I've had a love/hate relationship with USR modems. When they were first breaking out the 19,200 modems in the very early 90's, they couldn't be beat. And they continued to improve up until the X2/K56Flex and software vs. hardware modem battles. Then, their performance went way down, mainly due to the X2 problems.
Now comes the Performance Pro v.92 modem. I did a lot of research and it seemed that this had what I needed: v.92 and hardware based. So, I popped it in and powered up the PC. Windows XP plug-in-play found it to be a "generic" V.90 USR modem, so I had to load the "new" drivers. The drivers were not very new and it appears, to this day, it is the ONLY driver for the modem. Once the correct driver is loaded, the modem worked.
With my ISP not being v.92 yet, the Internet Hold feature didn't work. I tested it with my backup, v.92 ISP and it worked flawlessly. Also, on the v.90 only ISP, my connection was much slower than the V.92 ISP. In addition, my old software modem seemed to have faster connections as well. Also of note, if you start to dial up and you press CANCEL on the Windows DUN dial up window, it will not immediately stop the process. It sometimes takes 1-2 minutes to actually let you continue. This is not a good sign.
I wanted the peace of mind that I had a very good modem because it was hardware based and had good reviews. However, I am just overall disappointed because of the lack of driver support, connection speeds and support from USR. V.92 ISP users may want to take a look but V.90 users stay away!
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US Robotics PERFORMANCE PRO PCI V.92-56K MODEM CAN ONLY ( USR325610B )Product Description: Shopping, games, video clips, music? More than ever before, the Internet brings the world to your desk. To experience the richest sounds and most vivid graphics, you need the fastest possible connection on your analog phone line. The U.S. Robotics 56K faxmodem with V.92 offers not only fast downloads, but great new features as well.The V.92 standard brings three key features to 56K technology - Modem on Hold, Quick Connect and V.PCM Upstream. Modem on Hold makes the most of Call Waiting, Caller ID, and Voice Mail services from your phone company. The modem software will alert incoming calls while you are online, and tell you who is calling. If you response the call, the modem "suspends" your online session during your conversation, and lets you resume it afterwards without redialing. If you ignore the call, it will be routed to your voice mail. Quick Connect reduces the time it takes to make a connection to your service provider. By "remembering" the line conditions from the previous connection, the modem can bypass portions of its training sequence and get you online faster. V.PCM Upstream allows the modem's upstream communication to reach speeds up to 48 Kbps. You choose whether to maintain the fastest possible downstream speed (up to 53K) or whether to "balance" your connection for somewhat slower downstream and faster upstream communication. In addition to these great new enhancements, the U.S. Robotics 56K faxmodem offers all the features and functionality you've come to trust - fast and reliable connections, quality, and durability.
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I bought The Kingston 1GB DDR Module because the computer i was using had 1/4 ofgig of memory. i dont' use my computer for crazy programs, downloading or anything like that, but even 1/4 gig is too slow. the kingston fit right in, and works great. no problems so far, and i've had it for 2 weeks with daily use.
