Gregory Nowak wrote: > Bob Proulx wrote: > > Caller id modems are often found used quite cheap on ebay and at > > thrift stores. I am using a callerid modem for the caller id function > > myself. I had one die on me a while back and I replaced it with one I > > found on ebay for less than $10. (Unfortunately the one I am > > currently using is starting to flake out. I may have to think about > > upgrading again. Maybe to a voip box I now have but haven't put to > > use yet.) > > An argument for not buying the cheapest thing available. I got the pci > hardware modem I currently using for caller id in Spring of 2000 for > somewhere around $70 as I recall. I'm still using that very modem a > whooping almost 14 years later.
You may have paid $70 for it 14 years ago but if you sold that on ebay today you might get almost as much as $10 for it. :-) The modem I am currently using is a US Robotics 56K modem and originally probably sold for $70 back in the day. I am looking at a listing for a good shape US Robotics 56K v.92 modem right now for $8.00 buy it now. And a v.90 for $9.89. And a lot of 5 for $35. One of them is bound to be fully functional. (chuckle, the shotgun method.) And a lot of *17* for $60. Wire up five in parallel and let them majority vote on the answer for redundancy. I also see people asking $50 and more for them but who would pay that when the same items are also available at dumpster diving prices? http://www.ebay.com/sch/I.html?_nkw=us+robotics+modem And I just picked US Robotics because I know that brand well. There are other brands as well. But I always advise to buy what you know. If you don't know it well then don't buy it. Meanwhile I am probably done with analog modems. I bought a Sipura SPA3000 some time ago to set up a voip pbx. But I never got around to doing anything with it. At this point if I upgrade I will work on the digital pbx instead. Bob
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