Looking for a new modem? Recommended
modems for CallStation, Phone Plus, and IDentify! are reviewed
below. Before getting to the reviews, here is some general
information you may find useful when looking for a modem.
Voice Features
If you wish to use CallStation
or the Auto-Hang-Up feature on IDentify! or Phone Plus, then your
modem must have voice capability. Voice modems are able to play
and record audio over the phone line. Some voice modems also have
speakerphone support which allows you to have telephone conversations
using a microphone and speaker connected to the modem. Speakerphone
capable modems used to be quite common, but it has become increasingly
difficult to find modems with this capability.
Caller ID
If you want to use IDentify!, or
the optional Caller ID features found
in Phone Plus or CallStation,
you must have a modem with Caller ID
capability. Many modems do not have this
capability, so make sure that the modem
you buy specifically states that
it has Caller ID support. Also, it must support
the Caller ID standard used in your country.
VoIP Phone Services
Be aware that modems
can have compatibility problems with the
telephone adapter boxes used by VoIP phone services.
These adapters typically put out lower signal
levels than you would find on a normal telephone
line. Modems can be sensitive to the low signal
levels and may not detect when the phone is ringing,
or the Caller ID may be unreliable. The modems recommended
below worked perfectly with a Vonage VoIP telephone adapter
(Motorola) and with Comcast Digital Voice service (Arris telephony modem),
so they are likely to work with most digital phone services.
Ooma VoIP telephone adapters, however, are known to have compatibility
problems with pretty much all modems (unreliable Caller ID).
Vista and Windows 7
All Impulse Technology products are fully compatible
with Vista and Windows 7, however, there is a bug in these
operating systems which can prevent applications from playing
audio through the modem to the phone line. The caller
will only hear silence. This bug
mainly affects modems with Conexant chipsets. The modems
reviewed below both use an Agere chipset and are not affected
by this bug.
Modem Reviews
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Rosewill RNX-56AG PCI Data/Fax/TAM Modem |
| Interface: |
Internal PCI bus |
| Chipset: |
Agere (software modem) |
| O.S. Support: |
Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 |
| Cost: |
$7.99 plus shipping at Newegg |
| Drivers: |
Download the drivers below.
A Readme.txt file is included with installation
instructions.
Windows XP Drivers (680 KB): RNX-56AG_XP.zip
Vista Drivers (1.42 MB): RNX-56AG_Vista.zip
Windows 7 Drivers (1.45 MB): RNX-56AG_Win7.zip
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| Note: |
Two other modems are basically the same as this Rosewill modem.
Although they have not been tested, they should work with the drivers above. These modems are
the TRENDnet TFM-PCIV92A and the HiRO H50006. |
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The Good
This modem has excellent Caller ID detection, probably the best I've seen on any modem.
The Caller ID comes up almost instantly, and it worked every time (even when the modem
was connected to a VoIP phone adapter).
Voice playback and recording worked very well for the most part. The recording level
was rather low, but that is typical of most modems. Simply configure the CallStation
"Record Boost" option to +10dB to compensate.
When it came to dialing phone numbers in Phone Plus, this modem performed nicely.
The dialing sounds are actually routed through your sound card instead of playing the
sounds through a tiny speaker on the modem like most modems do. The sounds were very clear
and easy to hear. Also, when dialing a busy number the busy tones were detected very quickly
(in about three seconds).
The Bad
There is a 60 second limitation when recording audio through the modem. For some reason,
the modem just stops recording after about a minute. This seems to be a common problem with
Agere based modems. If someone tries to leave a message longer than 60 seconds in CallStation
and the max recording time is set to 2 minutes or more, this will result in the modem becoming
stuck off-hook due to the audio stream being cut off. To avoid this problem, CallStation
has an option to limit recordings to 55 seconds. This will allow callers to leave the
longest message that can be recorded safely. You can find this option on the Modem tab
in the Main Options.
The 60 second limitation also applies to the CallStation Conversation Recording feature.
This will prevent you from recording long conversations, however, the feature
may still be useful to record some limited information during a conversation.
When dialing phone numbers in CallStation, the dialing sounds could not be heard (except
under Windows 7). This is apparently related to the
fact that Phone Plus dials in "data" mode while CallStation dials in "voice" mode. CallStation
will, however, indicate when the dialing has been completed and you should pick up the receiver
on your phone.
Conclusion
This modem is recommended for use with all three programs, but be aware of
the recording limitation if you are using CallStation.
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|
| |
HiRO V.92 56K External USB Voice Modem Model H50113 |
| Interface: |
External USB device |
| Chipset: |
Agere (software modem) |
| O.S. Support: |
Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 |
| Cost: |
This modem can be found on eBay (new) for under $20 |
| Drivers: |
For Windows XP or Vista, use the drivers on the disc that comes
with the modem. For Windows 7, download drivers from the HiRO website |
|
|
The Good
This modem has excellent Caller ID detection, as good as you can find.
The Caller ID comes up almost instantly, and it worked every time.
Voice playback and recording worked very well for the most part. The recording level
was a bit low, but that is typical of most modems. Simply configure the CallStation
"Record Boost" option to +6dB to compensate.
When it came to dialing phone numbers in Phone Plus, this modem performed nicely.
The dialing sounds are actually routed through your sound card instead of playing the
sounds through a tiny speaker on the modem like most modems do. The sounds were very clear
and easy to hear.
The Bad
There is a 60 second limitation when recording audio through the modem. For some reason,
the modem just stops recording after about a minute. This seems to be a common problem with
Agere based modems. If someone tries to leave a message longer than 60 seconds in CallStation
and the max recording time is set to 2 minutes or more, this will result in the modem becoming
stuck off-hook due to the audio stream being cut off. To avoid this problem, CallStation
has an option to limit recordings to 55 seconds. This will allow callers to leave the
longest message that can be recorded safely. You can find this option on the Modem tab
in the Main Options.
The 60 second limitation also applies to the CallStation Conversation Recording feature.
This will prevent you from recording long conversations, however, the feature
may still be useful to record some limited information during a conversation.
Dialing phone numbers in CallStation did not work as well as it did in Phone Plus. When
dialing a number, the dialing sounds could not be heard. This is apparently related to the
fact that Phone Plus dials in "data" mode while CallStation dials in "voice" mode. CallStation
will, however, indicate when the dialing has been completed and you should pick up the receiver
on your phone.
Conclusion
This modem is recommended for use with all three programs, but be aware of
the recording limitation if you are using CallStation.
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The reviews on this page are the opinion
of Impulse Technology. Your results may differ.
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