🚀 go-pugleaf

 [Note that Followup-to is comp.dcom.modems, where this _SHOULD_ be covered.
  these modem problems are NOT linux specific]

In article <4glkdk$pgc@qualcomm.com> you wrote:
> In article <4gl5oc$15c@atheria.europa.com>,
> Jeff Heffleger <w3@europa.com> wrote:
> >If Supra and USR 28.8 are poor modems, what are examples of quality 
> >models/brands? Is the problem with the *brand* or the *model* ??
> 
> It's a problem with specific models.  USR Sportsters (28.8 and 14.4)
> have had a lot of firmware problems, USR often sells you bug fixes 
 
 Check.

> USR Courier 33.6K modems are excellent; good throughput, will talk
> to just about anything, and can be flashed from any system.  Unfortunately,
> you'll have problems finding one for much under $400.

  Well... no.  USR C. 33.6 modems connect at 33.6 and retrain down to about
 26.4 in 5 seconds, just so they can say "CONNECT 33600"  I am not kidding,
 I listened to them with the speaker on, connecting to other 33.6 modems.

  The sportster 33.6 "fixxed" spiraling death by disabling retrain down in 
 their factory default settings.  This allows USR tech support to claim it
 is your settings causing spiraling death, not their modem. By default,
 the sportster will drop carrier rather then slow down.  

 USR Retrain is broken, I.E. sometimes the remote modem will try to 
 initiate a retrain up, and the usr will decide to retrain down, so they
 do.  10 sec later, the remote decides the quality is good enough for a
 retrain up, asks for it, they go down.  Etc.    

> Supra's reasonable (ie, with the LED matrix display and flash ROM) also
> get good throughput, can be flashed via XMODEM, Supra's always been real 
> open about the problems (contrast this to USR's response to the "Spiral
> Of Death" bug in the Sportster firmware) and the LED display is informative.
 
   These are _NICE_ modems.  I just wish they had colored LED's, so they 
 showed more at a glance (nicer for an ISP, you can spot problems in an 
 instant, rather then waiting for the screen to scroll by.)  We have a bank
 of 50 of these on our system now, and are adding more, becasue they are the
 best of all the modems we have tried.  (USR sportster/courrier/Sportster 
 VI 28.8, USR C. 33.6 and a few noname clones for kicks.)

> They can had had for under $200 in both external and internal variants .

  $160 sysop deal.

--Dan