Joyce wrote:

> Now my question: do those 'accelerated' phone modems really work for a bit
> higher-speed connection? (Best I can get out of my old one is 52 K. 
> -- please don't scream! LOL) I have my choice of installing a Best Data
> 56K V.92/V.44 Windows Internal Modem -- or a Diamond SupraMax LE 56K PCI Fax
> Modem which claims 'faster Internet Connections.' Both are new in box,
> never opened. Whichever one I install, I can begin using the newer computer
> > and 'retire' this one (my same old eMachines, Windows XP
> SP3) to recipes and whatnot. Thanks in advance for any help here.

  You don't say if that 52K is the *reported* connection speed, or what
you get when you measure it....

If it's the former, the limitation may be in details of how you or your
ISP are connected to the telephone company network -- not something a
modem can fix.

If the latter, the limitation may be in the load on your machine or on
your ISP's network, and in those cases a modem that is "accelerate" by
the addition of caching may actually help, especially if there area few
sites you visit a lot.

For some years, the recommendation was to avoid modems that used the
system CPU to do processing instead of dedicated hardware on/in the
modem itself -- external modems pretty much guarantee this but internal
modems vary considerably.  This is probably much less of an issue with
multi-core CPUs -- the modem "driver" can be running on one core while
your browser or other applications run on the rest.
  Since this *is* about how work is divided between the driver and the
modem hardware, most internal modems will probably only work with an OS
if the manufacturer provides a driver fro that OS, with Windows 7 being
the most likely currently to be problematic.  A vendor might decide that
it's juat not worth it to make a new driver for hardware they sold 3
years ago or more....

(I usually rely on a 1 Mbps (capped) wireless connection from home, but
I did make sure to include an internal "56K" modem in my new Win7
desktop -- and test it! -- to make sure I still have that availale as an
alternative.)

David Gillett

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