At 12:00 AM 1/5/98 -0600, you wrote:
>I believe that both of the modems that you described are "WinModems". I
>believe that you have described the difference between a "SoftModem" and a
>"HardModem". I use both "Hard"  and "Soft" modems. The soft modem does use a
>single chip and the hard modem uses a dual chip board. Both however are
>"WinWodems" in that they have to use the OS or drivers to assign the IRQ and
>Com settings. A non-winmodem or "RealModem" and I use these as well, in DOS
>and other OS systems, have jumpers so that you can set the Com and IRQ
>settings on the modem itself.

Actually, it depends where you are from, but I consider "SoftMondems" and
"Winmodems" to be the same thing:  Single chip modems requiring the CPU to
do the work of the second chip.

While "HardModems' or "RealModems" are dual chip modems.

As far as IRQ and COM port settings, these can be "Plug and Play" or
"non-Plug and Play" with either type of modem.

The Zoom model 2919 I have has jumpers to be set as PnP or non-PnP.  In
either case the modem has two chips and functions as a "hard" or "real"
modem.  In PnP mode, it will only work in Windows 9x while in non-PnP mode
I can physically set the IRQ and COM port and the modem will work in any OS.


>All of the above have there place and work well under the right conditions.
>In any case you should be able to purchase a dual chip modem "Hard" V/F/D
>56K for under $40 and a single chip "Soft" modem for around $30.

In my area, I cannot find a "hard" modem for under about $60-$70.  I can,
however, find Winmodems for about $20 with a no-name brand.


Eric

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