Boca 56K Tidalwave USB Modem
Dial up users are still out there, believe it or not. Yes, I am at that point myself still, at least for a couple more months anyway's. Broadband is very prevalent on the market, yet for us that are on the outskirts, or just plain in the sticks modems are still a way of life. Sad, but very true. There are so many manufacturers for modems, and many models etc. What is going to offer the best bang for the buck so to speak? Well the nice folks at Boca Research have given us just the thing for that old crappy winmodem.
Enter the 56K Tidalwave USB. Yep everything can be had in USB flava these days, and modems are no exception. We all know that there are some hiccups in the USB interface with Windows on occasion, which did cause me to wonder just how reliable a USB modem could be. I have had the experience that with some devices after a reboot or cold boot, you need to unplug it, count to 10, then plug it back in for it to refresh and begin to work right. With that in mind, having a data connection on that type of a bus was a bit worrisome.
To my great pleasure, this modem went in like a drunken frat boy on an experienced co-ed. Oh, I forgot we are a different kind of site, more like just popping in the USB connector and a CD, a quick reboot and TADA! Nope, no external power connections to make, just a phone cord. Nothing fancy here, runs off the USB voltage. Cool, less wires to tangle in that spaghetti mess called my desk. Within minutes I had it configured for my ISP, and was online and surfing my ass off. My software PCI modem which has been very faithful would connect at either 28.8 or 31.2, mostly the slower of the two. V90 updates, custom strings, nothing would get it rock solid at 31.2 every single time. Now some of you are laughing at this point, but some people in this valley can only get a 9600 connect, so I am living good at 31.2! Like I said, only a couple more months of dial up to endure. Then you can all kiss my LPB butt when I get that wireless T1 straight to my house!
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