rec.autos.simulators

What's this I read about winmodems? I have a winmodem and get latencies
of .200-.300 to gpl.gamestats and .200-.350 to most cable modem races.
Now if I can reduce these numbers with another type of modem let me
know! I'll buy one immediately!

Any information would be helpful.

Thanks,
              ZZ

--
Busch Carpentry
"Plans?"
----------------
Busch Motorsports
"Remember racecar is racecar spelled backward"

I replaced the USR Winmodem 56k in my new PC with an external Diamond
SupraExpress 56k, in anticipation of a lot of online GPL.  Never really
messed with GPL online with the Winmodem, but did play a good bit of Quake 2
multiplayer with the Winmodem - and the new modem was a significant
improvement.  Pings dropped maybe .50-.100 a lot of the time, but it seems
the connection is much more stable and consistent.  I don't think the
Winmodem's problem is using the CPU for some of it's functions, I doubt on
even a P200 it's using 5% of the CPU.   I think most Winmodems just use
lower quality parts all around, and will add a bit to the latency, drop a
packet or two here and there and cause a problems for online ***, while
probably being fine for web-browsing and all.

I'd guess that you may get a bit lower latency, a bit smoother connection,
and less screen-flashes with a "real" modem vs. the Winmodem.  To get one
you're gonna see improvement with, I'd guess you're looking at $100 or more.
Most modems under that price are probably winmodems anyways (not always easy
to tell).  Best bet might be to get an external from somewhere that takes
returns, plug it in and see if it's an improvement.  Another thing, even
with V.90 being commonplace it seems to work better for games if you use the
older standards (X2 or K56Flex) - and match your modem/ISP accordingly.

Ken

Those ping times are good. But, as I have come to understand it, because
winmodems are 'controlerless' (no serial port in hardware), Windows
burdens the CPU to handle communications. Not what you want when running
GPL.

I assume this is why winmodems are less expensive.

Marty