Creative Modem Blaster V.92 PCI

Price: 27.99 - 39.99

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too much trouble; too little value1149566488

Pros:

modem-on-hold

Cons:

no speed advantage; uninstall disaster

I bought the modem for 2 reasons: everything was supposed to be faster (making the connection, downloading, etc) and the modem-on-hold feature. Comparing it with my 7-year-old generic modem, the connection time with the Blaster modem is only about a second faster. Downloads are definitely not faster, and may be slower; phone line conditions vary, so it's impossible to say for sure. Definitely not enough speed advantage to make it worth the money!

The modem-on-hold feature is interesting; I've not seen any other modem that advertised outgoing modem-on-hold. I had the opportunity to try both the outgoing and incoming only once each. They worked fine, but they're limited by the time limit the ISP imposes; in my case, 3.5 minutes per call. Caller ID worked also, on the incoming call.

Here's the real problem: Because I felt the download speeds were slower than my previous modem, I removed the Blaster and reinstalled my old modem. As soon as I tried to use the old modem, the computer went into reset. Removing the software and the drivers didn't make any difference. I uninstalled both modems and the drivers and the MOH software. Ran Norton Systemworks trying to clean up any left over mess. Tried everything I could think of, but as soon as I reinstalled my old modem and the driver for it, the computer went into reset. I finally had to use my backup software to restore the computer to the way it was before I installed the Blaster modem. Everything worked fine then, using my old modem.