The Rest of the Pack
With a few exceptions, the rest of the internal/external modems all behaved adequately, though their overall performance and feature sets were not on par with those of the leaders. However, there are specific assets for modems in this group. For example, neither the DeskLink nor the Rapid Transit will function under Windows 3.x or DOS.

Also notable, with the exception of 3Com's U.S. Robotics Courier V.Everything Modem, none of the external modems we tested offer manual configuration options. A few years ago, several modems (many of which have since been discontinued), such as the AT&T Paradyne Comsphere 3810 Plus, Microcom Deskporte and 3Com Courier, could be configured without a terminal program. Granted, these modems often carried a premium price, but for temporary or out-of-band remote connectivity they were hard to beat.

On the Go: PC Card Modems
As any road warrior knows, travelers almost never see connection speeds greater than 28.8 Kbps, much less 56 Kbps. Hotel telephone lines, PBXes and Centrex services all introduce line impairments that limit modem communications and transfer rates. We've stayed in our share of hotels with modern phone systems, but they are few and far between.

In the second part of our testing, we evaluated PC Card modems from ActionTec Electronics, Digicom Systems, Ositech Communications, TDK Systems, 3Com Corp., Viking Components, Xircom Corp. and Zoom Telephonics.

With the exception of the Xircom RealPort, all of the PC Card modems we tested occupy one PC Card slot. A phone line is connected either through a custom connector or by ejecting an X-Jack from the side of the modem. Xircom puts a new spin on the connector issue by offering a full-height PC Card with built-in RJ-11 jacks.

Taking top honors in our test is 3Com Corp.'s Megahertz 56K Cellular Modem PC Card. Its raw-speed features make it a tough act to follow.

3Com Corp. Megahertz 56K Cellular Modem PC Card
Not surprisingly, the 3Com Megahertz made more successful connections to the I-Modem than to the Ascend MAX. What we didn't expect, however, was that its connections were not as good as the modems from Digicom Systems and Viking Components. Like the other PC Card modems in this review, V.90 connections to the Ascend MAX were fairly spotty, plagued by numerous dropped calls due to the absence of error correction.

At $269, the Megahertz was the highest-priced modem we tested. For cellular communications, you will need to purchase an additional cable appropriate for your cell-phone model. 3Com also provides a utility to change the country code, a boon for global travelers. This feature enables the modem to generate and recognize the proper tone sequences used throughout the world.

Digicom Systems Modem Blaster Flash56 PCMCIA/Cellular Ready
Although the $129 Digicom Modem Blaster isn't an international traveler, it offers good performance and, along with Viking Components' 56K PC Card Modem, had a high percentage of V.90 connections. We were surprised to see it outdo 3Com's Megahertz and Xircom's RealPort in this area.

The Modem Blaster performed extremely well against the 3Com I-Modem, providing consistent results across the spectrum of network conditions we threw at it. However, just like the other Rockwell-based modems we tested, it failed to connect on the first three networks we tested. Digicom's performance against the Ascend MAX also fell off a bit, especially at the more impaired network conditions, though it was more consistent in its throughput, V.90 connections and V.34 fallback.

Viking Components 56K PC Card Modem
Viking's 56K PC Card Modem is the lowest priced of the modems we tested--it costs only slightly more than internal models. Without good performance and an adequate feature set, however, you won't be satisfied at any price. While the Viking didn't do well with V.90 negotiation, it successfully negotiated all calls and had excellent throughput. The card offers all the features you'd find in more expensive modems--including support for cellular operation.

While the Viking didn't complete any V.90 connections to the Ascend MAX, it did complete all calls by falling back to V.34 mode--the only modem to do so. The Viking and Digicom modems were the only two to complete all connections to the Ascend MAX. While any connection is better than no connection, the Viking modem's inability to complete any V.90 calls to our Ascend MAX hurt its ranking.

The Rest of the Pack
The rest of the PC Card modems that we tested were very close in their results--a mere .20 in our scoring separates the fourth- and eighth-place modems. What these models generally lack that the top units provide are full feature sets, consistent performance and solid V.90 connections. But the money you'll save with one of these models doesn't always make or break a decision about a particular modem; there's a value to advanced features such as cellular connectivity, ISDN and international capabilities that certainly may justify paying a higher price.

Send your comments on this article to Mike Fratto at mfratto@nwc.com.