Keith, at 19:58 on May 21 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

KR> what is rpi? a yum cha company?

BG> Nope, it's "Rockwell Protocol Interface", and these modems are cheap
BG> because they have no error correction (bit-stripping) in hardware. 
BG> You have to use the supplied software if you want EC, and it's as
BG> inefficient as buggery.  Zoom were one of the first to use that
BG> chipset, and Banksia have also done it here.

KR> yes i saw something like that in the states. i thought that they were 
KR> intel, using the cpu to do the work. 

Without the EC in software, the modem is still doing all the work.

KR> intel are pushing that line, to sell faster and faster cpus presumably. 

Intel make their own modems (and they're not too bad, either), so I'd be
very surprised if they were flogging RPI modems too.  Technologically, it's
a hell of a retrograde step, and quite unforgivable IMO.

KR> these zooms, however, were perfectly normal 14k4 fax modems, just cheap. in 
KR> fact there were quite a few modems around the $us100 mark, one of the few 
KR> things that were a *lot* cheaper.

True, although the better brands are much on a par price-wise, once you
consider the exchange rate and sales tax.  There's fuck all in it these
days.
 
KR> most of the stuff was cheaper, but not enough to really bother about, i 
KR> found though that the cartridges for my stylus colour were $us32 as against 
KR> $a90, and an hp flatbed scanner for $us450 were too good to go past.

Bloody hell, are these the SO20049 colour cartridges which my Stylus
ColorIIs uses, and which I can buy locally for A$48 ?  BTW, have you tried
using refills yet ?  I'm tempted (especially at the price), but after
completly fucking my Canon's print head and purge unit with non-standard
ink, I'm a bit loath to do the same thing to my Epson.

KR> i do have it on good authority, that dial and busy tones aside, they do 
KR> work really well.

BG> In this case, your "good authority" is wrong.  They're
absolute crap. :)

KR> in this case, i implicitly trust the source, i hear that download speeds of 
KR> 1650cps (on compressed files) are normal in a heavy multitasking 
KR> environment, so i dont think that they could be the ones that you refer 
KR> to.

Almost certainly not, in that case.  RPI modems without their special
software will only see DL rates of around 1300cps or so, and any faster
than that implies bit-stripping (or EC) in hardware.  That aside though,
Zooms still don't have one of the better reputations for US-made modems.

Regards, Bill

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20