I am a big proponent of external modems that have (a) a physical on-off
switch (not just yanking the power cord out of the back), and (b) a physical
volume control for the audio feedback of the dial tone and handshake (avoid
any that have no speaker of their own, and only do sound through the PC's
speakers; I have an old Motorola like that, it has to have a cable to the
line-in on my sound card if I want to hear it dial). Internal modems that
required a system reboot to reset used to drive me up the wall. I also
favor the non-Winmodem type, what I believe are called "hardware modems".
Don't make the CPU do anything it doesn't have to -- although if you've got
a fast CPU and want to get as inexpensive a modem as possible, then I
concede that the Winmodems are usually a bit cheaper.
Nowadays my modem only does fax duty since I got broadband, but I'd still
say go external and use one of the serial ports. The best modem I ever had,
which I gave to my parents to use, was/is a USRobotics Sportster 56K, which
met all of the above conditions (and did fax also). Now it appears they've
replaced it with one that looks the same but has a few new features, at
http://www.usrobotics.com/products/home/home-product.asp?sku=USR5686D
Great little unit. Nice small footprint, volume dial on the left side,
power switch on the top front, works perfectly. They make one with voice
capability also, if you want that. All of their "home" modems are listed at
http://www.usrobotics.com/products/home/p-home-menu.asp
Not a paid endorsement <g>. I just had a lot of modems that always seemed
to work poorly, drop out all the time (the Motorola was horrible at this,
way too sensitive to line noise), have horrible command-strings that needed
to be added to their setups, wouldn't reset when they'd freeze up, etc etc
... until I got that Sportster, and I never had a lick of trouble with it.
I only agreed to give it to my folks when I got my cable modem, because the
dumb Motorola I took back is only needed for my infrequent faxing duties,
which it manages to handle okay since the speed is slower.
Of course my REAL advice is to beg, borrow, whine for, or steal some sort of
broadband access. But if that's not an option, then go with a
hardware-based, power-switched, volume-knobbed, (fax and/or voice optional)
external modem, and be happy till broadband comes along.
MHO of course.
Eileen Lehner
[log in to unmask]
8/30 2335edt
> -----Original Message-----
> Hi Folks: I'm about to replace my old 56K winmodem. I have 3 PCI slots and
> one PCI/ISA slot free and 2 serial ports.
>
> What are the pros and cons of external versus internal modem in terms of
> speed, reliability, and durability?
>
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