Topic: My modem seems to be in a non working state

[idolminds]

Great. Looking over it now. So I may not be around until its fixed or replaced.

[Quemaqua]

Well, damn.  That sucks.  But dialup modems must be cheap as hell now.  Can't you just run to the store and buy one?

[idolminds]

I kind of want another external one so I dont have to pop the case (it'd be a pain). And I cant find any local places with external modems. We'll see, I might break down and grab a cheap internal.

[scottws]

External modems are usually pretty expensive.  If I remember, last time I looked (a couple of years ago) a standard US Robotics was over $100.

[sirean_syan]

That's amazing. The last internal modem I bought was something like $10. Is that the price of what is now becoming specialty hardware?

[scottws]

That's amazing. The last internal modem I bought was something like $10. Is that the price of what is now becoming specialty hardware?

Pretty much.  The one I am thinking of is $84 at Newegg.  They also have an external 33.6 kbps modem that is $93.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=us+robotics&x=0&y=0

[Quemaqua]

That's fucking retarded.  I'm sorry, it just is.  Wow.

[gpw11]

I don't know what's up with that but I don't see any reason you wouldn't be able to use one of the USB dongle modems from half way down the list for half the price.  You don't split your dial up signal do you?

[Cobra951]

I'm thinking it may be economies of scale, in reverse.  How many people still buy telephone modems?  I know faxing (which should have died a decade ago) is still heavily used.

[idolminds]

Yeah, the prices suck. I just got the same as my last one, which is $30 on newegg and has a ton of good reviews. I should get it in a couple days.

[gpw11]

I'm thinking it may be economies of scale, in reverse.  How many people still buy telephone modems?  I know faxing (which should have died a decade ago) is still heavily used.

Yeah, that's probably it exactly.  Less buyers, more profit per each unit necessary to make it worthwhile to produce and more general overhead per unit.  As for faxes, I can kind of see why they're still around.  They're fully saturated into the market and in many circumstances can actually cut steps out of a process.  A large part of it could be signatures though.  Although digital signatures are recognized in many places (the entirety of North America I believe), a faxed signature still represents presumed contractual consideration better and digital signatures in emails and such can still be a judicial nightmare even though recognized by legislation.  Just less risky to take the known path I guess.

[scottws]

What I don't get about faxes is why some fax-like device that leverages the Internet instead of phone transmission hasn't become popular.  I sent a 2-page fax the other day and it took a couple of minutes.  That's crazy.

[gpw11]

I think you can have it set up so that you receive faxes on a PC as .PDF but I don't think many people have adopted it.  Like Cobra said, for the vast majority of uses, fax machines are obsolete...it's just that EVERYONE has one and no one really wants to move on.

[scottws]

I think you can have it set up so that you receive faxes on a PC as .PDF but I don't think many people have adopted it.

No, that's not what I mean.  That still uses slow dial-up technology, it's just that instead of it printing out, it is converted to a TIFF or PDF.  Lots of companies do use that technology, as well as technology that allows you to send an e-mail as a fax (including attachments).  What has to go is the slow transfer technology.  Really, it should all just be e-mail based.

[Cobra951]

Really, it should all just be e-mail based.

/nutshell

[idolminds]

Modem arrived, I'm back! Woo!

[Pugnate]

Congrats bearded one.

edit:

I'd actually buy another one for an emergency heh.

[ren]

How are there still areas without broadband? Do you have 3G coverage?

[idolminds]

Not really. I checked the plans available and most of them are expensive and have tiny usage caps.

[Ghandi]

How are there still areas without broadband?

/Idolwrath