Re: [hylafax-users] problems with Multitech Modem MT 2834ZDXb

[Lee Howard <faxguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2003.10.06 13:33 Karl Denninger wrote:

> However, the troubling common point behind all this is that somehow,
> my
> various fax machines, many made by HP (various "all in one" products)
> over
> the years have NEVER failed to send or receive a fax.  Not once.  Oh
> sure,
> a couple of times they ran into a noisy line and had to have the
> transmission
> resent, but never once did I find a machine on the other end that
> would
> simply not talk to these machines.
>
> This happens <ALL THE TIME> with "fax modems", irrespective of brand,
> and
> there are people out there, myself included, who consider it
> completely
> unacceptable behavior bordering on false advertising when a company
> sells
> a modem claiming fax compatability that in fact can talk to WELL UNDER
> 100%
> of the fax machines out here.  I can see the occasional (as in under a
> 1%)
> failure rate, but my experience is that the "fail to connect and/or
> send/receive") rate is closer to 10% - and in some cases even worse.
> In
> some cases the modems can reliably send but not receive, or
> vice-versa.

Karl, I'll afford you some latitude to openly voice your complaints 
without my rebuttal about an outdated modem with troublesome firmware 
knowing that you had such a headache with them before, but it is quite 
erronious to take that experience and subsequently categorize "all fax 
modems" as similar beasts.  You simply have no license to make blanket 
reliability statements that cover all fax modems - or even all fax 
modems made by any particular manufacturer (including MultiTech) when, 
by virtue of your statements, you obviously have not had the faith or 
made the effort to know better.

A 10% failure rate is completely unacceptable, and you are 
misconstruing your own situation if you expect everyone out here to 
believe that such a failure rate is anywhere near normal or that 
everyone should simply accept such failures as normal for "all fax 
modems".  I've never even seen such sustained failure rates with the 
worst Class 2.0 firmware from USR.

There are a lot of us out here that see failure rates on sending and 
receiving well, well under the 1% margin.  Now, I have never owned a 
magically bullet-proof HP all-in-one device, but I did own a Canon fax 
machine, and it was the reason I started using HylaFAX in the first 
place.  And since I began using HylaFAX I've never seen the rate of 
problems that I did with that fax machine.  It is a completely common 
thing for me to see 1000 faxes received or sent these days with no 
reproducible errors.  If you're seeing 10% failure rates then you 
really need to take a serious look at fixing your own setup, and you 
only have the license to blame yourself, not "all fax modems", for your 
situation.

Granted, I mostly use Class 1 for everything these days which shifts 
most of the responsibility of fax protocol onto HylaFAX, but I've seen 
some Class 2/2.0/2.1 firmwares, including MultiTech's current firmware 
on their MT5634 line, do virtually as well.  Granted, all Class 2 
firmwares are not created equal, and with enough time anyone will 
likely bump into a modem with Class 2 firmware bugs.  It's at that 
point that you would need to either switch to Class 1, get the firmware 
fixed, or switch modems.  Merely looking at the "supported modems" list 
on the HylaFAX website is not sufficient to guarantee anything except 
minimum functionality.  If your modem does not support Class 1 and 
Class 2 then buying it risks wasting the purchase if you ever need to 
switch Classes.  If your modem does not come from a manufacturer which 
actively supports it and has actual fax developers on staff, then 
purchasing it risks wasting it if you ever need firmware fixed.  
MultiTech is one of a VERY few number of analog modem manufacturers 
that actually have fax developers on staff which actively support their 
current modem line.  You won't see their kind of fax support with 
3Com-USR, that's for sure.  When was the last time anyone from 3Com-USR 
mailed this list?  (Hint: never)

I applaud Steve for caring enough about customer support to actually 
watch this mailing list.  Shame on you for trying to abuse that.

Lee.

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