Modem recommendations

Anyone got recommendations for the best dial up modem for sim racing. I currently have a serial port Supra Express 56e - I also have a PCI internal jobbie ( software - not hardware) Which would be the better of the two, and if I should consider another modem - which one? Cheers Doug

On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 17:35:10 +0100, "Douglas Ellison" <[email hidden]> wrote: >I currently have a serial port Supra Express 56e - I also have a PCI >internal jobbie ( software - not hardware) > >Which would be the better of the two, and if I should consider another >modem - which one? The Supra should be the better one of the two. Software modems are always taking *some* CPU power away. However, these days with fast CPUs I wonder if it makes much difference. I've heard that USB modems might be better than an external one, but I doubt the difference is that big. If you decide on an USB modem, make sure it isn't a winmodem (many are). Have a look at Alison's GPL online F.A.Q, she has lots of info about this. Can't find the link right now. Cheers, /Martin who has a Supra somewhere collecting dust...

"Douglas Ellison" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ae2kft$3eptp$[email hidden]...

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> Anyone got recommendations for the best dial up modem for sim racing. > > I currently have a serial port Supra Express 56e - I also have a PCI > internal jobbie ( software - not hardware) > > Which would be the better of the two, and if I should consider another > modem - which one? > > Cheers > > Doug > >

EEK! Software modem BAD!!! :) Any good-quality hardware modem should work for online racing. Also, a 56K modem is often WORSE for gaming than a 33.6K (or even 28K) modem - that additional speed is accomplished with various compression schemes, which are often unnecessary as the game has already compressed its packets in its own way. 56K is also more dependent on line quality, and may retransmit in an attempt to get that throughput. Before I got ADSL, I bought a used 33.6 internal hardware modem for $25 at my local computer store and it worked great. I'm sure an external modem is fine too, as long as it's not a software one. I just didn't want the extra clutter.

> I've heard that USB modems might be better than an external one, but I > doubt the difference is that big. If you decide on an USB modem, make > sure it isn't a winmodem (many are). I tried a USB modem back in the old days. It improved the connection enormously (much less warping) but my frame rates took a huge dive (on a PII 333 with SLI'd Voodoo 2's). Thinking about it now, it must have been a winmodem, although I'm sure I would have checked. I kept it for a week then shelved it and bought a 33.6K internal hardware modem, which worked great until I finally got ADSL.

> Any good-quality hardware modem should work for online racing. Also, a 56K > modem is often WORSE for gaming than a 33.6K (or even 28K) modem - that > additional speed is accomplished with various compression schemes, whichare > often unnecessary as the game has already compressed its packets in itsown > way. 56K is also more dependent on line quality, and may retransmit in an > attempt to get that throughput. > I have 2 version of my dial up account - one has compression turned off :D Doug

Doug...can't you network to some dense sap down in Newfoundpool with cable/dsl....? ;-)) Morgan

"Morgan Boof" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ae2mqb$4kc$[email hidden]... > Doug...can't you network to some dense sap down in Newfoundpool with > cable/dsl....? Phoned BT - No ADSL at my exchange. Phoned NTL - No cable model at my exchange. 1.5 miles from the centre of a 150,000+ city - and no broadband. Great isnt it Doug

Stay with the external Supra modem IMO. Force you're connection speed to 26400 disable compression enable error correction force serial port to 56k no autobaud This worked pretty good for me. Good Luck Dave "Douglas Ellison" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ae2kft$3eptp$[email hidden]...

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> Anyone got recommendations for the best dial up modem for sim racing. > > I currently have a serial port Supra Express 56e - I also have a PCI > internal jobbie ( software - not hardware) > > Which would be the better of the two, and if I should consider another > modem - which one? > > Cheers > > Doug > >

Douglas Ellison wrote:

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> > Anyone got recommendations for the best dial up modem for sim racing. > > I currently have a serial port Supra Express 56e - I also have a PCI > internal jobbie ( software - not hardware) > > Which would be the better of the two, and if I should consider another > modem - which one?

Have you looked at ISDN.....latency will be a little lower, usually about 30-50ms lower, and if you need extra bandwidth, you can usually use both ISDN channels and get a 128k connection, for a price, it's not broadband, but it might be enough to get decent MP in F1-2002 on a good server Over here I'm paying �55/3 months for my ISDN connection, plus used time of course, regular analogue phone line is about �40/3 months, passive ISDN modems run about the same price as software modems Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy "The Pits" http://www.theuspits.com/ "A man is only as old as the woman he feels" --Groucho Marx--

Most people won't go with my recommendation due to the cost, but this is something that I, personally, have never waivered on. When it comes to Modems, there's only one king of hill. The 3COM/US Robotics Courier V.56 Everything. It's an industrial/corporate class modem that's built better than anything else out there. It is also, unfortunately, expensive. The last one I bought was $250. A lot of ISP's use Courier Rack-Mounts for incomming connections. -Larry "Douglas Ellison" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ae2kft$3eptp$[email hidden]...

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> Anyone got recommendations for the best dial up modem for sim racing. > > I currently have a serial port Supra Express 56e - I also have a PCI > internal jobbie ( software - not hardware) > > Which would be the better of the two, and if I should consider another > modem - which one? > > Cheers > > Doug > >

Oh, and WHATEVER you do, do NOT get a WinModem. Just about everything on an internal PCI card these days is a WinModem. There is one (maybe two) exceptions to this but true hardware internal modems are extremely difficult to find. Absolutely, positively get a true HARDWARE based modem. This means it will most likely be an external. The USR Courier I recommend, of course, is a true hardware modem. -Larry "Douglas Ellison" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ae2kft$3eptp$[email hidden]...

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> Anyone got recommendations for the best dial up modem for sim racing. > > I currently have a serial port Supra Express 56e - I also have a PCI > internal jobbie ( software - not hardware) > > Which would be the better of the two, and if I should consider another > modem - which one? > > Cheers > > Doug > >

That's pretty good advice... -Larry "DB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Stay with the external Supra modem IMO. > > Force you're connection speed to 26400 > disable compression > enable error correction > force serial port to 56k no autobaud > > This worked pretty good for me. > > Good Luck > Dave

The best online gaming I ever experienced was over ISDN. Unfortunately, it cost $120 per 60/B-Channel hrs where I am :( Verizon SUCKS! -Larry "Goy Larsen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> > > Douglas Ellison wrote: > > > > Anyone got recommendations for the best dial up modem for sim racing. > > > > I currently have a serial port Supra Express 56e - I also have a PCI > > internal jobbie ( software - not hardware) > > > > Which would be the better of the two, and if I should consider another > > modem - which one? > > Have you looked at ISDN.....latency will be a little lower, usually > about 30-50ms lower, and if you need extra bandwidth, you can usually > use both ISDN channels and get a 128k connection, for a price, it's not > broadband, but it might be enough to get decent MP in F1-2002 on a good > server > > Over here I'm paying �55/3 months for my ISDN connection, plus used time > of course, regular analogue phone line is about �40/3 months, passive > ISDN modems run about the same price as software modems > > > Beers and cheers > (uncle) Goy > > "The Pits" http://www.theuspits.com/ > > "A man is only as old as the woman he feels" > --Groucho Marx--

Larry wrote: > > The best online gaming I ever experienced was over ISDN. > > Unfortunately, it cost $120 per 60/B-Channel hrs where I am :( > > Verizon SUCKS! Off peak hours here is about a dollar an hour I guess, but with companies like Tiscali and such you can pay a fixed fee for 150 hours or something a month, about 50 dollars I think Yes, ISDN is excellent for gaming as a client, latency is about as low as you get unless your sitting right next to the server on a major backbone, bandwidth is of course limited, but then again any decent multiplayer code won't use the full 64k available in the first place, let alone the 128k available if needed Not that I'm going back to ISDN from my ADSL :-) Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy http://www.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--

"Larry" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:4S6N8.50194$[email hidden]... > Oh, and WHATEVER you do, do NOT get a WinModem. Just about everything onan > internal PCI card these days is a WinModem How can I see if I have my PCI jobby is a WinModem or not? Bye, Leo

The odds are 9999 to 1 that it is :) Basically, do you recall the words "DSP" being floated around ? WinModems also tend to have a rather large assortment of software that has to be installed. If I knew what make and model it was, it would be easier to tell :) -Larry "Leo Landman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ae32di$liu$[email hidden]... > > "Larry" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht > news:4S6N8.50194$[email hidden]... > > > Oh, and WHATEVER you do, do NOT get a WinModem. Just about everythingon

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> an > > internal PCI card these days is a WinModem > > How can I see if I have my PCI jobby is a WinModem or not? > > Bye, > Leo > >

If it was cheap enough, I would have ISDN installed right alongside my Cable Modem for online racing and emergency backup. But, alas, it will never happen :( Also, in our area, ISDN, even when used in home, is taxed as a business communication, something Verizon doesn't fight for their customers :( Fairfax County, VA already has the highest Telecom tax rates in the country. My basic phone line is $15-$18. After taxes, the check I write every month is just under $30. -Larry "Goy Larsen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Larry wrote: > > > > The best online gaming I ever experienced was over ISDN. > > > > Unfortunately, it cost $120 per 60/B-Channel hrs where I am :( > > > > Verizon SUCKS! > > Off peak hours here is about a dollar an hour I guess, but with > companies like Tiscali and such you can pay a fixed fee for 150 hours or > something a month, about 50 dollars I think > > Yes, ISDN is excellent for gaming as a client, latency is about as low > as you get unless your sitting right next to the server on a major > backbone, bandwidth is of course limited, but then again any decent > multiplayer code won't use the full 64k available in the first place, > let alone the 128k available if needed > > Not that I'm going back to ISDN from my ADSL :-) > > > Beers and cheers > (uncle) Goy > > http://www.theuspits.com > > "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" > --Groucho Marx--

Larry wrote:

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> > If it was cheap enough, I would have ISDN installed right alongside my Cable > Modem for online racing and emergency backup. > > But, alas, it will never happen :( > > Also, in our area, ISDN, even when used in home, is taxed as a business > communication, something Verizon doesn't fight for their customers :( > > Fairfax County, VA already has the highest Telecom tax rates in the country. > My basic phone line is $15-$18. After taxes, the check I write every month > is just under $30.

Just for the lease of the line....and then you pay for usage on top of that ? Wow, and I though Norway was expensive, I kept my ISDN connection as a backup actually, it's less expensive than having 2 analogue lines, so I didn't bother canceling my ISDN subscription In the shop I've got both, but that's partly because I need it for equipment testing and partly because I need an analogue line for the alarm system, fax and credit card terminal Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy http://www.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--

> > Oh, and WHATEVER you do, do NOT get a WinModem. Just about everythingon

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> an > > internal PCI card these days is a WinModem > > How can I see if I have my PCI jobby is a WinModem or not? > > Bye, > Leo

To some extent you can tell just by looking at it. winmodem's are basically a board and a single chip. Hardware modems have considerably more "hardware" on them. More reliably, if you still have the box or the documentation, see if it says anything about "works in Windows only" or "DOS not supported". If it requires Windows to work, it's a winmodem. Basically it's relying on the CPU to do all the work managing the data in and out, instead of doing the work itself. If your PC came with a modem, odds are 100 to 1 it's a winmodem. The things are super cheap, so PC manufacturers love them.

"Leo Landman" <[email hidden]> wrote on 10 Jun 2002: > How can I see if I have my PCI jobby is a WinModem or not? Go to a Linux NG, say "I have a [modem name]", and wait. If you've not been screamed at along the lines of "WINMODEMS ARE ***NOT*** MODEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" at least three times in the first hour, you should be OK... ;-) -- England 1 Argentina 0! Yyyyeeeessssss! :-D The GPL Scrapyard: http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard

On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 19:12:00 GMT, Larry <[email hidden]> wrote: > Absolutely, positively get a true HARDWARE based modem. This means it will > most likely be an external. > Remember that external modems have all those fancy blinkenlights(tm) that will show you exactly what is going on! Nice, and good for debugging connection problems. Cheers, uwe -- Uwe Schuerkamp //////////////////////////// http://www.schuerkamp.de/ Herford, Germany \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (52.0N/8.5E) PGP Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

That $30 is for my _analog_ phone line! Taxes are terrible in Fairfax County, VA. They raised my house assessment for tax purposes by $60,000 in ONE YEAR just so they could get more tax money from the property tax. People were bitching about the Tax rate, so they just went out and raised everyone's assessments instead. Bastaads! -Larry "Goy Larsen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Larry wrote: > > > > If it was cheap enough, I would have ISDN installed right alongside myCable

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> > Modem for online racing and emergency backup. > > > > But, alas, it will never happen :( > > > > Also, in our area, ISDN, even when used in home, is taxed as a business > > communication, something Verizon doesn't fight for their customers :( > > > > Fairfax County, VA already has the highest Telecom tax rates in the

country. > > My basic phone line is $15-$18. After taxes, the check I write everymonth

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> > is just under $30. > > Just for the lease of the line....and then you pay for usage on top of > that ? > > Wow, and I though Norway was expensive, I kept my ISDN connection as a > backup actually, it's less expensive than having 2 analogue lines, so I > didn't bother canceling my ISDN subscription > > In the shop I've got both, but that's partly because I need it for > equipment testing and partly because I need an analogue line for the > alarm system, fax and credit card terminal > > > Beers and cheers > (uncle) Goy > > http://www.theuspits.com > > "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" > --Groucho Marx--

Larry wrote: > > That $30 is for my _analog_ phone line! Ouch.....does that include unlimited usage or something, or a limited number of hours, anything ? Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy http://www.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--

"Larry" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:be8N8.51277$[email hidden]... > Basically, do you recall the words "DSP" being floated around ? Doesn't ring a bell... > WinModems > also tend to have a rather large assortment of software that has to be > installed. Just the drivers for Windows... > If I knew what make and model it was, it would be easier to tell :) It's a Billion ISDN PCI card. Not much to go on, is it? Well, it allows me to play GPL online so how bad can it be <g> Bye, Leo

Leo Landman wrote:

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> > "Larry" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht > news:be8N8.51277$[email hidden]... > > > Basically, do you recall the words "DSP" being floated around ? > > Doesn't ring a bell... > > > WinModems > > also tend to have a rather large assortment of software that has to be > > installed. > > Just the drivers for Windows... > > > If I knew what make and model it was, it would be easier to tell :) > > It's a Billion ISDN PCI card. > Not much to go on, is it? Well, it allows me to play GPL online so how bad > can it be <g>

Ah well, you see, the bit where it says ISDN makes a bit of a difference :-) ISDN cards are not modems, they are......wait for it, ISDN modems, which isn't really a modem, it's sort of a cross between a NIC and a modem.....sort of Yeah I know, sounds like Readers Digest or something, I've had it explained to me once and have since forgotten the techie bits, bit it's safe to say it's not a WinModem, ISDN is about as good as it gets for online gaming as long as you're a client and not a host, low latency, low CPU usage and if the game in question has a half decent MP code, more then enough bandwidth Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy http://www.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--

"Goy Larsen" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht news:[email hidden]... > safe to say it's not a WinModem Thanks Goy! Bye, Leo

Most phone's in the USA are unlimited, except for the low-cost version for low income households. It's cheaper, and taxed less, but it comes with a certain number of 'credits'. Once used up, it's per minute. I don't know of anyone who has it. -Larry "Goy Larsen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Larry wrote: > > > > That $30 is for my _analog_ phone line! > > Ouch.....does that include unlimited usage or something, or a limited > number of hours, anything ? > > > Beers and cheers > (uncle) Goy > > http://www.theuspits.com > > "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" > --Groucho Marx--

Most hardware modems only need an inf file to prep the RAS software, not a true driver. If you have a ton of drivers and junk being installed, it's most likely a WinModem. -Larry "Leo Landman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ae8c3p$47u$[email hidden]...

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> > "Larry" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht > news:be8N8.51277$[email hidden]... > > > Basically, do you recall the words "DSP" being floated around ? > > Doesn't ring a bell... > > > WinModems > > also tend to have a rather large assortment of software that has to be > > installed. > > Just the drivers for Windows... > > > If I knew what make and model it was, it would be easier to tell :) > > It's a Billion ISDN PCI card. > Not much to go on, is it? Well, it allows me to play GPL online so how bad > can it be <g> > > Bye, > Leo > >