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Date:      Mon, 13 Jan 1997 22:03:25 -0500
From:      "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM>
To:        richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk)
Cc:        freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: reliable modems? 
Message-ID:  <199701140303.WAA20489@whizzo.transsys.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 13 Jan 1997 09:53:23 -1000." <199701131953.JAA01010@pegasus.com> 
References:  <199701131953.JAA01010@pegasus.com> 

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> I'd recommend against rack-mount modems.  I've used them in the past
> and always wished I hadn't once they get older.  Once they get outdated
> single modems can be spread around and used in other places -- rack-mounts
> become large expensive boat-anchors.  :-(

Certainly not if you take into account the cost of operating whatever it
is you built.  What you pay for the modems is a one-time event (or
depreciated over 5 years depending on your pursuasion), but the on-going
operational costs are forever. 

> Rows of single modems may not look as cool, but they usually make more
> sense.

In my personal experience, this has never been the case if you're running
more than a handfull.  And I've been involved in running tens of modems
up to (now) in excess of 50,000 - the prospect of all those individual
power bricks, RS232 cables, and analog POTS lines is too frightening to
contemplate.

On the original question, I've had pretty good succeess with standalone
ZyXEL modems.  It's been a few years since I've really used it at home
(actually, before V.34 modems), but their customer service was pretty
good.

USR modems (especially the sportsters) are cheap.  And you get
what you pay for, I'm sure.   You'd be surprised to find how much
grief the Rockwell folks have been through to accomodate
the USR sportster flavor of "V.34"

louie





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