I popped my head into a little computer shop in Waterbury the other day, looking for a cheap modem that would be decent enough to last me until my DSL line was installed. I was looking for something from 3Com or Diamond (SonicBlue?) or any other major brand I had heard of. Despite Phoebe being a 'local' company, in Sunnyvale, I had never heard of them before. I was hesitant to buy from a brand I had never heard of, and since this was not Frys, I wasn't sure if I would be able to return the modem simply because I didn't like it. Adding to my fears was the fact that this modem is USB, which in my mind equates to cheap software driven 'winmodem' garbage. After seeing firsthand the 'quality' of a Janton USB modem (my friends), I had even more doubts. However, I refuse to buy internals, and the serial cousin of this modem looked ghastly, nothing I wanted sitting on my desk. So I took the plunge and bought this cute little thing... It's quite a nice little package, it draws power from the USB port, so no extra power cable is needed. I have a minor quibble over the fact that there is no "phone out" on it, meaning I would need to buy a splitter if i wanted both the modem and a phone plugged into the same wall jack. I suppose it isn't very realistic to expect such a small device to have an extra jack. I am simply used to there being one. Aside from this, the modem is complete... It comes with a phone cable and a USB cable, as well as a driver / software CD. Please note that you do not need to install the software that is on the CD, it is simply bundled with the modem. The driver is all that is needed, and I believe Win98SE was successful in finding the driver on the CD without me having to point out where it is located. I had originally tried to install on 'classic' Win98, but the modem frequently dropped connections and whatnot, probably due to unrelated OS issues. A fresh install of 98SE yielded more positive results. I've had connections maintained for over 20 hours, which is more than stable enough for my needs. I have never connected above 28.8, but I believe this to be a fault in the phone wiring, not the modem. Win98 picks the modem up correctly, it dials without the need for any special pop-up driver windows or any other such nonsense... it simply does what it is told.

All in all, this is a good modem that will hold me over until DSL is installed in my apartment... It was cheap enough that I won't feel guilty mothballing it when that time comes.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 65