[plug] wanted: 56k modem

[Jonathan Young]

And since we've moved on to 'the case against internal modems', add to
that lightning strikes.

I have seen first hand the evidence of damage done when a lightning
strike causes a surge to come down the phone line.

With the externals, typically, you don't get all the lights (instant
clue as to what is wrong), they refuse to pick up the line, you open it
up and find something scorched, you replace it and in the meantime at
least your PC is up and running.

With internals, on more than one occasion, the surge passed from the line
to the PCI card to the motherboard and left via the power supply taking
with it anything from RAM to video to CD-ROM and in one case, all of the
above.

The machine refused to boot, booted with errors, seemed OK but wouldn't
dial and we don't know why until, oh... hang on...

I don't need to spell out the difference in terms $$$ or downtime.

There was also one client in Kalamunda who couldn't use their PC for 2
days until we got out there (they worked during the day so it had to be
an evening/weekend visit).  We didn't know what to expect since at the
time the computer just wouldn't boot.

When I arrived, I removed things until it fired up and then put them back
in one by one - internal modem was fried.

A week later (due to another after hours appointment), I returned with an
external modem which I always carry around for the same reason I don't
carry one of everything else either.  The thing is... If it had been an
external:

(a) They could have kept using the PC in the first place.
(b) The symptoms would have been "we can't connect" rather than "it
won't boot"
(c) As such, I could have made one visit and had the modem with me.

Nuff said!


On 6/13/2006, "Kai" <vk6ksj at westnet.com.au> wrote:

>Bernd Felsche wrote:
>
> >-- snip --<
>
>> An infernal modem saves a bit on the casing and power supply.
>
>Yah but afaik they sacrifice performance and reliability because the
>modem relies on the computer (software) to do all the work, where an
>external modem is custom built as the modem, the whole modem and nothing
>but the modem, therefore supposed to do a better job at holding onto
>unreliable connections.
>
>That and have you ever put an RF probe inside a computer case ? stray RF
>everywhere, sure as eggs that can't be helping the modem, no matter how
>much RFI supression devices they attach to it.
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