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From: csg@pyramid.UUCP (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: High speed modems
Message-ID: <1260@pyramid.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Dec-86 13:21:49 EST
Article-I.D.: pyramid.1260
Posted: Thu Dec 18 13:21:49 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Dec-86 00:12:58 EST
References: <798@bunny.UUCP> <18600003@clio>
Reply-To: csg@pyramid.UUCP (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 32

In article <18600003@clio> berger@clio.Uiuc.ARPA writes:
>Yes, some brands are more robust than others.  I highly recommend
>NEC - I think they make the finest modems available, and the most
>fully featured.  They also boast a 5 year parts and labor warranty.
>
>Stay away from US Robotics and Anchor at all costs.

I keep seeing postings from Universities praising the NEC 2340. Are we talking
about the same modem, folks? I've had dozens of modems in for evaluation and
production use, and I wouldn't recommend the NEC 2340 to my worst enemy.

No amount of fiddling could get it to handle the RS-232 modem control lines
correctly. It has firmware bugs. Autobauding (sensing the "AT" string) isn't
reliable. Connections at 2400 don't always "catch," produce gibberish, or fall
back unnecessarilly. The modem crashes regularly and needs to be power-cycled.
It lacks useful features of the Hayes and USR (like flash and answer wait),
and call progress monitoring was implemented in a way that convential Hayes
software could not use it. The front-panel LEDs are inadaquate. 

The standalone version is built like a brick; I broke a toe when I dropped the
modem on my foot. (Which doesn't help my opinion any. :-)) But encasing a me-
diocre modem in steel does not make it better than a good modem encased in
plastic. I'd take a USR Courier any day. Better yet, a Telenetics Smart Team
24S. It really is Hayes compatible, really is reliable, and really is rugged.
Unfortunately it's expensive, and I don't know about the reliability of the
company.

The NEC 2340 modems I had were borrowed from a customer, so I know they were
real (not preproduction samples). I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who can
prove to me that my units were unusual.