Here are a selection of comments received via Email not all bad. HSP modems seem to run better on an Intel chip rather than a Cyrix but I have just received an Email from PCTel to say there is an upgraded Cyrix driver which is out now on my homepage.
Hi Glen
I’d just like to thank you and everyone at Anglian Internet for setting my Micom HSP modem up with
BTinternet after my
harrowing experience with Compuserve’s free month trial, I
thought 3 minutes to send an email seemed a trifle excessive.
After installing the new Cyrix drivers on my Cyrix166+ and
setting up Email connection and FreeAgent with
Internet Explorer the
world is now my oyster.
Thanks again
John
j.m.f@btinternet.com
First I like to thank you on providing the HSP PCtel Modem driver
for Windows NT.
But, I had to do a lot of tweaking to get it
to perform.
That's why I'm writing back to you.
Last week I bought a new computer. I pentium 233 MMX
With a 3.2 Gig hardrive.
Withit, I received several software packages, and some
were already installed on the system.
Windows 95 was installed, and the manufacturer took
the liberty of configuring the modem and sound card.
I added another 2.4 Gig harddrive and installed
Windows Nt workstation with a dual boot so I can
still have Windows 95.
I need NT for work and had to set up the modem.
As you may know, the modem happened to be
a HSP PCtel.
After downloading your NT driver, I tried to
install the modem, but the PCtel port was
not available. These are the steps I had to
take.
1. Luckly I had Windows 95 to find the address
and IRQ of the installed modem.
2. Within NT I connected the modem to the
external serial port (COM2) using the
Install Modem utility.
Note: the PCtel Port was NOT available.
3. I changed the COM2 Settings to the PC port
address and IRQ.
4. I connected the PC port to COM2. With the
PC port utility that came with your driver.
This procedure worked!
Note: I tried adding a port to the settings of the
PCport, but then that port would not display on the
modem install. And the port would not display on
the PC port utility if I did not have it set
to the PC Port address.
Any comments, feel free to write back.
Steven Rostedt
Senior Associate Programmer
LOCKHEED MARTIN Federal Systems
(607) 751-5657
steven.rostedt@lmco.com
Dear Glen, I just got a new system cobbled together by a mate of mine. It's an AMD K6 166 and he had to plug in the terrible PCtel HSP modem. I even tried out the Intel MMX drivers. The damned thing kept disconnecting me from the Net no matter what I did. I was advised to take the latest drivers off the Net and be gentle with the modem, and if that could tide me over, wait for better drivers! Then I came across your Webpage, which finally explained what HSP meant and why I want to headbutt PCtel for coming up with such dumb ideas. Advice to anyone with a K6 planning on a modem - AVOID THE HSP MODEM LIKE THE PLAGUE! It'll ruin your Netlife, throttle your PC and cause sleepless nights. Of course, if you have found this page, you know that by now.
My HSP modem is an
"Aztech" bundled with a Zenon PC. The modem is
incredibly slow, but when I finally connected "PCTel"
to their website and found out what HSP is, I see why it could be
slower. But I don't understand why it is SOOOOO slow.
My question is: Why? Why would anyone want to buy a modem that's
going to drag down their system (to some extent). I mean people
pay good money to upgrade their CPU; why would most people want
to slow it down when normal modems are $100-$150?
It just seems like a bad idea. How much do these HSP modems cost
retail?
Thanks for the page. It's nice to know other people are dealing
with this hardware.
Victor Anderson
vanderson@prodigy.net
Read your web site at work
today after a long week trying to get connected with a PCTel
modem. The new drivers for Cyrix chips have done the trick for me
though I am still considering returning the modem. I bought a
Cyrix P150+ from Computer Trading back in November with the modem
pre-installed (no idea what make!!) and they have agreed to
replace it if I so wish. Anyway I am writing to thank you for
posting this information - you helped me out enormously.
-- Alun Green
The page is the end of a long search for me. Being new to the
internet I have been thinking it was me who couldn't find the
Micom Home Page! I have a P166 K5 AMD chip which works fine (I
think!) The connection speed is always 28.8 though.
Thanks for the effort, many people wouldn't have bothered.
David
Following a nightmare trying to
get the damned thing working, solved by downloading the drivers
from your site and a bit of trial and error with cabling, I find
that the modem works very well, even allowing some multitasking,
although I usually only have my browser running while I surf. I
got the thing for 30 pounds from a local distributors
"bargain bin" and was seriously beginning to wonder if
it was such a bargain. I must now say that I am actually quite
pleased with it ! I did have some problems accessing Zetnet and a
number of other sites, but they went when I binned Explorer,
which I can only assume was causing some conflict with Navigator
(2.2)
Thank you for posting the only information on what appears to be
quite a dodgy company.
Norman
We have been fussing around
with this pctel modem and some old drivers. Now i've installed
the drivers from your site everything works fast and smooth!
Great!
Happy greetings,
Karin & Dennis.
Glen:
Thank you for your prompt response, albeit several hours too
late! Even as I sent you that email message, my friend was on the
phone with the place that sold her the computer (armed with the
information from your page, that they had assembled two
incompatible pieces of hardware), and they gave her a new US
Robotics Sportster 33.6 free. So her problem was already solved.
But thank you very much anyway!
Sean
Thanks for putting together
this page as I am now on my third modem. They seem to work fine
for a while then slow down everything until my pentium 133 ,
32meg EDO, 512k cache full bells and whistles machine locks up
totally. Also thanks for the info about Virge cards I'll try it
out and get back to you. Hopefully I can find the latest drivers
for my machine somewhere on the 'net (if you know where the
please mail me)
Again many thanks Chris :)
Hello from the USA.
I too am having trouble with the PCtel HSP with my Cyrix 166+.
Everything works fine until I actually make connection with my
local ISP. Then things slooooowwwwww wayyyy down!!!. Everything I
see from your page concerns the Micom modem, my new concern is
the modem is showing up at the computer fairs over here as a
ZOLTRIX modem with the PCtel guts.My driver disk says ZOLTRIX Win HSP Modem Driver Version 2.15.
Thought you might want to know it's here too. I just dl'd your
driver in hopes that it cures my problem.
Thanks alot
Rich from West Virginia (USA)
Hi Glen,
This page has really helped. I am a senior tech support agent for
a major Canadian ISP and I have referred this page to other tech
support agents. I have picked up and applied some of your
tip/tricks on your page, and would like to thank you. The one
that I found the most useful is the %Nx. I start with %N5 and
work my way up until the customer is satisfied.
Thanks a lot again,
Jay
Hi
Just as an aside to the mail I sent you yeterday, having said
that for most
of the time I have been connecting at 28.8bps with my 33.6 modem,
due to
murphey's law the next three times I have been connected at
31200bps. It
just goes to show you that it's not only the modem that you use
but a whole
host of variables that can affect performance.
If I was connected at 31200bps every time I think I would settle
for it.
Once again thanks for the helpful website, most informative even
for us
luddites!
Regards
Chris
HELP!!
My PCTEL Modem worked fine for about 2 months. Then yesterday it
got a dial tone, but would not dial. I have tried to reinstall
the port settings, drivers, etc. without success. It is a 33.6
modem, and I am using Windows 95. Really strange, because it
worked well for so long, although I didn't think it was very
fast.
The packaging does not have any phone numbers or any other
contact point.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Nick
Thanks for the Web page on
MICOM modems, I've been trying to trace some technical support
ever since I purchased the Modem. The suppliers can't even
provide a contact number.They are still selling them and they are
now appearing in the small local computer shops.
Before I realised the difficulty I would have contacting MICOM ,
I also purchased a Sound Card (packaged identically). Fortunately
I've had no problems with the sound card.
The new Cyrix driver you posted has improved the performance of
the modem, it still seems slow, but I have too little previous
28,800 experience to be certain. It has definitely improved the
multi-tasking performance and I've seen no drop in connection
speed.
I notice that one of the comments on your page suggests the
upgrade of the modem may be more problematic than PC-Tel
originally stated. Have I interpreted this correctly ?
I'm still looking for an NT 4.0 driver if you've any contacts !
Regards,
John
I purchased a Micom 33.6 modem
from Big Deal of Humberstone N.E.Lincs in Dec '96. I am connected
to prestel and get 28.8 most of the time. I am using a Intel 166
with a Virge based graphics card, so the new info on the Pctel
page about this has helped. I now get no dropped connections, and
in general quite good performance. However Pctel claims of
software upgrades is a bit far fetched, and I am thinking of
buying a US Robotics Sportster to upgrade to x2.
Thankyou for the info on your page as my son has a Cyrix P166+
machine and we may us the Micom in that.
Regards Eddy
Hi, have downloaded it, and it doesn't make any difference for me!!!
Bought it recently, found it to be TOTALLY useless!!!
Can get it to work slowly on some connections, (eg to send SMS messages to mobile phones) but have never managed to get it to connect to Zetnet yet AT ALL!!! Just won't talk and connect!!! The software that came with it I can't get to work - all in all, Useless!!!
It's going back, and I will
stick with my 28800 modem for now!!! :-(
Bye, Ian
Hi!
Spotted your message on a zetnet.* newsgroup. I had the misfortune to have one of these modems for a while too, though my machine is an Intel P100/24MB RAM. I could not get 16 or 32 bit Trumpet Winsock to work whatsoever, and after a harrowing 48 hours, I exchanged it for a 33.6K Rockwell chipset generic modem, which works brilliantly.
Including you, I now know 6 past or present users, and none has connected to Zetnet easily or in some cases at all! A friend just asked me to specify bits for his PC that he was having made for him, and I said "any modem, preferably with Rockwell chipset, and not mentioning PCTel or HSP anywhere!
How satisfactorily has your
alleged modem worked, and where did you get it from (if you don't
mind me asking!)? Lots of PC sellers seem to install this modem,
as it's just about the cheapest (and nastiest!) around right now.
This makes the problems even worse, as it's usually these people
who aren't "au fait" with modems and the net, and are
hence less qualified to solve problems!
Best Regards, Tony
I know two other people who bought this modem and we have all ended up sending them back for a cash refund as they just did not work properly on our Pentium PC's, very sloooow.
I think we have all bought USR 33.6 Voice modems now, such is life.
Regards ?
Thank you very much for your comments. This morning I added
BusThrottle=1 to system.ini under [display] and this seems to
have solved the current problem (although I can still only
connect one out of three tries). Nevertheless, this is better
than not being able to connect at all !.
Regarding your question; honestly, the only time I felt a real drawback was when I used Microsoft Netmeeting or listened to RealAudio music together with other applications (MS Internet Explorer open as well, of course). There, you see that something is draining the power of the CPU. You see all commands executed in slow motion !
When I use other programs I don't need to get connected to the net, so there is no HSP to worry about. This may not be the case for other people who must keep running net dependent applications and they must realize that they are sacrificing a lot from their computers' processing power by using HSP type modems.
Maybe in the future CPUs will be so fast that HSP type jobs will require minimal processing power. Then, it would be nice to have HSP - because of the cheap and easy upgrade feature.
Regards, Tarik
Hi Glen... I have a P100 intel chip, triton chipset motherboard, 32 EDO ram, 512 pipeline, 3.8gig Quantum, 2meg Diamond stealth....etc. The HSP modem runs almost like a 28 Rockwell...
I expected to be able to upgrade it by software or have a performance increase if and when I upgrade my processor... anyhow when I looked at PCtel web page it seems the new HSP 56k modem is a new unit and that my 33.6 will I suppose be left by the wayside...
This rush in technology and trying to future proof our hardware seems impossible.. but then again I must admit I love the ever improvements in PC technology...
All the best John
I bought a MICOM PCTel modem at
a computer fair, and set it up as recommended. I have a Cyrix
P150+ on an Intel PCI motherboard. It was a disaster; my PC was
basically crippled online. Nothing worked properly. Briefly, I
swapped the modem pronto for a full chipset Harmomy Rockwell 33.6
and now I'm getting great speed and all my Win95 software is
running fine. I would strongly advise DO NOT buy a reduced
chipset modem like the MICOM, especially if you have a non-Intel
CPU.
Thanks for your website, Glen,
Trevor
shiva@zetnet.co.uk