Curse of the Deaf Modem
Written: Jan 21 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap
Cons: CHEAP, Stability, disconnections
The Bottom Line: If you live in the country don't buy this modem.
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| bossman52's Full Review: Best Data Products (56HSP-16) Analog Modem |
Matt is currently a Customer Service Rep at Arkansas' largest Internet Service Provider. He is constantly troubleshooting modems and their connections.
A Quick Review of How a Modem Works
Modems litterally "listen" on your phone line for a signal. If the signal is clear they will gladly send and receive with cheer. Otherwise they will stubbornly disconnect and insist that the server you are dialing will not answer.
If modems cannot "hear" very well they are more apt to be sensitive to line noise. Otherwise they will be able to "hear" through the line noise and send and receive.
The question is where can a modem get a good clear signal, and why don't all modems listen well?
The Country Modem and the City Modem
Basically the HSP chip set is made for city folks. It is made to hear in a quality environment. Most users who use the Internet can accomodate. Most users are close to the phone company, and the phone company gladly takes care of their phone lines in the city. If line noise is a problem for one user in the city it is probably a problem for many others, so they gladly come out and fix the problem.
On the other hand, rural users are not this lucky. The phone company says to themselves, "Well, should we spend a few thousand dollars on clearing up one user's problems?" "Or, should we brush them off since this is only one account, and they can barely get electricity anyway? Ha!" Let me tell ya' it's probably the latter. And my experience with the phone company reflects this.
Connecting
Getting connected with this modem is generally where I have found most user's problems materialize. This modem again is very sensitive to line noise (noise that humans often can't even hear). If it cannot hear the server's signal then it will come back with an error.
Generally there is a small set of modems that we have a lot of problems with at my ISP. And most of them have a common chipset, HSP. I have never had a good experience with these modems, but that doesn't say much since I only get calls when it's a problem. But the truth is that when people do call in it's very common to get the same type of modem over and over again. Some are easy to fix, and others are not.
Stability/Disconnects
Either way, this modem is much less stable than a more expensive one. If you are in a rural area or a place with a lot of phone lines that have been spliced (for instance if you add a phone line, but they only have one left in your area, they will split it in half), you will often have to slow your modem down, and set special settings to get this modem to send and receive without problems.
Speed
This modem's speed is probably not going to be a real problem, but you will be interupted often by disconnections and pauses. You may get clear connection speeds, but is it worth it to be constantly disconnected? 56k is a pipedream for everyone, so it's probably not a big deal, but if you want to stretch for the extra 1k this modem won't do it without some extra tweaking.
Price
The price is the obvious upside to this modem, as you can find it for about $10 on eBay, but you get what you pay for.
Overall
Be sure to check with your phone company. Ask them how close you are to their main lines, and how clear your lines are for data purposes. Be sure they come out and check your lines physically. It is like pulling teeth, but if you can do it you may save yourself some trouble.
If you live in the country, don't buy this modem. In general, be sure not to buy a modem with this chipset, or any WinModem.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 10
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Epinions.com ID:
bossman52
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Member: Matt Hudson
Location: Fayetteville, AR
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me:
Computer programmer, a political nerd, a business executive, and an artist all mixed into one.
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