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Thread ID: 28701	2002-12-28 10:55:00	good modem	stevej (1205)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
109515	2002-12-28 10:55:00	hi all i was just thinking of upgrading my 56k modem as my old one is slower than others i have seen is there anything i should go for or should know ? i have an old pent 2 300mhz win 98se	stevej (1205)
109516	2002-12-28 11:25:00	what sort of modem do you have? if its a sftware modem then upgrade to any decent hardware one. rural modem can be better for those with bad lines. otherwise there is little piont in changing. the biggest killer of speed is the phonelines.	tweak'e (174)
109517	2002-12-28 11:27:00	While a WinModem (soft modem) will work as the minimum specs were about 166 MHz, you will unburden your PC if you use an external hardware modem. Not a USB connect, but a serial RS232 connected one. They relieve your processor of the work, and are usually exceptionally stable. They are dearer though. Dynalink e-modem, d-link are both good brands (names similar but not related) that I have had experience with. Do avoid USB, as these impose an even heavier load on the CPU. Your PC will likely have ISA sockets, which could house a hardware based ISA internal modem, but they are very hard to get. All commonly available internal modems are "soft modems", also called "WinModems" these days. While the bulk of them do run OK, not all have seen success at adapting to later operating systems, as drivers may not be available. No problem for Win 98 though. External RS232 units usually run happily on the Windows default drivers as they are not so dependant on the driver for basic operation.	godfather (25)
109518	2002-12-29 06:16:00	>While a WinModem (soft modem) will work as the minimum specs were about 166 MHz a semi-software modem minimum recommend cpu is 166mhz while a winmodem is ~300mhz tho it does vary according to brands and drivers.	tweak'e (174)
109519	2002-12-29 06:18:00	Good point tweak'e. That may make it marginal for a fully soft modem, which they all seem to be (internals) these days. I agree with you, my experience certainly favours hardware modems.	godfather (25)
109520	2002-12-29 20:22:00	> hi all > i was just thinking of upgrading my 56k modem as my > old one is slower than others i have seen What makes you think it is slower than others you have seen? If you can download a file at 5kb or better I would say there is not much wrong with your current modem & I would doubt very much whether a new modem would improve speed much . My Conexant soft modem will download at 5 . 7kb if conditions are perfect . You could try the following to test your speed . thanks to http://56k . com/ Cheers Steve What's a good way to test actual modem performance? (FTP downloads) If done correctly, file downloads are a good way to test modem performance . The trick is to make sure you're really testing the modem's raw transfer rate, and not some other factor that you're not aware of . Here are some guidelines for download testing: 1 . USE AN FTP PROGRAM Web browsers often lie about download rates . FTP is more reliable . Note that some FTP programs reports download speeds in Kilobits per second (Kbps), while others use Kilobytes per second (KBps) . To convert, multiply Kilobytes per second by 10 (eight bits plus the start bit and stop bit) . (V . 42 error correction strips out the start bit and stop bit, but adds other overhead, so multiplying by nine may be more accurate . ) A valid alternative to FTP is a terminal program that supports Zmodem . 2 . DOWNLOAD A PRE-COMPRESSED . ZIP OR . SIT FILE If the file you download isn't compressed, hardware data compression in the modem will kick in, leading to erroneous results . Different file types compress to different degrees, so if you download a Microsoft Word file and I download a QuickTime movie, there's no way to compare the results . Use . zip (PKZip/WinZip) or . sit (StuffIt) files for your tests . Some file formats (GIF, JPEG, QuickTime, etc . ) offer some compression, but can sometimes be compressed further by hardware protocols . 3 . DOWNLOAD A FILE THAT'S AT LEAST 200K A file size of at least 200K will minimize the effects of TCP/IP slow start . 4 . DOWNLOAD FROM YOUR LOCAL FTP SERVER OR UNIX DIRECTORY A local server is one that's on your system, not on the other side of the Internet . If you download a file from across the Internet, you're testing your ISP's connectivity to the Internet just as much as you're testing your modem . Most ISPs have FTP sites at ftp . ispname . com . If you're on AOL, for instance, go to ftp . aol . com to download files . There will usually be a directory called pub that contains downloadable files . 5 . DOWNLOAD DURING OFF HOURS To eliminate congestion issues, download early in the morning or late at night	Steve Askew (119)
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