Nostalgic dialup modem question

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Obraik

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#317728 10-Nov-2024 00:16

This probably isn’t quite the right forum for this question but I don’t think the correct forum exists anymore.

I was talking with a friend of my vintage who also grew up in the late 90s/early 2000s with dial up internet and I was recollecting having an external dialup modem that was marketed as a rural modem that was more resilient to noisy phone lines. I went to look it up to show him but I cannot find any reference online to it now. Does anyone remember who made it and what model? I thought it was a US Robotics modem but I might be misremembering that.

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CYaBro

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#3307394 10-Nov-2024 00:42

The only one I recall being marketed as a “rural’ modem was a Dynalink.

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Goosey

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#3307420 10-Nov-2024 08:27

Might be the “draytek”, was the modem of choice for many who valued rocksteady connections.

they became super popular once ADSL came along..

Behodar

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#3307421 10-Nov-2024 08:29

Yep, Dynalink. Here's the marketing text for the Rural Modem II:

Dynalink has developed a new modem especially for difficult line conditions.

The Dynalink Rural modem was developed especially to enable rural users to get better internet connections. Dynalink's engineers modified the firmware of the Dynalink Voice Desk Pro to achieve the best result possible with this Conexant ACF2 modem design.
Conexant ceased production of the chipset and so this modem has been discontinued.

Dynalink has examined many options for a replacement and was pleased to find that ZyXEL manufactured a modem that had an even better performance over longer reach lines. In fact our laboratory tests show that it is capable of maintaining a connection over a reach 50% greater than the original model. It is almost impossible to realistically model "typical" New Zealand rural line conditions but our limited field experience gives us a great level of confidence that Dynalink Rural II will enable many rural users to experience an improved Internet connection. Unfortunately it is still not going to perform miracles but the product will be upgraded continually as we gain real world experience.

New releases of firmware will be posted on this site as they become available.

Another important feature of the Rural Modem II is its ability to retrain upwards as well as downwards. Most modems tend to retrain downward only, resulting in the dreaded spiral of death. Simply they get slower and slower until finally they disconnect. The Rural II will negotiate lower data rates when it encounters noise but will seek to retrain faster if noise levels abate. The result is a reliable connection and greater throughput over time.

Obraik

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#3307504 10-Nov-2024 14:05

The Dynalink Rural Modem definitely sounds like what I'm thinking of. The only pictures I can now find show it in a beige case, but I seem to remember the one we had being black

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coffeebaron

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#3307621 10-Nov-2024 22:10

I had one of those, and onsold a few too.

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nztim

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#3307625 10-Nov-2024 22:43

We sold a lot of US Robotics courier modems back in the day $600 each

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SepticSceptic

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#3307628 10-Nov-2024 22:53

Ahh , the good ol downward retrains.

Those Napster download speeds getting lower and lower ..

xpd

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#3307649 11-Nov-2024 08:21

Yes, I recall that unit. IIRC it was an actual hardware based modem with the Rockwell chipset, rather than the soft modems that were extremely common as a PCI card (lucent ?). Hardware based units were hell of a lot more stable with poor lines, but cost a bit more. If you had external modem, you had a hardware unit.

I always had external units, was only option for an Amiga 500+ :D Started with a USR Courier ($300 2nd hand), then when 33.6k and up arrived, switched to Dynalink external units. They were fantastic little units, and the support from Dynalink was awesome :)

XPD / Gavin

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nztim

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#3307661 11-Nov-2024 09:14

xpd:

They were fantastic little units, and the support from Dynalink was awesome :)

Yup visited the factory in Palmerston North

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