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Re: Can one do anything useful With an Old USB Apple Dialup Modem?



Gregory Nowak wrote:
> Bob Proulx wrote:
> > Caller id modems are often found used quite cheap on ebay and at
> > thrift stores.  I am using a callerid modem for the caller id function
> > myself.  I had one die on me a while back and I replaced it with one I
> > found on ebay for less than $10.  (Unfortunately the one I am
> > currently using is starting to flake out.  I may have to think about
> > upgrading again.  Maybe to a voip box I now have but haven't put to
> > use yet.)
> 
> An argument for not buying the cheapest thing available. I got the pci
> hardware modem I currently using for caller id in Spring of 2000 for
> somewhere around $70 as I recall. I'm still using that very modem a
> whooping almost 14 years later.

You may have paid $70 for it 14 years ago but if you sold that on ebay
today you might get almost as much as $10 for it.  :-)

The modem I am currently using is a US Robotics 56K modem and
originally probably sold for $70 back in the day.  I am looking at a
listing for a good shape US Robotics 56K v.92 modem right now for
$8.00 buy it now.  And a v.90 for $9.89.  And a lot of 5 for $35.  One
of them is bound to be fully functional.  (chuckle, the shotgun
method.)  And a lot of *17* for $60.  Wire up five in parallel and let
them majority vote on the answer for redundancy.

I also see people asking $50 and more for them but who would pay that
when the same items are also available at dumpster diving prices?

  http://www.ebay.com/sch/I.html?_nkw=us+robotics+modem

And I just picked US Robotics because I know that brand well.  There
are other brands as well.  But I always advise to buy what you know.
If you don't know it well then don't buy it.

Meanwhile I am probably done with analog modems.  I bought a Sipura
SPA3000 some time ago to set up a voip pbx.  But I never got around to
doing anything with it.  At this point if I upgrade I will work on the
digital pbx instead.

Bob

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