ISDN: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Written: Jul 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: speed
Cons: cost
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| Veryhomicidle's Full Review: Zoom/ISDN Duo |
There are some great things about this modem and some bad. One of the most obvious good things about getting this modem is that you will increase your connection speed. This modem actually does offer incredible speeds. The connection speed is 128kbps but you can use compression at get speeds of 512kbps. That is twice as has as a DSL 256kbps and ten times as fast as the generic 56kbps modem. Also, almost all phone lines can handle the ISDN connection while only some phone lines can use cable and DSL.
There are some bad things as well though. First of all this modem is twice as expensive as a DSL modem would cost. Also, with US West (my provider) they charge 15 dollars extra for the DSL connection and 45 for a ISDN connection. I'm not sure why that is but it is true. So if you don't get compression you are totally getting screwed for the cost. Anyway I am glad that I use the DSL connection rather then my friend who lives out in the sticks and has to use the ISDN connection. He is rich though so he can afford it.
If you want to get ISDN you can but I really suggest that you find out first if you can get DSL because it is cheaper and you probably don't need a 512kbps connection anyway. But if you can't get DSL because of your phone lines then maybe this is the way to go. Or I suppose that you can stick with your 56kbps connections but I'm just not patient enough to wait for my big downloads at that speed.
The person that needs a connection speed like this is someone that spends a lot of time on the net and can get there use out of it. Also, gamers like myself have better latency with a faster modem with and be able to play without lag. For those of you who don't know lag is when your playing a game and it is pausing because of a connection problem and not because of your computer. Slower modems have longer pauses and unsteady connections because of their phone lines and because of their modem. So the faster the modem the better the game play is. Also, I'm sure businesses benefit from these high speed connections because they can get research done off the internet faster.
Also, if you have a lot of money to spend you can get cable connection or T1, T3, or a faster DSL connection. The T1 lines transfer at 1.5 megabytes I think (prove me wrong if you know differently) and the DSL top speed is 6 megabytes. As far as cable goes all I can say is that it is fast.
So, it does depend on what you need and what you can get but now you know that this is one possible route to go to.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 210
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Epinions.com ID:
Veryhomicidle
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Location: Boise, Idaho
Reviews written: 97
Trusted by: 130 members
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