On 21 Aug 2006 22:45:36 -0700, "toronado455"
<toronado455@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Update. I saw two modems with the "Hummingbird" brand at Fry's.
>
>One is designated a "Controllerless" modem and has the Agere chip and
>costs $15.
>http://www.taicom.com/cpebu1/product/modem/ha56c.htm
>
>The other one has the Smartlink chip and is $13.
>http://www.taicom.com/cpebu1/product/modem/ms56s.htm
>
>Question: What does "controllerless" mean?
>
>The Taicom web site is very poorly designed. Based on that alone I
>don't want to buy either one of those.
>
>And here is one I'm considering that is available on Directron:
>http://www.phoebemicro.com/products/LUNAR_EXPRESST.php


IMO, you are splitting hairs, they're all pretty similar and
only $10 or so. Once upon a time, how much hardware assist
it had mattered more as CPUs were slower, but today it's
more a matter of entire hardware modem (thus supports all
operating systems) or winmodem (only windows support though
main now have Linux drivers too... you'll have to research
that for any particular chipset if it's important).

I wouldn't be concerned about the Taicom web site though,
the modem itself is probably extremely similar to the
phoebemicro link you posted next... and in general, you
would be better off with a chipset supported by the chipset
manufacturer, as an unknown/generic/relabeled chip might be
harder to find drivers for later (for Windows Vista, for
example, if Vista didn't happen to have winmodem support
which it might for the most popular chips).