Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!vsi1!lmb
From: lmb@vsi1.UUCP (Larry Blair)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Which is best?
Message-ID: <1168@vsi1.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 88 18:28:43 GMT
References: <9515@conexch.UUCP> <1125@vsi1.UUCP> <299@telebit.UUCP> <10711@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: lmb@vsi1.UUCP (Larry Blair)
Distribution: na
Organization: VICOM Systems Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 60

In article <10711@cup.portal.com> David@cup.portal.com (David Michael McCord) writes:
>I don't know why this conference isn't named comp.dcom.telebit-lovers.  It 
>ought to be.

Here on Usenet, we call them "newsgroups".

>There are some very serious reasons why, if you invest in Telebit or USR, you 
>are throwing your money away.

I guess all those people who bought PC/XTs six or seven years ago threw their
money away too:-).  After all, how much is an XT worth now.

>Speaking as a data and voice telecommunications professional with many years 
>of experience and the salary to back it up, I say that V.32 modems are going 
>to smash the vendor-proprietary types in the marketplace within a year.

So what?  Meanwhile we're supporting a level of communication with 2 $700
modems that would have required a bank of slow modems and tied up half of
our serial ports.

>Because any large corporation using modern networking (eg, SNA/SDLC, X.25, 
>etc.) is buying V.32, not Telebit or USR.  And these are the customers 
>telecomm manufacturing vendors pay attention to.  Consequently, if you invest 
>in V.32, you are still going to be able to use it five years from now; long 
>after the HST and Telebit schemes fade away and disappear due to lack of 
>market support.

Rubbish.  You are confusing one type of application with another.

It is true that 5 years from Telebit won't be selling Trailblazers.  You
may even be right that V.32 will supersede PEP as a standard.  So what?
I'll bet you that 5 years from now V.32 will look like ancient history,
superseded by V.42 and then V.52 and your hardwired V.32 modems will be
a whole lot more useless than the various software controlled modems
that will be able to adapt.

>The USENET community has done itself a disservice to let itself fall into the 
>trap it is now in.  It should be fun to watch as you netadmin types have to 
>replace your equipment with new modems, be they V.32 or whatever PEP 
>variation is officially adopted by the CCITT (hint: it will not be compatible 
>with your current Trailblazers).  I am glad I am not going to have to stand 
>up in front of my managers and ask for more money to redress my past bad 
>decisions.

My boss is thrilled with the benefits we have received from having the
TB's.  If they were obsoleted today, he would still be happy.  $1,600
dollars well spent.  Can you say the same for your $1,500 per modem V.32's?
What good is an overpriced modem that won't talk to anyone?

I wonder how much anguish you suffer when buying a car.  $20,000, and five
years from now it won't be worth very much.  You fail to understand that
ANY piece of high tech equipment has a limited usefulness.  Our Sun-3/160,
which looked like a wonder machine 2 years ago, is already getting long in
the tooth.  In two more years, you won't be able to give it away (anyone
want a VAX 780 gathering dust in our computer room?).

Is the Trailblazer the perfect modem?  No.  I want one that will run
38.4kb fullduplex on very noisy lines while spoofing every known protocol.
Meanwhile, my TB does its job, netnews and email transfers via uucp.
-- 
Larry Blair   ames!vsi1!lmb   lmb%vsi1.uucp@ames.arc.nasa.gov