Hello, Charles.  You were telling me about - -

 CA>> People think the 8250s and 16450s are less capable than
 CA>> they are. From my testing 57600 is not a problem for
 CA>> either of them.

 JH> FWIW, here's what my book (Upgrading and Repairing PC's,
 JH> 12th Edition) had to say about those - -

 JH> "The 8250B chip might work in an AT under DOS, but it does
 JH> not run properly at 9600bps because, like all 8250's, it
 JH> has no transmit/receive buffer."

 CA> Do you have _any_ personal experiences that corroborate this
 CA> drivel?

Hee.  Well, if its drivel, I'm glad I didn't write it, and that I
prefaced it with "FWIW".

No, my personal experience isn't relevant - - by the time I got a
14,400 external modem, the card I had it attached to had 15650's.

 CA> I think just about anyone here knows your book is a bunch of
 CA> nonsense and I have personally tested them in the manner I have
 CA> stated with the results I have given.

I saw where you said you got 57K thru a null modem cable. Is that
relevant to what I had been talking to Wayne C. about?  What does your
personal experience indicate with respect to external modems running
under Windows or other, and using browser software to browse websites?

The book is now in its 14th edition, and has sold well over 2 million
copies.  The author has been saying that about 8250 chips for quite
awhile (in my personal experience, I saw it in the 6th edition (1996)
and in the 12th edition (2000)).  If what I quoted above is truly drivel
wrt using an external modem, seems like some sharp-shooting gunslinger
would have blown the author out of the saddle over that by now.

But its not too late for you to put a notch on your six-shooter - -
in the book, it is suggested that - "If you have any questions about PC
hardware, suggestions for the next version of the book, or any comments
in general, send them to Scott via email at
scottmueller{at}compuserve.com
I'm sure he'd be glad to hear from you.

After you finish that, there is more error out there which seems to need
fixing, since I read this week at USRobotics website that "In general,
if you have a 28.8 Kbps modem or faster, you will need a 16550 UART."
So you may as well straighten them out also, while you're at it.

 CA> You need to get a better book or actually test some of these
 CA> things yourself.

I got myself into this by cautioning Wayne C. about going out and
buying an- - "external 56 serial modem, TBOMK the 8250 won't support
that speed. Corrections welcomed if I'm wrong."

So, perhaps you are correct about the null modem connection and I'm
correct about the external 56K modem??  In any event, I haven't heard
from you or anyone else here about successfully using browser
software and surfing the net with an external 56K modem connected to an
8250 UART.  So, I don't really consider myself as standing corrected - -
at least not yet.

- - -  JimH.
...Brer Rabbit butted, but his head stuck der in
   de tar. Uncle Remus (Disney)
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