Modem blew last night, what do you guys reccomend?

[madmanbmw]

Dial Up - just make sure it is inernal. Not over $70.

Thanks

Madison
mmcmajor@apex.net

 

[Bandit]

If there is ANY way of getting a boradband connection, do it. This modem thing seems like the perfect excu.. Err, I mean, justification.. Reason.. You NEED broad band cause your modem no longer works. There ya go!

Seriously. I would (I think) rather be shot in the foot than go back to dialup. It's just not worth it. If you MUST have a dialup connection, get a satalite uplink for DL and just use the dialup for upload. I use Cable. Don't know the exact bitrate off the top of my head, but it's about 480kbps up, 1.6mbps down. 30 bucks a month. And I bought my cable modem (Toshiba PCX1000) for about 230 bucks. Add about 75 bucks for a 3COM 10/100 card, and maybe 60 bucks for installation. It's really not that expensive, and it is WELL worth the money. (prices in canadian dollars)

I was recently in the market for a new appartment. My first priority was finding a low crime area (can't abide getting mugged at ATMs :/ ) Second priority was that the area had to support some sort of broadband access. I simply would not want to live somewhere where I was required to use dialup die to lack of other service.

There is a lot of talk in these forums about all kinds of great motherboards, ram, processors. One overlooked but very important aspect of owning a PC is insuring the best possible net connection. Even if all you do is use your computer for MS Word. You still need to download micrsoft security updates and patches every 10 minutes. With a modem, you don't even get one downloaded before the newer one is on the site!

I know I am rambling on about this, but I simply can not stress how much more enjoyable a PC is with a good broadband connection.

Eh, if you have read this far, and still want the dial up, you can't go wrong with US Robotics. Best out there. Get 56k V90. Look around, there are numerous models with various prices and features (voice, fax, internet call management, etc.)

 

[madmanbmw]

I live in a rural part of the U.S. If we have it available in our area I don't know about it. What is the best way to find out?

 

[Bandit]

Even some rural areas in the US are beginning to see broadband connections come there way.

First off, if you can get cable TV call your cable company and ask them about High Speed Cable Access. Also, you can go to www.roadrunner.com and enter your zip code to find out if your area supports cable access.

The other option would be DSL. Call your local bell and ask them if they offer DSL in your area.

The third option I mentioned was satalite access. I was really just kidding here. It is godawful expensive.

 

[Crashman]

Lucent modems are among the cheapest and work well. They also have very low system overhead. I like the Lucent 1646T00 chipset modems because they work on so many systems (even a Pentium 90 with the right driver-although I haven't sold one of those in a while). And I have never has one go bad. Some people just can't seem to realize that for some of us there is NO WAY TO GET high speed internet access. Not even wireless.

 

[toonces]

of course, look at pricewatch.com. i would recommend u.s. robotics model 2977 (unless you want voice capabilities also then get model 2976). it's cheap @ 50$, and it's a hardware controlled modem. not a cheapy winmodem that drains your cpu when in use. mine works great, except for the fact that i had to download the drivers because i got the oem thing and it didn't come with drivers. other than that it works much better than the other 56k software modem that i had before this. but again, check pricewatch.com and resellerratings.com (to check the reliability of the seller) and look at the manufacturer's website to see if it is hardware or software controlled (don't take the advertiser's word for it).

<font color=red>booyah, grandma, booyah..</font color=red>

 

[oldschool]

The best idea is to call your ISP and ask what they recommend. Any good tech guy will know what hardware they've had the least problems with, and since you'll be on their system, it's usually good advice.

My last modem was an el-cheapo GVC 56K winmodem. I ran it on a Pentium 166, and it never gave me any problems. While it does use system resources to run, I never noticed it, and that was a pretty weak machine.