Apple Modem Blues

Sometimes it gets so bad you want to go back to Windows. The modem built into Apple's PowerBooks and iBooks is flawed. Either that or the software written to run it is. One of the two, and it doesn't matter which: dial-ups on Macs do not work dependably.

Check it out at a motel near you.

Walk down the line of rooms, peek through the curtains, and see all the Dells connecting through the switchboard without a hitch. Pass by a Mac room and you'll see the poor sucker putting his precious Maserati away, because it won't connect.

Mind you, there could be something wrong with the connection, but Windows modems don't do this. Neither do Windows modems 'probe' the other side four times a minute, every minute, every hour, to make sure the contact is still alive, and then pre-emptively break the connection if they don't get a response.

What modem pool wants to or has the time to listen to this 'AppleTalk' all the time? Windows modems don't do this - and that's one more reason they never have any trouble maintaining a connection.

And it's been like this for ages. People have been complaining in the Apple forums for eons now, and getting disconnected is only one of the problems.

Since connecting five minutes ago, we've been disconnected twice. The other side is not responding. Not responding? Or how about starting an important file transfer and right when it's almost finished having the Apple modem break in and inform you the connection is dead?