CompuServe Messages

Personally, I go for the external modems, unless it is a matter of desk space, that can't be resolved. My reasons are: 1. It doesn't take up a slot, and uses your serial port for something worthwhile. You have an extra slot free now, and also you have less heat load/power drain going on inside the machine. 2. Not all modem drivers are created equal. Since you aren't using your serial port, you aren't using "serial.device", the modem manufacturer, has to write a device driver for your internal modem. Some drivers are flaky. Whap! has one that it won't talk to, and some software has to be patched to work with any modem. Thus external Hayes commnad set compatible (allmost all modems these days) are the easiest to get going. 3. If you ever buy another computer, your external modem will work with it. An Amiga specific internal modem may not work. You would have to buy another Amiga with the same bus structure, and the driver would have to be compatible, or you would have to be able to get a compatible driver. So if you bought a new Amiga 5000 and the slots were different, or heaven forbid, a different brand of computer, you might have a modem that you could no longer use. 4. Troubleshooting. When you are having problems, those little lights on the front are a lot of help. You can tell when you've made a good connection, whether data is flowing, and which end of the hook-up died. While there are programs that try to simulate those little lights on the screen, they aren't entirely satisfactory, in my eyes. There is the argument that by the time you buy a new machine, that the modem is outdated anyway. Well, this could be, but I still have my 1200 baud modem that I use on occasion, with one of the other computers I own, for testing my BBS changes, and also other little projects. My 2400 baud modem was originally hooked to my 1000, it is now hooked to my 3000. I'm getting ready to go 9600, but it also was hooked to my 2000 in between. Had I bought it internal for my XT…. [ MORE ]