Magnum One/Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso/d7/highmodm.txt

Text File | 1990-03-26 | 7.6 KB | 154 lines

On the issue of which high speed modem to buy:


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Conf: COMMUNICATIONS Topic: GENERAL COMM      Ref: 33VG0016 Date: 03/26/90
From: BOB MAHONEY                                           Time: 12:00 pm
  To: VICTOR BELLEHUMEUR                                    (Read 3 times)
Subj: R: COURIER HST

When talking about 9600 baud modems and their new features, keep in
mind that all major manufacturers have already announced, or are about
to announce, V.32 models with V.42 compatibility.  Also as important,
USR, Hayes and Telix are all producing "dual standard" modems.  The
high speed modems from these manufacturers are capable of, or will
very soon be capable of the following:

USR:  Compatible with HST mode at 9600 baud and 14,400 baud, and
compatible with V.32 with MNP 5 and/or with V.42.

Hayes:  (Their "Ultra" modem) Compatible with Hayes 9600 baud v-series
and compatible with V.32 with MNP 5 and/or with V.42.

Telebit:  (Their "T2500") Compatible with PEP modems at 9600 baud and
compatible with V.32 with MNP 5 and/or with V.42.

Multitech:  (Their newest V.32 modem) Compatible with V.32 with MNP 5
and/or MNP 5.

Do you see a pattern developing here?  All manufacturers are building
modems with V.32 and MNP 5 and V.42.  V.32 with V.42 is a new CCITT
standard, MNP 5 is a powerful de facto standard with an already large
installed base around the world.

What should a sysop do?  First, a sysop should not worry about
V.32/V.42/MNP 5 since any major modem he buys will be fully compatible
with that new industry standard.  In that case, all brands are
virtually identical.  Most brands are even using the same Rockwell V.32
chip set for implementation of the new standard, meaning the modems are
quite similar internally.

My USR HST dual standard modems have received perfect connections from
all other major brands of V.32 modems, so compatiblity at the V.32
level is not a factor in this discussion.  In general, the user can
consider all V.32 modems to be compatible.  When they all support V.42
(any day now), they will all be compatible at the highest current
standardized level of data compression and error correction.  No big
deal, not an issue anymore.

If a sysop has already had a 9600 baud (or 14,400 baud) modem online
for some time now, then the sysop already has a brand preference, and
it is likely his callers think the same way.  For example, Exec-PC has
had 10 USR HST modems online for a long time.  It is logical we will
upgrade them to USR HST dual standard V.32/V.42 modems, not to Hayes
modems, since our caller base has more callers using the USR HST modem.

Many Unix systems use Telebit modems because Telebit has made a point
of marketing to the Unix market for many years, Telebit has given
healty discounts to Unix sites for many years, and Telebit has a few
features tailored specifically for Unix applications.  So a Telebit
Unix site will obviously buy the new Telebit dual standard modems.

If a sysop has been using a Hayes 9600 V-series modem for some time
now, he will probably lean towards the Hayes dual standard modem.

What if a sysop does not have any 9600 baud modems online yet?  First,
it is easy to eliminate the Telebit modem, since the great majority of
PC oriented bulletin boards will have many more callers who already own
USR or Hayes high speed modems.  Telebit has never made a big dent in
the PC BBS arena.  So forget about Telebit when there are the nice USR
and Hayes choices.

Before I go on, one small but important point about the Telebit:  When
the Trailblazer was introduced about 5 years ago (and ever since), it
has been touted as a full 19,200 baud modem.  That is not exactly
accurate.  It is more accurately a 9600 baud modem that uses a data
compression techique similar in concept to V.42, so some data will be
compressed well, but ZIP, ARC, GIF and other compressed files will NOT
give you 19,200 baud throughput.  Magazine comparison tests have proven
this.

Next message:  Hayes vs. USR.
Bob Mahoney   Exec-PC Multi-user BBS   414-789-4210
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Following thread

Conf: COMMUNICATIONS Topic: GENERAL COMM      Ref: 33VG1143 Date: 03/26/90
From: BOB MAHONEY                                           Time: 12:19 pm
  To: VICTOR BELLEHUMEUR                                    (Read 0 times)
Subj: R: COURIER HST

The issue of Hayes vs. USR is typically one based more on emotions and
loyalties than on fact.  I am emotionally opposed to Hayes because of
the high prices they always charge consumers (they give good sysop
discounts, but they don't have a history of giving reasonable prices to
other users), and their belated introduction of a non-standard 9600
baud modulation scheme did not make sense to me when the market had
already established some strong de facto standards.

On issues of quality of connection, both the USR HST and Hayes V-series
have performed to the satisfaction of reviewers in comparison tests.  I
think the modems are close enough in their performance on dirty phone
lines that either modem is a good choice based on noise rejection.

On the issue of speed of data transmission, the USR HST wins with a
true 14,400 baud connection, then boosted by MNP 5 compression, and
soon to be boosted even more by V.42.  So if total data throughput
(speed) is the top priority, the USR HST is the winner.

If V.32 compatibility is the top priority, then either brand will do,
since both are capable of V.32 with MNP 5 and V.42.  Both use the same
Rockwell chip set to accomplish this.

Sysop price is not an issue, since Hayes has (finally) become
competetive in sysop pricing, this from pressure from USR.  Thank you,
USR.  Remember, though, that standardizing a BBS on Hayes will force
some of your callers to spend more money than if you standardize on
USR, since Hayes prices are an INDUSTRY LEADER in how high they are!

Reliabilty?  While the Hayes modems give a better IMPRESSION of
reliability, since they have a nice extruded aluminum case with a solid
feel, all of my experiences and the experiences of my industry
acquaintances don't point out any reliability advantage for the Hayes
products.  As a matter of fact, Hayes has more reliability "black eyes"
on the books than does USR.  If you were not around when Hayes first
introduced their 2400 baud modems back in the early to mid-80's, you
missed some humorous "save face" actions when the Hayes modems had
overheating and component failures and line noise problems galore.  Not
that this is typical of Hayes, but don't be fooled by appearances - any
manufacturer can have quality problems, no matter what you think of
them.

A popular vote?  No matter which modem can be argued to be better on
levels of technical brilliance, performance, reliability, price or
looks, Exec-PC has always been guided by the popular vote.  Like it or
not, US Robotics has a much greater installed base of 9600 baud modems
on bulletin boards than does Hayes.  I believe this has caused more BBS
callers to buy the USR HST than to have purchased the Hayes high speed
modem.  The lower price of the USR products has also helped.

So when choosing a high speed modem based on the greatest number of
callers who can call Exec-PC, I obviously chose the USR HST dual
standard.  There simply is a larger population of BBS callers who own a
modem compatible with it.
Bob Mahoney   Exec-PC multi-user BBS   414-789-4210
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