>>If you can find it (it's old), the USR XJAEM3336 made by 3Com (though it
>>was >>originally made by Megahertzm which was then bought out by USR,
>>which was >>taken over by 3com, etc) is great. It's kind of a compromise.
>>The phone cord >>goes into their proprietary
>
>I would suspect the same ethernet driver would work for the 56k version,
>and no drivers are needed for modems. (AFAIK)
You'd think so, but 3com has a tendency to require a different (and closed
API) driver for every single product revision they make. This is one of the
reasons I avoid their ethernet hardware for x86 Unix. If the 33.6k and 56k
modem/ethernet cards used the same ethernet driver, I rather think they
would have released the 56k one for the Mac. The fact that they didn't (and
knowing that the modem component wouldn't create the need for any
additional effort) probably implies that the cards use different ethernet
NICs, and that there's no Mac driver for the one in the 56k version.
There are really only two types of 56k modem - USR/3com ones (which support
v.90 and x2) and Rockwell/Lucent chipset ones (which support v.90 and/or
K56flex). Everyone but USR uses the licenced Rockwell chipset and basic
firmware. Even though I've found both USR and 3com's consumer products to
be pretty lame in the past, I must say that my recent experience with a TDK
v.90 PCMCIA card has been even worse - the card frequently stalls after
negotiating a connection, disconnects after a random time when it does
connect, and only connects at 48000-49333 bps in the first place. It also
has an annoying, large dongle vs. the USR XJack connector. The last
external Sportster I had at this location got 53000-54667 bps dialing the
same v.90 number. My experience in this area is limited, though - perhaps I
have a bum PC card, or PC card modems don't do as well as externals in
general. I'll see if I can track down a 3com card that I can test under the
same circumstances, so I'll post if it's any better.
--
Marc Sira | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"If you can't play with words, what good are they?"
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