7 Aug
2008
7 Aug
'08
7:09 p.m.
On Thursday 07 August 2008 18:27, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 7 Aug 2008 at 15:58, Jim MacKenzie wrote:
The figure $249 comes to mind for me.
The Couriers were the modems to drool over in the
BBS days. When modem
prices came down a few years ago, I picked myself up a Courier
V.Everything modem (which does 16,800 bps HST and 56K v.90, along with
all the rates below them). It is still the best modem ever produced (and
one of the largest :) ).
I have three different vintages from the original Courier HST to the
V.Everything somewhere.
One thing that made them very attractive was the USR BBS sysops'
program. About $200, I think, which was a steal. Later ones had a plate pop-riveted to the case that
said something to the
effect of "Not for resale". I think Hayes had a similar sysop program.
Two of the ones I have bear such a plate.
They made periodic DIY upgrades available, but they
tended to obsess
about returning old EPROMs and SRAMs.
The ones I have only upgraded by way of flash.
Later they got to be perfectly sloppy on upgrades as
in "Send us your old
modem when you have a chance, if you happen think of it and it's not
raining."
I never got informed that there was even a shot at the upgrade to 56K, and
then you were expected to pay for it. Luckily I got one that had already had
that done to it.
A very reliable modem in my experience.
Yup!
I also have this other one, the name not coming to mind offhand, but it was
in a smaller case and seemed to run somewhat warmer. New out of the box, it
worked well for me at 56K until getting glitched one day and then when I
tried "AT" anything what it comes back with is "boot:" and nothing
else.
I've not been able to find anything about it online, so far...
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin