Best Overall: 33.6-Kbps Modems

The U.S. Robotics Courier V.Everything, the fastest modem in NSTL's performance tests, is also the Best Overall winner. The Courier's extruded aluminum case is a throwback to the early days of modem design, but the modem powered through the performance tests, gathering top marks in all but one of them. It also comes with an excellent set of documentation. U.S. Robotics doesn't offer voice or speakerphone functions with the Courier -- just a solid design and robust performance.

The first runner-up in the Best Overall category was the Zoom Telephonics V.34X Plus. The $189 V.34X provided plenty of zip in our performance tests, finishing fourth overall. Packaged in a small plastic case, the V.34X won't take up much space on your desktop. It comes with Delrina's WinFax and DosFax Lite software. One feature that we liked about the V.34X was its front-mounted power switch, a convenient way to recover from a modem crash.

Of the modems with voice functions, Diamond's SupraSonic 336V+ and Cardinal's MVPV34XSP 33.6 Speakerphone gave the best overall performance. Both products provide connectors for external speakers and a microphone for your system's sound card. The Cardinal modem also provides an internal speaker. While this device has a microphone, the SupraSonic comes with a lightweight headset. The SupraSonic also features LEDs (indicating send-data and receive-data activity) and a two-line LCD that describes completely, albeit tersely, all modem activity. The MVPV34XSP 33.6 relies strictly on seven LEDs to indicate what's happening. Having status indicators is a plus for dedicated modem users; they provide visual clues for solving connection problems.

Based on its next-to-best-overall rating, the Zoom V.34X Plus moved right to the top of the list in our Low Cost category. (BYTE selected $200 as the price cut-off point.) With its excellent performance and no-frills pricing, the V.34X is a good choice for budget-aware people who want performance but don't need voice functions.

Following right behind the V.34X in this category is Cardinal's MVPV34XSP 33.6, with its good mix of performance, features, and value. Also scoring high is Motorola's VoiceSURFR 33.6. The VoiceSURFR provides connectors for an external speaker/microphone or a sound card, as well as LEDs for monitoring modem status. The VoiceSURFR, however, failed two of the six conditions in our impaired-line testing. The failed lines are conditions basically encountered while making overseas calls and are not likely to cause a problem for most U.S. users.

As the fastest modem we tested, U.S. Robotics' V.Everything, our Best Overall Modem, also takes the Best Data Modem category. While most of the other modem vendors use a Rockwell chip set, U.S. Robotics uses its own. The Courier pushed data through at nearly 91 percent of the theoretical maximum in NSTL's file-throughput tests, giving the best performance by a substantial margin over the first two runner-up devices, the Cardinal MVPV34XPSP 33.6 Speakerphone and Logicode's Quicktel II 33X-ASP-C.

The Quicktel II provides strong voice functionality with its built-in speaker and microphone, external connections for same, and voice-over-data capability. The modem also comes with Smith Micro's full-featured QuickLink II fax/voice/data software and Intel's ProShare conferencing software.