🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4ulcru$m7l@crl3.crl.com>, Cornel Huth wrote:
: Beats me what the problems are exactly, but I've seen 'pauses' referred 
: to often.

  OK, the pauses problem is one the happens most often with packet based 
connections (such as PPP).  It has to do with the Sportster's compression 
facilities.  What happens is that the Sportster starts recieving packets, 
compresses it, and sends it off.  But what happens when there's not 
enough packets to trigger the data compressions?  The answer: death.  It 
simply hangs until it recieves enough to compress and send, which is not 
going to happen if the other end is waiting for a response.

  This is easy to fix, fortunately; you simply have to change the ROM.  
If you have a socket for your ROM, you can wait for a new ROM to arrive 
via mail, pop out the old one, and plug in the new one.  If it's soldered 
in, you send your modem to USR, where they will replace the ROM for you.  
Works great, as long as you get a response.  It literally takes _months_ 
for USR to get to your problem and either fix your modem or send you the 
ROM.  Sometimes you never see the modem again; they will refuse to 
acknowledge that they ever recieved a modem from you.  If you're lucky, 
you can get the modem back in as little as a month.  If not, you can wait 
five or six months for something to happen, and _still_ not recieve a 
response.  This isn't unique to ROMs, but is universal when dealing with 
Sportster support.

  All of this doesn't apply to the Courier.  The Courier is actually a 
pretty good modem, and doesn't have the same bugs and support troubles.  
If you want a USR modem, the Courier is the one to get.

  (BTW, look at comp.dcom.modems if you want more opinions on the issue)

        -Kyle R. Hofmann