARR@auvm.auvm.edu ) wrote:

 >Which is better to have and why?  An interior modem or 
 >external modem?

   Internal modems are cheaper because they don't have a case, power 
supply... or UL/CSA approval (required in Canada for devices which plug into 
the wall, but not for peripheral cards).

   External modem advantages:

 - status lights (I like to know what the modem's doing)
 - I choose what serial port it plugs into: dumb 8250, 16550, or
   intelligent multiserial card
 - doesn't take up a slot in my crowded PC
 - generated heat is external to my PC
 - don't have to take apart my PC to reconfigure modems or send
   them out for service
 - I don't have to accept the manufacturer's selection of COM port
   addresses, nor of interrupts (of which my PC is very short)
 - I can grab an external modem and plug it into my friend's laptop,
   one of Wilfrid Laurier University's 3B2s or MicroVAX, a multiplexer,
   etc...
 

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