Rod, at 12:13 on Mar 02 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

PE> Put a Netcomm M34F on your end.  THAT is the test of whether USR is
PE> superior at handling noisy lines.  Can you borrow one from someone?

BG> Nope.  And even if I could, I wouldn't.  Unlike you,
BG> I am perfectly happy with the way my modem performs.

RS> Corse an uncouth person might be so crude as to suggest that
RS> you might not actually be GAME to put an M34F on your line and
RS> watch it get good connects to Pauls M34F every time too |-)

They could, but they'd actually be wrong.  If I was in a position to borrow
an M34F to trial, it'd be the first thing I'd do.  Anything to keep Paul
quiet.

BG> You forget that I had to physically test every 28800
BG> modem that CHH sold, and the USRs were demonstrably
BG> superior in every respect, no exceptions whatsoever.

RS> Pity that proves sweet fuck all about how they perform with the SAME
RS> modem at each end and a rather poor session between them tho Bill.

That's not quite true Rod.  The lines to Mike's board are not perfect, and
Line 1 was the Courier, with a floating variety of test modems being used
on Line 2.  Not all calls connected at 28800 either, depending on what
originated and what modem was called, with some connects being logged as
low as 24000 bps.  Mike actually knew this, which presumably is the reason
that I had to test each V.34 modem with BOTH of his BBS lines.  Of all
possible combinations, only the Courier to Courier calls were consistently
connecting at 28800 every time.

Even my own Sportster will only connect with Line 1's Courier at 26400 from
here (which I suppose indicates bad lines again), but it's even worse when
I call Line 2, which generally runs a Viper (but one can never be sure, as
that line is his new modem test bed).  Connects to that one are 21600 or
24000, although I've never actually seen a complete negotiation failure
from here.

I'll make a call to each in a moment, and post the logged stats, so you can
see that what I say is completely true and correct (I hope).  :)

RS> Until you actually test that, on the handshaking failure specifically,
RS> you really have no basis on which to say that the Courier does
RS> handshaking better in that particular difficult situation than an M34F.

Not categorically, but given my limited resources, it's the best I can do.

RS> Wouldnt be the first time that an actual test produced red faces.

RS> Come on Bill, you like to think you know something about modems,
RS> and you do. Here is the golden opportunity to do some rigorous
RS> science and test the M34F very thoroughly on a known poor session.

If somebody wants to provide me with one, I'd be MORE than happy to.

RS> Corse it wouldnt surprise me at all if the Courier still did come
RS> out ahead, particularly on actual achieved symbol rates, but the
RS> handshaking failure would be rather interesting. And only you can
RS> really test it coz no one else gets such poor sessions with Paul.

OK, I'm happy to agree that the definitive test would be for me to borrow
another M34F, but unless Paul borrows one on approval from some poor
unsuspecting dealer and sends it up here for a week or so, the only modems
I'm able to use up here are all USRs (or an old M5, which won't do at all).

Regards, Bill

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20