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From: hartzell@sumex-aim.Stanford.EDU (George Hartzell)
Subject: Re: 9600 baud modems
In-Reply-To: kherron@ms.uky.edu's message of 30 Jun 91 02:47:22 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Jun30.183254.8656@morrow.stanford.edu>
Sender: news@morrow.stanford.edu (News Service)
Organization: Yeast Genome Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
References: <13483@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <1991Jun18.135858.2051@shaman.com>
	<1991Jun29.213738.8123@data.com> <1991Jun30.024722.18414@ms.uky.edu>
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Date: Sun, 30 Jun 91 18:32:54 GMT
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In article <1991Jun30.024722.18414@ms.uky.edu> kherron@ms.uky.edu
(Kenneth Herron) writes: 
   smb@data.com (Steven M. Boker) writes:

   >In article <13483@pt.cs.cmu.edu> rab@speech1.cs.cmu.edu (Robert Brennan)  
   >writes:
   >> I am looking for a new pair of 9600 baud modems.  I have been using two
   >> Trailblazers very successfully but we need to purchase additional modems.

   >I must put in a vote for Trailblazer here.

   I concur.  Telebit Tech support is far and away better than that of any
   other company I've dealt with.  Telebit manuals are the best I've seen.
   And they stand behind their product; I've received a free replacement
   power supply for my out-of-warranty T1000, and am right now testing a
   free ROM upgrade for one of our Trailblazers (needed because of their
   change to PEP).  Companies like Telebit deserve to be supported.

[This is part of an ongoing discussion.  Before going with Telebit
based on past performance, go back and skim this thread.  Pay
attention to Marty's (likier@telebit.com) article about Telebit's
diversification and allocation of scarce resources to non-modem
projects.]

It is sentiment like this that encouraged me to buy my T1600's.  Based
on their past performance I figured I wouldn't have to dig too deep
when the time came to upgrade the newly designed T1600 to the V.32bis
standard.  I am quite disturbed by the news that this upgrade will
cost ~$250.  Apparently the engineers designing the T1600 did not give
it (or maybe management chose to not have them give it, who knows...)
enough muscle to do V.32bis, so a hardware swap is necessary. 

I wonder what that hardware *really* cost Telebit.  Not including
development costs, advertising, support, etc...  I agree that these
things need to be recovered, but I already paid for that when I bought
the modem the first time around.  The thought that they might be using
this as an opportunity to make money on me twice only makes me feel
more like I made a mistake.

One was to summarize my feelings on this matter is that I never
intended to buy a V.32 modem, I was shopping for a V.32bis modem.  I
was willing to consider vendors who didn't quite have their V.32bis
modem out yet, but only those whose product might be "worth the wait"
and whose past performance suggested that the upgrade path wouldn't be
too traumatic.

Like I said in a previous article, I'm going to sit tight until the
upgrade is really available and all the facts are in before I decide
once and for all whether or not I made a mistake.  I'm not too
optimistic though; it appears that the outcome is going to be that I
could have three V.32bis modems with 6 months time in the field for
the price my two Telebits.  Loyalty can be quite expensive...

g.

--
George Hartzell                        voice: (415) 725-7421
Stanford Yeast Genome Project          fax:   (415)-723-7016
Stanford School of Medicine, Rm S337   email: hartzell@sumex-aim.Stanford.EDU
Stanford, CA 94305-5120