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From: earle@poseur.JPL.NASA.GOV (Greg Earle - Sun JPL on-site Software Support)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: T1000 and 2400 baud vs. 9600 for interactive use
Message-ID: <6196@mahendo.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 2 May 91 07:49:25 GMT
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Organization: Sun Microsystems - JPL on-site Software Support
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The argument that 9600 baud modems are not worth buying over 2400 baud modems
because "You can't read that fast" is specious.

I have 2 Telebit TrailBlazer Plus modems.  At home, I've alternately had my
trusty (crusty?) old Wyse 75 terminal, and a borrowed SPARCstation-1+ from
work.

While trying to use PPP with the SPARCstation, I cursed the fact that I
didn't have a V.32 or V.32bis modem.  But it's still faster than 2400 baud.
To transfer files, if I didn't want to use "rcp" or "ftp", I used UUCP
instead and I was damn glad to have PEP and UUCP spoofing available instead
of 2400 baud.

Now that I'm back to a plain terminal again, there's still a win.  No, I can't
read faster than 2400 baud.  Butif I'm in "rn", I see a full page appear on
my screen much faster than at 2400 baud.  If I decide I don't want to read it,
I can hit "n" or "q" or whatever and get on with it much faster than waiting
for a page that I don't want to read come up at 2400 baud.

Also, anyone who runs on a BSD system and has a plain terminal with halfway
decent capabilities would be insane not to use "screen" to multiplex it.
When you have 2 or 3 (or 5) "screen" virtual terminal windows in use, and you
switch between them, each time the full screen has to be refreshed.  This
happens a helluva lot faster with a 19200 baud PEP connection than it does at
2400 baud.  Time spent waiting is wasted time.  I can't get any useful work
done at 1200 baud, it's just too slow.  There's enough stutter start-stop in
painting a screen's full of text in a 19200 baud PEP connection that I get
annoyed sometimes.  2400 baud is useable, but barely tolerable.  I equate
a 2400 baud modem for dumb terminal interactive use with a PEP link for PPP -
it's useable, but it's barely tolerable and eventually it gets on my nerves.
After having the PEP modem I'd never be able to go back to a 2400 baud modem.
And, if Telebit ever gets off their fannies and delivers a V.32bis successor
to the T2500 (so I have a way to trade in my TB+'s), I suspect that after
going to those, I will feel the same way about the TB+ as I do about 2400 baud
modems.  Onward and upward.


--
	- Greg Earle			| "It's going to be Party Time when I
	  Sun Microsystems, Los Angeles	|  shit out the Balloons"
	  JPL on-site Software Support	| 
	  earle@poseur.JPL.NASA.GOV	| - From a sheet of stamps I saw