🚀 go-pugleaf

Stefano Mosca <fly@rm3.flashnet.it> writes:

> I have a 28.8k internal modem and looking around 
> it seems that everybody prefers external modems, 
> why??????

They're not for everyone, and an internal may be fine for you... but some of 
us prefer externals because:

 ... the activity LEDs on external modems are indispensible status and 
diagnostic tools, and some modems (such as USR) even have convenient external 
volume controls.  I don't even like using the volume dial on the back of a 
Sound Blaster card... not that most PC-internal modems have one anyway. 

 ... external modems don't impose much of a load on the PC's power supply, and 
neither contribute to the heat inside the case nor malfunction because of the 
heat generated by other PC components.

 ... external modems don't force you to use the CPU-intensive and speed-
limited interface of a UART (or something mimicking a UART); with an external 
modem, you can use anything from a little 230,400 bps two-port Hayes 
intelligent serial card to a 224-port Digiboard card.

 ... you can't plug PC-internal modems into other computers, and that doesn't 
even take such things as MicroChannel or PCI slots into account.  I've plugged 
my external modems into everything from a Commodore 64 through an AT&T 3B4000 
minicomputer.  Multiport serial cards, terminal servers, etc., _require_ 
external (or rackmount) modems. 

 ... you can't put more than a couple of PC-internal modems into a single PC.  
Even my home PC has two very different modems plugged in (which I could have 
done internally, I suppose, because I went SCSI and avoided internal 
everything else so I have lots of slots free... friends who bought internal 
modems, sound cards, proprietary interface CD-ROMs and tape drives, etc. are 
out of slots with only one modem; some can't even upgrade their motherboards 
because most new boards have only seven slots in stead of eight, or have fewer 
AT slots to make room for PCI slots, or have some 8-bit connectors). 

 ... internal modems can't be reset without resetting the whole computer.  If 
it's a desktop computer owned by an individual for surfing the 'net, that's  a 
minor inconvenince to one person (it takes longer to reboot than to switch the 
modem off and on).  If it's a multiuser system (UNIX, NetWare Connect, etc.) 
you just can't reboot the system every time a modem gets confused. 

If none of these requirements apply to you, then an internal is as good as an 
external, and cheaper.

-- 
         Geoffrey Welsh, Senior Developer, InSystems Technologies Inc.
        geoff@zswamp.uucp, [xenitec.on.ca|m2xenix.psg.com]!zswamp!geoff
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