Comment by dspillett

Yep. Though I found 42k reliable and a useful boost over 36k6 (14%) if I was planning on downloading something big¹. If you had a 56k capable modem and had a less than ideal line, it was important to force it to 36k6 because failure to connect using the enhanced protocol would usually result in fallback all the way to 28k8 (assuming, of course, that your line wasn't too noisy for even 36k6 to be stable).

I always avoided WinModems, in part because I used Linux a lot, and recommended friends/family do the same. “but it was cheaper!” was a regular refrain when one didn't work well, and I pulled out the good ol' “I told you so”.

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[1] Big by the standards of the day, not today!