Curious how the external UBS modems are working

[samintx]

Anyone have one with the new macs? Any problems? do you like them external modem?

[bangman]

I'm sure that some of them work fine but I've read a lot of complaints about them.

Pretty expensive at 49.99 a pop for something so simple looking.

[Seacrest]

Are these anything like the Paine Webber modems?

[dbow]

that was funny! I had the same thought

[samintx]

They why is Apple going this way other than to cut costs? Do they think everyone is going wireless?

[samintx]

Is there an alternative to this modem? one that is more reliable?

[BigGuynRusty]

samintx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They why is Apple going this way other than to cut
> costs? Do they think everyone is going wireless?

SamInTx,
First things first SamInTx, Do you mean USB? Also, it has nothing to do with wireless, all Macs come with an Ethernet port, I think you meant to say, "Broadband", not wireless.

Even AOL is trying to transition their user base off of dial-in, it's just too expensive to maintain their rotary analog dial-in network, the equipment is getting really old, and almost impossible to get parts for.
TechTalk Info.: The word "Rotary" has nothing to do with the pre-pushbutton phones, it means a bank of analog modem cards fronted by a device, called the "Rotary" that allows the user to dial a static phone number, and the "Rotary" picks a modem from the bank and frees the static phone number for the next user to dial-in. Allows the use of a few static phone numbers to support thousands of users.


SamInTx also asks.:
"Is there an alternative to this modem? one that is more reliable?"

Apple's USB modem is very reliable, most problems come from bad phone lines, I live in the middle of the city and my phone lines are so old that they don't support 56k modems, also folks trying to use an analog modem on digital lines, not the Apple USB modem itself.

BGnR

[wowzer]

One real drawback not having an internal modem. I'm on vacation and brought my laptop. I found a local area to dial-up...and plugged in my pismo. Worked like a charm