all recent internal modems are winmodem (or called softwmodem), and almost
all USB modems are winmodem (I personally never seen a hardware USB modem).

As David Gillet said, there are major disadvantages against winmodem,
however, because they are cheapo (which became one of major effort that
people buy computer products), they swapped out good hardware modems out of
market almost completely.

I'd never buy or use a winmodem personally, for the following reason:
1) with external hardware modem, you can switch off and on without turn off
computer; with winmodem, if buggy modem software (called driver) stopped
working, you have to restart computer to get it going again
2) hardware modems don't really need drivers, the driver for hardware modem
is simple few k text file that tell OS what it is, so, you never (almost)
get corrupted driver or other buggy thing only software modem has.
3) hardware modem is true OS independent, you can use a hardware external
modem in any system, as long as it has the right connector.
4) if you are hardcore gamer, you will know that a modem uses CPU power to
do its task is simple unacceptable, even a little bit of lag caused by modem
can speak "death" to your game.
5) I can't trust winmodem, in the past, they speak nothing but problems. and
I still see more problems on winmodems these days. I do agree the support is
getting better, but as long as they require software and CPU time to operate
its basic functions, I stay away from it.
6) a lightning strike from phone line will certainly destroy your internal
winmodem and most likely your whole computer with it, but it will less
likely damage your computer if you use external hardware modem. at least,
this is true for all the repair cases I've seen.

Jun Qian

----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Lloyd" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 1:32 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] modem problems - buying and troubleshooting


> > Also how do I tell the difference between a winmodem and a hardware
> modem? After a quick look at pricing it seems winmodems are much
> cheaper.

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