US Robotics Sportster external x2 is the best IMHO, requires a serial port. There are also some good ISA ones but do not mess with a WinModem ! Just my opinion.

I thought dial-up internet and BBS's were a thing of the past. I've got too comfortable with cable to think about them 😀

Horun wrote on 2021-05-13, 02:16:

US Robotics Sportster external x2 is the best IMHO, requires a serial port. There are also some good ISA ones but do not mess with a WinModem ! Just my opinion.

Thanks, I'll look into it, especially if I can use it in DOS and WFW. I am definitely avoiding WinModems!

debs3759 wrote on 2021-05-13, 02:25:

I thought dial-up internet and BBS's were a thing of the past. I've got too comfortable with cable to think about them 😀

In Highlander II (not a bad movie, just a bad Highlander movie,) after the shield goes up, society regresses somewhat, on a technological scale - at least that is what I got out of it. Right now we have online censorship happening to some people, a worldwide semiconductor shortage, and all kinds of other ill things happening. I can imagine a world where we have to start using phonelines again, and more people doing what we do with retro hardware - trying to get old systems up and running, and creating new BBS's that they have control over in order to communicate with people without fear of censorship. With the chip shortage, hyperinflation, rising fuel prices... I can imagine society reverting to late 80's and 90's tech. I can imagine cellphones becoming more difficult to produce and becoming very expensive.

I also want to create a BBS that focuses on retro interests. If I manage to create one, I hope to inspire others to do the same. The internet just isn't the same, anymore. I wish that there was a subset of the internet that resembled what it was from 1997-2001. I remember it fondly, and I remember connecting to it with a 56k PCI modem. I remember playing Ultima Online, and it seemed to run well with a dial up connection with hundreds of players. As society moves "forward," I can't help but to look back.

USRobotics or D-Link 56k external modems will do the job just nicely.

In saying that Dos, Win3.x/WFw3.x and win95 are all able to irc, telnet, bbc etc via ethernet.

Scythifuge wrote on 2021-05-13, 03:41:

debs3759 wrote on 2021-05-13, 02:25:

I thought dial-up internet and BBS's were a thing of the past. I've got too comfortable with cable to think about them 😀

In Highlander II (not a bad movie, just a bad Highlander movie,) after the shield goes up, society regresses somewhat, on a technological scale - at least that is what I got out of it. Right now we have online censorship happening to some people, a worldwide semiconductor shortage, and all kinds of other ill things happening. I can imagine a world where we have to start using phonelines again, and more people doing what we do with retro hardware - trying to get old systems up and running, and creating new BBS's that they have control over in order to communicate with people without fear of censorship. With the chip shortage, hyperinflation, rising fuel prices... I can imagine society reverting to late 80's and 90's tech. I can imagine cellphones becoming more difficult to produce and becoming very expensive.

I also want to create a BBS that focuses on retro interests. If I manage to create one, I hope to inspire others to do the same. The internet just isn't the same, anymore. I wish that there was a subset of the internet that resembled what it was from 1997-2001. I remember it fondly, and I remember connecting to it with a 56k PCI modem. I remember playing Ultima Online, and it seemed to run well with a dial up connection with hundreds of players. As society moves "forward," I can't help but to look back.

Yeah, I remember when BBS, IRC and usenet were my main sources of downloads, a social life and info. And with a 2400 baud modem, as they were the fastest at the time. Took me all day to download a CD's worth of dev apps 😀 Cost a fortune to be online for that long!

You may also want to consider the award winning
"ELSA Microlink 56 pro":
http://edv-janssen.synology.me/elsa.de/produc … pecs/56kpro.htm

I recently threw out all my internal modems. But I did hold on to a Serial USR "X2" V.90 modem that was firmware upgraded to V.92 (if I'm remembering those terms correctly). I doubt I'll ever use dialup again, but I just wanted to have one good modem in my legacy stash. It was bulletproof and always hassle free. Serial modems work with anything as long as your serial port works.

The USR Sportsters I think were the ultimate modems, but they were bulkier and black (at least the ones I've seen). The more mainstream models were white, and smaller. Nowadays I doubt there's any price difference, anybody who is serious about selling a modem will probably trip over themselves to offer it to you for little more than the cost of shipping.

One thing I can say for dialup - it was reliable (if you stuck to local ISPs). My DSL was reliable too. Both of my experiences thus far with cable have been frustrating.
Cable is fast, but also seems to be an unreliable medium. Phone lines actually work.

Speed of dialup was okay back when web sites were designed for it and didn't abuse broadband.

I dug out a few of my 56k externals that are v90 or better:
USR 56k model 5686-03/0701, Motorola ModemSurfr model 3456, and somewhere have a few more.
USR 56k model 00178600/0459 is 56k but not v90.
All the above use a 9v AC 800mA-1000mA wall wart PSU.

added: Just tested a bunch of other modems a few months ago but for the life of me cannot find them or would add some other good internal and external modems....

Shouldn't any external serial modem work under any OS? Only Winmodems needed a driver, and they were internal (or perhaps on Cardbus card)

Dial-up did have one advantage over the internet: peer-to-peer. Everybody with a phone line had a phone number. Everybody with an internet connection does NOT have a static IP address.

Always wanted a zyxel modem when they were still good. Got a nuvo?novotel 14k4 instead. Well that one worked but it was more of a hassle to get it working reliably
Still got the accoustic coupler from tandy/radioshack 300bps ! 👍

I'm currently looking at some external U.S. Robotics 56k modems for my 486 and Pentium 3 builds. I have plenty of slots in my Athlon XP build, so I will throw a modem in there as well, though it will have to be a PCI modem. It will probably be used rarely, if at all, though I want all my PCs to have as much functionality as possible. I don't know if 86box and DosBox have modem support, though I may even buy a modern USB modem for my Ryzen rig, just because.

You're much better off with an external serial modem - as far as I know, if it's a serial modem then it's a real one and doesn't need any silly drivers installing; your serial comms programme and dialling software just talk standard Hayes AT commands to it.

If you install one on an ISA or PCI card then it's possible it's a software one... and they're a pain in the ass.

I had great experience with Supra modems back in the day..

ah yes, who doesn't love* those PCI WinModems or those Windows only GDI printers...

I think that all started with/around the time of the IBM mwave sound/dsp/modem chipset.

*love to throw them into a volcano and watch them sizzle away.

External modems are defiantly preferred but will be bottlenecked if your 486 or early Pentium only has a 8250 UART serial ports.
Internal modem bypasses this bottleneck but then you miss out on all the flashing lights which is all part of the fun IMHO

chinny22 wrote on 2021-05-20, 16:38:

External modems are defiantly preferred but will be bottlenecked if your 486 or early Pentium only has a 8250 UART serial ports.
Internal modem bypasses this bottleneck but then you miss out on all the flashing lights which is all part of the fun IMHO

They also introduce a shitton of noise to the ISA bus.

I used a 28.8K external modem with a 486DX-33 and never saw it bottlenecked to be honest. I don't know about 56K though, by then I had moved on to internal modems.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-05-20, 16:40:

I used a 28.8K external modem with a 486DX-33 and never saw it bottlenecked to be honest. I don't know about 56K though, by then I had moved on to internal modems.

Yeh I had a 33.6 on a 486 with 16550 UART ports. Was lucky if I connected at 28.8 🙁
Slow 486, Win95, line quality, no where near the exchange or ISP. So many variables, but if you can eliminate one then that's 1 less to worry about

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-05-20, 12:32:

You're much better off with an external serial modem - as far as I know, if it's a serial modem then it's a real one and doesn't need any silly drivers installing; your serial comms programme and dialling software just talk standard Hayes AT commands to it.

If you install one on an ISA or PCI card then it's possible it's a software one... and they're a pain in the ass.

Agreed! I remember having a modem back in the day that worked great in DOS, and then years later, I had one that only worked in Windows and I had to fiddle with it in order to play Ultima Online.