[plug] Re: [plug] modems (was Re: [plug] Gut modem für Linux? [those blinkinglights again])

[Brian Tombleson]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Clark" <tclark at telia.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2000 10:00 PM


> At 21:03 20/08/00 +0800, you wrote:
> >The number of drop-outs which I have experienced since installing the v
90
> >Acer
> >have been no higher than thos which I had with a 33,3 K Modem. I accept
> >that you
> >will not get 56k transfer rate, in practice the actual results are about
46 k
> >doubtless  due to the constraints of  telephone lines, after all these
were
> >designed many years ago and were intended for analogue speach purposes in
the
> >100-2000 hertz band. The v 90 just pushes the limits as far as it can,
and
> >I do not
> >know of anyone who can get anything much better than the 46-47 K rate
that
> >I get
> >with mine. The points raised elsewhere are quite relevant, and the plug
pack
> >supplied with the Acer is about twice the size (and rating) of most of
the
> >other
> >Modems I have seen.  As a general rule you only get what you are prepared
> >to pay
> >for, but then how come M$ get away with it?
>
> For what it's worth, i get 54K connections here..I find when running NT I
> get the odd dropout.  Don't know why actually but it seems when NT is
under
> load and the connection is 54K it will drop out sometimes.  If I tell the
> modem not to go above 50.6K it is steady as a rock. Don't see the problem
> as much under linux...same modem etc....anyway ISDN is the same price as
> POTS here and i am just waiting for that to be installed.

Adding my 2c worth.  I've got a linux box gateway on a permanent dial-up.
Not a fancy modem, just a regular external (about $90 worth) and I can get
burst speeds of up to 80K/s with regular downloading between 50-60K/s about
30% of the time.  Most common is around the 45-50K/s mark but rarely lower.

The linux box seems to handle the modem and line a lot better than I've ever
seen a Win box do it.  I also have a drop-out on the line about twice a
month (I generally make about 2 or 3 calls for the whole month) for which it
automatically re-dials.

Pervious to my permanent connection, I was spending $40 ISP + $80 in phone
calls/line rent (under NT and not getting the speeds), now my costs are down
to around $45 a month total and harder to justify to go to ADSL (in my area
soon).

- Brian.