With this criteria in mind I started my quest to acquire a modem. So far I've owned only external ones: 1200, 2400, 14400. Now, I figure it's time to take the next step up. Since I dial in to the mainframe quite a bit, a little extra speed would do me well. Besides, sucking stuff down from the Net is a bit sluggish at 14.4.
So I bought me a copy of the "Shopper" and studied it for several days, then I talked to some people in the office and then I also queried the Net. I learned that mo/dem stands for modulate/demodulate. I thought that was kinda nice--but 'nuffa this tekkie talk. My primary consideration was to decide whether to buy a brand name, i.e. Hayes, USR, Boca, etc., or to go with a cheaper, to me, unknown brand. Next question: do I go internal or external?
Well, I found "Curt" on the Net, who has published quite a manifesto on whatall you want--or in my case don't want--to know about modems. From all his, to me, esoteric verbiage I did glean a few crumbs that I could digest. On the internal/external issue he says that its nice to have the little lights available to diagnose problems, and, he says, an external modem is a 'handsome" piece of equipment sitting on your desk.
On the other hand, he says, with an internal modem, you get rid of a set of cables and you will reclaim a bit of real estate on your desk. Well, now, that sounded good to me. You should see the cable mess on my desk, oy veh! However, he says, ya gotta open the box and stick in a card! Besides, he says, if you want to impress someone with those little lights, you can get yourself a piece of software that'll do the trick and will twinkle them on the screen for you. The program is called MODSTA18.zip, to be found in the Windows shareware program MODEM STATUS.
Since I have no intentions of ever diagnosing modem problems, and I do have too much handsome stuff on my desk already, I felt I ought to go for an internal. Moreover, I just got a cordless screwdriver for Father's day, I figured that would be an ideal opportunity to attack all those little screws on the back of the box. (Why do the do that anyway? There's got to be a better way to attach that cover).
So, now to find a brand to buy... In my research I stumbled across such esoterica as dip switches, modem initialization string, and IRQs, which scared the hell out of me. None of that for me, I says to myself, I says. Lo and behold, U.S. Robotics to the rescue with their WINmodem. Plug and play, it says. Plug it in, reboot, and you're all set, it says. Oh, yeah, I says, where's the caveat? Huh? Well, it says, (aha, here it comes) you gotta be in Windows. Oh! Gosh, I didn't know that there's anyone out there anymore who is not running on Windows. I reckon I can live with that restriction.
Furthermore, this WINmodem installs at 28.8, but you can download some software from the manufacturer that'll crank it up to 33.6 or such. All right! Now to find the best deal: My motto is: if I can buy it locally for about twenty bucks more than I could buy it by mail, then I buy it here. So, I pounded the pavement and got a baseline. It looked like the locals couldn't get close to the mail order guys. I rummaged around on the net and found a vendor who's got a pretty good sales setup.
The outfit features just about anything a body could need. They've got the best prices in the categories I've checked so far. Only after you've registered yourself do they let you look at their selections and prices. Each item carries with it specs as well as a description of the product's features. Once you've found what you decided to buy, you click on the "shopping basket" icon. The system keeps track of your selections, then presents a summary bill as soon as you indicate your intention to pay for it. Early on the process while you're registering it will have asked for your credit card number. At this point you're pecking on a secured line. I was impressed with this whole, fairly intuitive process and will check with these people again when next I'll be looking for a flatbed scanner, software, printer memory, UPS and anything else that still resides on my shopping list. For thirty bucks, you can also become a member of their buying club, which gives you an additional discount.
Another interesting fact I learned from Curt's modem page was that the actual transmission speed greatly depends the wiring not only from TELCO to your house, but also within your house. So he devised a little scheme--and he actually also shows the schematic--how you can isolate your modem from the rest of the phones in your house. Not only does this hookup shorten the trip to the TELCO box, but it disconnects the other phones in the house if the modem is active. In other words if someone picks up a phone while you're transmitting or receiving, your activity will not be interrupted.
Since I was telephone installer in a former life, I could do this little trick. Go to Radio Shack he says, and buy a little gadget for about ten bucks. The part is called: Teleprotector and it's part # 43-107. It makes it easier if your modem is already segregated on its own extension; in other words, no phones on the same string. Well, I'm going to give it a try. Maybe I'll tell you about it sometime.
Incidentally, if you ever wanna study up on modems, Curt's award-winning Web Page is called Curt's High Speed Modem Page. His URL is too messy to reproduce here, but you can find him through AltaVista.
Well, two days after I ordered the "PlugNplay" modem, the UPS person dropped it on my front porch. Anxious to try out my cordless screw driver, I took the cover off the PC, then opened the package and extricated the modem card. Plug and play it said, right? Well. it wouldn't plug into my short slot on the M- board. Not nice! So I stuck it into a long slot, not ideal!. I disconnected my external modem, plugged in the Telco line into the new modem and loaded in the software. Subsequent instructions told me to use certain icons, which where nowhere to be seen and then wanted me to divulge some technical details, which I had not expected from a plug-n-play setup. Well, I rebooted nevertheless and tried out my mainframe dial-up. It, of course, claimed an absence of a modem.
In desperation I looked in the manual for the vendor's tech support. Lo and behold there was a preponderance of fax and internet addresses to choose from and also a non-800 number to call. Well, being desperate that I was, I called the long-distance number and a well-modulated voice informed me of the many numbers I should dial into before opting for human contact. The disembodied voice, however, failed to inform me how to accomplish that feat without a functioning modem. After having been subjected to a lengthy diatribe and being charged for the call, I was reluctantly given a key to press on my phone that would summon a human being. When I did, lo and behold, another recorded message informed me of their working hours and urged me to call back during those skimpy hours.
Luckily the software came with an uninstall option, which I invoked without hesitation. Thereafter I again utilized my handy-dandy cordless screwdriver to extract the modem card from the M-board. Securely back in the package, I sent the modem back to the reseller. After reattaching my 14.4 modem, I am happy to report that I was able to resume normal teleprocessing.
Suffice it to say, I've reassigned my modem acquisition process to a lower priority and I vowed: no more internal modems for me.
Happy ending:
A month or so later, after I got over my frustrations, I e-mailed a person whose opinion I trust and asked him outright which modem he would buy for under $200? He informed me that the Supra model "FaxModem" is a good investment in terms of quality and price. Since none was to be had in Tulsa, I bought it over the net.
The UPS person dropped it on my porch two days later. I extracted the modem from the box, disconnected the cables from my 14.4 and plugged them into my Supra. I fired up the system and politely asked my AT&T Dialer to connect me with the 'net. I felt it my duty, however, to inform the Dialer that I had a new modem. "Tell me what you are using," the Dialer asked, "or would you like me to figure it out?" "You do it," I punched my choice. "You got a Supra", he fires back microseconds later, "congratulations!" Well, needless to say, I landed in the net with 26,000 bits carrying me. I've been traveling between 26 and 28K ever since.
End of story.
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