>First, if you have been following the cable modem thread, you'll note that the
>common theme is that the 2300 is not terribly responsive vis-a-vis the WWW
>regardless of the modem speed applied. I for one find the surfing speed quite
>slow when using the Duo's internal 14.4 modem. However, I have not found
>that a
>56 modem has not substantially improved my happiness therein either. When
>comparing the two modems head to head, I can honestly say that I do not
>notice >a real difference except in regards to download speeds which are
>definitely >faster on a 56k modem, but not blindingly so.
On the other hand, using an external modem of any speed takes CPU load off
the Duo by sparing it the use of the Express or Mercury modem software. I
used to use an external 14.4 with my 2300 instead of the internal for this
reason. Browsing with IE 3 was a fair bit faster, especially with several
other things going on at the same time (typical for me). That advantage
will tail off a bit with a faster modem and serial port connection, as the
interrupt load on the poor Duo increases. As noted in a previous thread,
you can reduce this without substantially affecting real throughput by
turning off modem compression and lowering the port speed to 56kbps or
38.4kbps.
With a 28.8 you can probably leave compression on and run the port at 38.4
for good results - I also did this for a while, and did observe a real win
over the internal 14.4. Have you tried running your 56k modem at 28.8/33.6,
or with compression off? If the serial port interrupt rate is the
bottleneck, it might actually be faster.
For an extreme example, try playing a game like Warcraft 2 (or Marathon, or
even Descent) over the internal modem - not a fun experience. With an
external 14.4, it works - quite well for Warcraft, in fact (I burned many
villages with my 2300).
--
Marc Sira | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"If you can't play with words, what good are they?"
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