WinModems (Was [NCLUG] IDE RAID For Linux)

[Bryan Stillwell]

On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 03:51:14PM -0700, Michael Dwyer wrote:
>I guess my problem is that such fast hardware processors came
>significanly after the Win-* phenomena.  I recall a blazing fast 300MHz
>P2 being brought to its knees when its Winmodem wanted to dial.  That
>isn't reasonable to me.  Your modem shouldn't cause your MP3s to skip.
>Period.

I think I figured out one of the reasons that I haven't experienced the
same problems with winmodems that others have had.  The whole time I've
had my winmodem it's been in a pentium 100 box whose sole purpose was to
give my network internet access.  This stopped me from experiencing any
problems playing games or having my mp3s skip, and when I worked on
other computers with the winmodem installed I ran only Netscape or IE
then...


>Irony:  3Com sells a Real modem as a way to speed up gaming! "Built in
>controller means less processor power needed!"  And suddenly people
>begin to get what we've been saying all along...

LOL


>And yeah, I know what John Carmack says about Winmodems.  I think he's
>dreaming.  You want less latency in gaming?  *Lose* the modem.  Right
>now, Winmodems are a draw on processor resources, and the ONLY benefit
>of them is cost.

He did write that almost 2 years ago, things were a little different
then.  Right now it's not worth the effort.  Now I'm thinking that it's
really up to the person.  I see three types of modems and the people
that might use them:

LTWinmodem: Cheap and surfs the web just fine if you're stuck without
            anything better.  Some extra setup is needed.

External Modem: Easy setup and will work on practically any computer
                with a serial port.

Internal Non-Winmodem: Probably your best bet if you have to play games
                       with a modem and it doesn't have the latencies of
                       the serial port.

Bryan

-- 
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