Portions of the following message were excerpted from the HST Echo Mail and include comments from Bob Mahoney (Sysop of 100-node EXEC-PC)... When talking about 9600 baud modems and their new features, keep in mind that ALL *MAJOR* manufacturers have already announced, or are about to announce, V.32 models with V.42 compatibility. Also as important, USR, HAYES and TELIX are all producing "DUAL STANDARD" modems. The high speed modems from these manufacturers are capable of, or will very soon be capable of the following: ALL MODELS: Backward compatible with virtually all 300/1200/2400 baud modems, including MNP error correction/compression (MNP-5). USR: (Their "HST Dual Standard" modem) Compatible with HST mode at 9600 baud and 14,400 baud, and compatible with V.32 with MNP 5 and/or with V.42. Not compatible with the Hayes V-series @9600 baud. Hayes: (Their "Ultra" modem) Compatible with Hayes 9600 baud V-series and compatible with V.32 with MNP 5 and/or with V.42. Compatible with USR's HST/Dual Standard @ 9600 baud, but not with the USR HST. Telex: (Their Telebit Trailblazer "T2500") Compatible with PEP modems at 9600 baud and compatible with V.32 with MNP 5 and/or with V.42. Not compatible with either the USR HST or the Hayes V-series. Unit IS com- patible with the USR HST/Dual Standard and the Hayes Ultra @ 9600 baud. MultiTech: (Their newest V.32 modem) Compatible with V.32 with MNP 5 and V.42. Not compatible with the Hayes V-series or USR HST. Unit IS compatible with the Hayes Ultra and the USR HST/Dual Standard @ 9600. Do you see a pattern developing here? All manufacturers are building modems with V.32 and MNP 5 and V.42. V.32 with V.42 is a new CCITT standard, MNP 5 is a powerful de facto standard with an already large installed base of some half-million units in the USA alone. What should a sysop do? First, a sysop should not worry about V.32/V.42/MNP 5 since any MAJOR modem he buys will be fully compatible with that new industry standard. In that case, all brands are nearly identical. Most brands are even using the same Rockwell V.32 chip set for implementation of the new standard, meaning the modems are quite similar internally. My USR HST/Dual Standard modems have received perfect connections from ALL other major brands of V.32 modems, so compatiblity at the V.32 level is not a factor in this discussion. In general, the user can consider all V.32 modems to be compatible. When they all support V.42 (any day now), they will all be compatible at the highest current standardized level of data compression and error correction. No big deal, not an issue anymore. If a sysop has already had a 9600 baud (or 14,400 baud) modem online for some time now, then the sysop already has a brand preference, and it is likely his callers think the same way. For example, Exec-PC has had 10 USR HST modems online for a long time. It was only logical that we upgrade them to USR HST dual standard V.32/V.42 modems, not to Hayes modems, since our caller base has more callers using the USR HST modem. If I had bought Hayes or some other brand of 9600 baud modem, I still would have had the V.32/MNP-5/V.42 capability, but I would have lost compatibility with the HST callers. This, I'm sure, would have made a lot of my high speed callers very angry. By purchasing the USR HST "Dual Standard", I satisfy everyone. Many Unix systems use Telebit modems because Telex has made a point of marketing to the Unix market for many years, Telex has given healty discounts to Unix sites for many years, and Telex has a few features tailored specifically for Unix applications. So a Telebit Unix site will obviously buy the new Telebit dual standard modems. If a sysop has been using a Hayes 9600 V-series modem for some time now, he will probably lean towards the Hayes dual standard modem. Don't be confused however. Just because Hayes has announced a "dual standard" modem, it is not - repeat, NOT compatible with the USR HST. It *IS* compatible with the USR HST/Dual Standard, but only in V.32/V.42 mode. What if a sysop does not have any 9600 baud modems online yet? First, it is easy to eliminate the Telebit modem, since the great majority of PC oriented bulletin boards will have many more callers who already own USR or Hayes high speed modems. Telebit has never made a big dent in the PC BBS arena. So forget about Telebit when there are the nice USR and Hayes choices. Before I go on, one small but important point about the Telebit: When the Trailblazer was introduced about 5 years ago (and ever since), it has been touted as a full 19,200 baud modem. That is not exactly accurate. It is more accurately a 9600 baud modem that uses a data compression techique similar in concept to V.42, so some data will be compressed well, but ZIP, ARC, GIF and other compressed files will NOT give you 19,200 baud throughput. Magazine comparison tests have proven this. The issue of Hayes vs. USR is typically one based more on emotions and loyalties than on fact. I am emotionally opposed to Hayes because of the high prices they always charge consumers (they give good sysop discounts, but they don't have a history of giving reasonable prices to end users), and their belated introduction of a non-standard 9600 baud modulation scheme did not make sense to me when the market had already established some strong de facto standards in the V.32 arena. The Hayes V-series also has an admittedly small installed user base when compared to USR HST users. On issues of quality of connection, both the USR HST and Hayes V-series have performed to the satisfaction of reviewers in comparison tests. I think the modems are close enough in their performance on dirty phone lines that either modem is a good choice based on noise rejection. On the issue of speed of data transmission, the USR HST/Dual Standard is the hands-down winner with a true 14,400 baud connection, then boosted by MNP 5 compression, and soon to be boosted even more by V.42. So if total data throughput (speed) is the top priority, the USR HST/Dual is the winner. It is fully compatible with the installed user base of 300, 1200 and 2400 baud modems including MNP levels 3, 4, and 5 plus it is compatible with all 9600 baud V.32 modems as well as the HST modems. If V.32 compatibility is the top priority, then either brand will do, since both are capable of V.32 with MNP 5 and V.42. Both use the same Rockwell chip set to accomplish this, and both are compatible with callers at slower speeds of 300, 1200 and 2400 baud w/MNP-5. Sysop price is not an issue, since Hayes has (finally) become competetive in sysop pricing, this from pressure from USR. Thank you, USR. Remember, though, that standardizing a BBS on Hayes will force some of your callers to spend more money than if you standardize on USR, since Hayes prices are an INDUSTRY LEADER in how high they are! Reliabilty? While the Hayes modems give a better IMPRESSION of reliability, since they have a nice extruded aluminum case with a solid feel, all of my experiences and the experiences of my industry acquaintances don't point to any reliability advantage for the Hayes products. As a matter of fact, Hayes has more reliability "black eyes" on the books than does USR. If you were not around when Hayes first introduced their 2400 baud modems back in the early to mid-80's, you missed some humorous "save face" actions when the Hayes modems had overheating and component failures and line noise problems galore. Not that this is typical of Hayes, but don't be fooled by appearances - any manufacturer can have quality problems, no matter what you think of them. Stay completely away from the bargain basement "no-name" modems or ones whose brand name no one has ever heard of. Remember, you generally get what you pay for. Do not be guided by price. If you cannot afford a *quality grade* of 9600 baud modem, then you cannot afford a 9600 baud modem at all. New vs. Used? Obvious question to ask is, "Why is the seller selling it?" A popular vote? No matter which modem can be argued to be better on levels of technical brilliance, performance, reliability, price or looks, Exec-PC has always been guided by the popular vote. Like it or not, US Robotics has a much greater installed base of 9600 baud modems on bulletin boards than does Hayes. I believe this has caused more BBS callers to buy the USR HST than to have purchased the Hayes high speed modem. The lower cost of the USR products has also been a factor. So when choosing a high speed modem based on the greatest number of callers who can call Exec-PC, I obviously chose the USR HST/Dual Standard. There simply is a larger population of BBS callers who own a modem compatible with it. It is my personal opinion that there simply is no other choice that makes as much sense. Sysop prices for the USR HST/Dual Standard are currently $699 + shipping. End-user "street prices" of the HST/Dual vary from $995 to $1050. Admittedly a lot of money for the casual hobbyist, but considerably less expensive than the Hayes Ultra. In discussing high speed modems with fellow sysops and asking the question point blank, "If you had it all to do over again, which modem would you buy?" The overall response was the HST/Dual by a landslide. Hayes owners cite virtually hundreds of complaints from would-be HST callers, while HST/Dual owners cite *less than* 1 caller in 5000 with a compatibility problem. END.