[mythtv-users] which dial-up modem?

[Michael T. Dean]

Sasha Z wrote:

>On 10/21/05, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>Steve Adeff wrote:
>>
>>>I have a USRobotics Courier 56K external modem that I believe is in my parents
>>>garage. It's prbly the best analog phone line modem ever made. I used to
>>>routinely transfer at rates far above 56K even when people were saying it was
>>>impossible to even connect at 56K (as did a few of my friends who also had
>>>this modem), and this is using the correct bit/byte/Kb math conversions.
>>>
>>And compression.  Note that--at least in the US and Canada--it is
>>impossible to connect at > 53k, even when using a 56k modem.  The
>>problem is not the modem but the fact that transmitting at speeds
>>greater the 53k requires more power than the FCC (and whomever makes
>>these rules for Canada) allows on phone lines.
>>    
>>
>That phone line power law sounds strange - why does the FCC get to
>regulate how much power gets put on a POTS line. It's not getting
>radiated (at least, not much). How does the courier know how much
>power to put out? I have one. :)
>
Why does the FCC get to regulate that all TV's be equipped with digital 
tuners (sometimes costing hundreds of dollars each--think of what it 
cost you to buy a processor capable of decoding 1080i MPEG-2)?  Why does 
the FCC get to regulate that any digital processing device must respect 
the broadcast flag?  Oh, wait, the courts smacked them down on that 
one...  ;)

Anyway, http://www.56k.com/cons/53k.shtml and 
http://www.cctec.com/maillists/nanog/historical/9809/msg00011.html .  
Looks like you can get up to 54.6k, now, though because of better usage 
of power.

The point is, though, that you won't get more than 56k.  If your 
computer is reporting anything higher than 56k, it's definitely 
reporting something else--like port speed or transfer speed after 
decompressing data or ...

Mike