Path: kernighan.cs.umass.edu!barrett From: msawyer@netcom.com (Matt Sawyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: SupraSonic 288V+/336V+ Modem Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm Date: 27 Jul 1997 23:26:23 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 233 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <5rglev$chp@kernighan.cs.umass.edu> Reply-To: msawyer@netcom.com (Matt Sawyer) NNTP-Posting-Host: knots.cs.umass.edu Keywords: hardware, modem, commercial X-Review-Number: Volume 1997 Number 15 Originator: barrett@knots.cs.umass.edu PRODUCT NAME SupraSonic 288V+/336V+ Modem BRIEF DESCRIPTION A v.34bis modem with Data/Fax/Voice. It is capable of speeds up to 33.6kbps data & 14.4kbps fax. It has Flash ROM, Caller ID, and includes all cables & a headset. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Diamond Multimedia Supra Communications Division Address: 7101 Supra Drive SW Albany, OR 97321 USA Telephone: 1-800-727-8772 Fax: 1-360-604-1401 FaxBack: 1-541-967-0072 E-mail: supratech@supra.com (General Support) Web: http://www.supra.com LIST PRICE The current estimated retail price (ERP) is $199.95 USD. DEMO VERSION None. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE The only hardware needed is an unused serial port. A 25 pin serial cable is included in the box. SOFTWARE In order to use the modem, you will need some sort of terminal, fax, or voice mail software. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000 (Desktop), 2 MB Chip RAM, 80 MB Fast RAM 1 internal 1.76 MB floppy 2 Maxtor 1.6 GB IDE hard drives 1 internal Toshiba 6.7x SCSI-2 CD-ROM drive 1 internal Iomega 1.0 GB SCSI-2 Jaz drive phase5 Cyberstorm MKII 68060 accelerator phase5 Cyberstorm SCSI-2 module phase5 CyberVision64 graphics card Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 17TX Monitor AmigaOS 3.1 (Kickstart 40.68 and Workbench 40.42) CyberGraphX v3 Term v4.7c GP-Fax v2.342 INSTALLATION The modem is simple to install. Just take it out of the box and using the supplied 25 pin modem cable, connect it to your Amiga's serial port. If you buy the PC version, then there is nothing else to do as it comes preconfigured with settings that work with an Amiga. If you buy the MAC version, you may need to type a few AT commands to change the default configuration settings in order to make it compatible with an Amiga. Read your user manual! REVIEW Well, what can I say? This is another in a long line of Supra (now Diamond Multimedia) modems that I have owned. As with each of it's predicessors, it has worked flawlessly and reliably for the 12 months that I've owned it so far. The modem was originally only 28.8kbps, but I upgraded it to 33.6kbps. The upgrade to 33.6kbps was easy as the modem contains a Flash ROM. I just downloaded the new Flash ROM code off of the Supra web site and using Term, I transfered the new ROM code to the modem's Flash ROM using x-modem. Unfortunately, the modem is not upgradeable to the new 56kbps protocols. My Internet Service Provider (ISP) only supports 28.8kbps dial-up at the moment. The modem reliably connects at 28.8kbps in the receive direction and usually 24.0, 26.4 or 28.8kbps in the transmit direction. I haven't ever tried to connect to another 33.6kbps modem, so I do not know how well it would connect at that speed. The few times I have sent faxes, it connected at 14.4kbps, so I was very happy with that. The modem comes with a bunch of fax & communications software for Windows95/NT (PC package). Of course this is all useless on an Amiga. Instead, I happily use Term and GP-Fax. I originally bought the modem for the voice support. What I've found is that there is only one software package for Amiga for voice mail called AVM. I was unable to get this package to work with the modem. To be fair though, I did not really put much effort into it. I fiddled with it for a couple hours and then just gave up. So, if anyone has it working, feel free to e-mail me and let me know how you got it to work. I do not have Caller ID, so I cannot comment on how well that works. Nor have I tried the included headset as I have not been able to find any Amiga software to use it with. DOCUMENTATION The modem comes with several user's manuals. There is a detailed reference manual, a getting started manual and user's manuals for the included software. Every time I have refered to the documentation I have been able to find what I am looking for with one exception. The exception is information on the AT commands for voice support. There isn't any reference to these at all. I checked Supra's website, and there isn't any information on the voice commands there either. However, the modem uses the Rockwell chipset and Rockwell has information on the chipset, including all supported AT commands, on their website - http://www.rockwell.com. LIKES I am very happy with the product overall. As I mentioned above, this is my 4th or 5th Supra modem going back to the 1200 baud days, and they have all been extremely reliable and have performed at or above my expectations. One thing that I especially like about this particular modem is the LCD display. It has a dual line LCD display which shows protocol, transmit speed, receive speed, renegoatiating, etc. It's a vast improvement over the classic Supra 2 character LCD display on their previous models. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS My only dislike was that Supra did not provide technical reference documentation on the voice commands. But these can be easily obtained from the Rockwell site (see documentation above). COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I also currently own a SupraFAXmodem 33.6. The difference between the two modems is only the display and the SupraSonic has voice support. Otherwise, both modems perform equally well. I have used a variety of 28.8kbps modems via compatability testing for my work. These have ranged from Hayes, US Robotics, Multitech, Motorola, etc. The Supra modems have always performed very well in comparison to the other brands. BUGS I personally have not found any bugs. Supra has continously updated it's website with the latest released (and Beta) ROM code to fix bugs others have found. VENDOR SUPPORT I sent e-mail to Supra's tech support to inquire about the missing documentation on the voice commands. I received a response the next day pointing me to Rockwell's web site where I could download the chipset reference manual. I was very pleased with the response time and the content of the response. As mentioned above, Supra provides ROM updates on it's website. WARRANTY The warranty for this product is 5 years from the original retail purchase date. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, I am very happy with the modem. It has been very reliable and has performed above my expectations. If you are buying it for voice support, you might want to think twice as the Amiga is lacking software in this area. I would give this product 5 out of 5 stars. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1997 Matthew Sawyer This review may be Freely Distributed as long as it is only distributed in it's entirety. You may contact the author at: Matthew Sawyer E-Mail: msawyer@netcom.com --- Accepted and posted by Daniel Barrett, comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews Web site: http://math.uh.edu/~barrett/reviews.html