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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!lll-lcc!pyramid!csg
From: csg@pyramid.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: USR Robotic 2400 -- Serious problems
Message-ID: <1479@pyramid.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Jan-87 02:35:30 EST
Article-I.D.: pyramid.1479
Posted: Tue Jan 27 02:35:30 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Jan-87 05:53:27 EST
References: <369@csustan.UUCP> <10002@cgl.ucsf.edu.ucsfcgl.UUCP> <4624@watmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: csg@pyramid.UUCP (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 33

In article <4624@watmath.UUCP> idallen@watmath.UUCP (Ian! D. Allen) writes:
>I tested one USR rev 243 modem and one USR rev 242 modem through our
>University's SL-1 switch onto an FX (Foreign Exchange) line to Toronto
>(75 miles from Waterloo here).  We called UTZOO's Racal-Vadic 2400 bps
>modem and the noise rate was an average of about 1 junk character per
>second, in bursts of, say, 3.  No other modems had this abysmal
>aversion to the line.

I'd suggest that this says more about the Vadic than it does about the USR.
The only modems I've ever tested here (Northern California) that were able to
consistently get and hold a 2400bps connection with utzoo were another Racal-
Vadic and a Telebit Trailblazer. That includes AT&T 2224, Concord Data Systems
224, Hayes 2400, Microcom AX2400 (not using MNP, obviously), NEC DSP2430, Team
Technologies 24S, and USR Courier. They either connected at the wrong speed,
or fell apart from the line noise.

I also have links where the Vadic and Hayes fail miserably, but the Courier
does fine. And other links where the Hayes is best. And so on. (I haven't
tried the Qubie modems; perhaps I should.) 

The point is that the 2400bps market is rife with incompatability. You *must*
try before you buy, and make sure the modem works when calling the sites *you*
need to talk with. And if you're buying a rackful, try to buy at least two
different brands.

For those who don't have that luxury, my personal preference is the Courier.
It's cheap, in the middle range of reliability, >>ON OUR PACTEL LINES<< better
than most on line noise, and although the firmware is a bit buggy it rarely
does anything you can't easily recover from.

My favorite for 2400bps is the Trailblazer; a pity its so damned expensive....

<csg>