[nmglug] Modem,

Sam Noble sam.noble at comcast.net
Mon May 3 10:36:59 PDT 2004


> I am curious on why external might be better than internal.

Here's bit from Eric Raymond's Ultimate (LAC)Linux Box article:


There is only one possible modem for the dream system -- the U.S
Robotics V.Everything, external version. This featureful, rock-solid
reliable modem is the first choice of discriminating hackers everywhere.
Rick Moen has written an entertaining rant
(http://www.linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/)
 on the likely consequences of choosing lesser external modems, or any
internal modem at all.

Rick comments: "I've never had an external modem fry crucial VLSI
circuitry on my motherboard. I've never had an external modem contribute
to my system box's heat load. I've never been unable to power-cycle an
external modem without rebooting the attached system. (Of course, many
people reboot their machines every time the computer sneezes, so one
more reboot passes without notice. But when we are no longer children,
we put away childish operating systems.) I've never had an external
modem prevent me from debugging serial-port-support problems separately
from modem issues. I've never had an external modem be unable to be used
on a different chip architecture, or PC with the wrong set of busses.
I've never had an external modem create RFI problems inside my system
box."

"Frankly," he concludes, "fsck all that. I stopped making that
particular mistake over a decade ago. External modems clearly win. Next
subject."

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