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Creative Labs Modem Blaster V.92 PCI with Speaker Phone (Internal DI5631)

Creative Labs Modem Blaster V.92 PCI with Speaker Phone (Internal DI5631)

List Price:
Your Price: $43.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A darn good modem after the initial hassle
Review: I'll say it upfront. I had an Actiontec modem. I replaced it with the Modem Blaster V.92 PCI. Immediately, my connection speed increased more than 200%, and my download speed by 300%! The biggest problem is installation. This surprised me coming from a Creative Labs product. I was used to easy installation. I am running Win XP. Apparently, when this modem was issued, Win XP was just being introduced. The included installation disc was useless. So, my computer wouldn't recognize it as a Modem Blaster V.92, just as a generic 56K modem, using the enclosed installation disc. I made the mistake of taking out my previous modem before I installed this one. Take my advice. Leave your old modem in, go to Creative's web site, and download the latest driver for Win XP. I didn't do this, and had to install this modem as a generic 56K, then download the updated driver. However, after I downloaded the updated driver, I uninstalled the Modem Blaster (listed as a generic 56K modem), and reinstalled it with the new driver. Wow! It is so much better than what I had. Even installed as a generic modem it was sooo much better. It's important to install it as a Modem Blaster V.92 modem because you get the "call waiting" feature, which is huge to me, although you need to download the XP update for this feature also. It's not hard to navigate the Creative web site. Just make sure the model number of your modem matches that of the downloads. Overall, I am very happy, after getting over my frustration with the initial install. Take my advice, and you can shortcut the frustration I felt and have a flawless install, and you will be happy with the performance. That's the bottom line: performance, and this modem has delivered for me. By the way, I live out in the boondocks, where connection speed is hard to come by. This modem has boosted my speed almost to the level of my mom's DSL speed at her office ( the difference is very, very small, except for downloads)!

Scott

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Unstable with Windows XP
Review: This Creative modem, without a doubt, is one of best modems that is currently available in the market today. I have used it in Windows 98 and Windows 2000 machines without a hitch. It's a great modem.

However, when I tried it on a Windows XP machine, the computer froze everytime for about 30 seconds on the first dialing attempt. Most of the time it took the computer several attempts before it heard a dialtone from the modem.

Last time I checked, Creative's support website had not yet addressed this issue. However, after doing some online research, I found out that this modem does have stability issues with Windows XP as far as the driver is concerned and Creative is still to come out with an updated driver that fixes that.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Gone, but not forgotten!
Review: This modem worked great for us with Win XP, however - after uninstalling this modem and going on to DSL, the darn MODEM ON HOLD UTILITY won't leave me alone. I don't remember ever asking the install to load this. It did, though, and now it won't go away! I would love to know how to uninstall this! I did not ever use it in the first place. It comes up in my system tray over and over and I have to close it down every time I restart my computer and I can't even find it in my system! I HATE programs like this that hide from me and I have no control over them... especially when they are useless! Grrr...


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