Stop press!  One of the guys at Matranet (dial 371-9199 and log
on as "guest") has tested out about 8 different modems, including
Spirit Viper, Netcomm M34F, USR Courier V34, one that starts with
"W", etc, and says that the M34F was the best of the lot.  He
also said there was a review in PC World Australia or something 
a couple of months ago and he basically agreed with all of their
comments.  The Viper slowed down because of a lot of errors, the
USR Courier had a lot of line dropouts.  And paying an extra $200
for it is not good value.  He didn't test Banksia because they
wouldn't give him a V34 modem to test.  I rang up Netcomm, and
their sysop deal is $425 for the M34F.  I am thinking of going
Netcomm, as I get local support, a modem that I've never seen any
complaints about (the only complaints have been about their
previous modems).  The only thing that has me a bit worried is that
David Begley sometimes fails to connect with his to my Spirit, 
which means when I call other Spirits I'm going to have the same
problem.  But then the ones like Bob Lawrence who never has a bad
connect is a USR Sportster, and yet other USR Sportsters have a
problem, so it's pretty inconclusive.  The other thing is the fast
connects and V32terbo, but I guess they don't amount to all that
much.  BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

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