149 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
149 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
U.S. ROBOTICS SPORTSTER 14400 - AN UNINTENDED BARGAIN
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Modem manufacturer U.S. Robotics has long offered two classes of modems, the
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Courier and the Sportster lines. Courier is the top of the line modem and
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within the BBS community is considered one of the top models available.
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Sportster modems were typically the ugly little brother - at a much more
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economical price.
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The company recently released some new Sportster models that have an allure.
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The Sportster 14000 and Sportster 14000 with Fax offer CCITT V.32bis
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connections at 14,400 bps, V.42 and V.42bis error correction and compression,
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Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP) level 5 compatibility, and in the case of
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the fax model - 9600 bps fax. The modems are listed at $519 and $549
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respectively - actually not terribly competitive in the economy class for
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modems with this functionality. But Sportsters are almost designed to be
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discounted and these are available on the street at around $290 which is
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quite competitive.
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The main difference between the Sportster models and the Courier models in
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this case is the case. The Courier features a very nice black plastic case
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suitable for framing. The Sportster looks like nothing so much as a Radio
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Shack home intercomm. You are almost drawn to press a switch, lean over to
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speak into it, and ask mom for some juice with this thing.
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But under the hood lies more modem than even U.S. Robotics apparently
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intended. The modem motherboard within is not similar to the $1295 Courier
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Dual Standard, it actually IS the Courier Dual Standard motherboard. The
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Courier Dual Standard of course, in addition to the 14.4kbps V.32bis mode,
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features a 16.8kbps proprietary HST (High Speed Technology) mode, a really
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nice case, an ASL mode, and a list price of $1295. We obtained data transfer
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rates as high as 1885 cps with this top of the line model and reviewed it
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very favorably in our October issue.
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The reasons for this are fairly understandable. It is actually cheaper to
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manufacture lots of a single motherboard than two different motherboards. And
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by repackaging it in a downscale case and disabling a few features, you can
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reach an entirely different market segment without a lot of retooling.
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The difference in features is a function of the operating software held in
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Read-Only-Memory (ROM) chips on the modem motherboard. But on a large number
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of early shipments of the Sportster, the code is still in the ROMs, and can
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be reactivated with simple AT commands to give the lightweight Sportster the
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16.8Kbps mode that is the most notable function of the Courier power house.
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It does not appear to add the ASL function.
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To see if your model supports this, enter the command ATI7 to display the ROM
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version. At the bottom of the display, you should see an entry for SUPERVISOR
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VER 4.1 or SUPERVISOR VER 4.2. It will also list an OPTIONS V32 entry. If
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your ROM indicates SUPERVISOR VER 4.1, you win the USR Sweepstakes. Enter the
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command AT GW 03C6,22 GW 05CD,2F and again enter ATI7. The options entry
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should now read OPTIONS HST,V32. This means you can now use the 16.8kbps HST
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mode. The ATB1 command will turn it on. And if you dial a BBS with a Courier
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Dual Standard, you will get a 16800/ARQ connect.
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Currently shipping models of the Sportster have a version 4.2 ROM and the
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command doesn't work. Merry Christmas from U.S. Robotics. Rumor has it there
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are some very unhappy campers within USR over this marketing faux pas. We
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don't get it. So some USR customers got a good deal - that's got to be
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terrible PR right?
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Apparently USR is determined to turn it into a negative one way or another.
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The company has issued a fairly artless written IMPORTANT WARNING TO BULLETIN
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BOARD USERS quoting chapter and verse of U.S. copyright law. We produce the
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full text of this warning here:
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"IMPORTANT WARNING TO BULLETIN BOARD USERS:
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It has recently come to our attention that some bulletin board operators and
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other third parties have been improperly distributing copyrighted firmware
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that will add USR's proprietary "HST" protocol to USR "Sportster" modems
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without having to compensate USR for the conversion. Some of these persons
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have further been telling customers that if such a conversion is made, it
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will not adversely affect the customer's right to warranty service from USR.
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USR has not authorized the dissemination of this firmware. The Company
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considers any such attempts to improperly incorporate copyrighted "HST"
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features into non-HST modems to be a clear infringement of USR's rights under
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Federal Copyright Law. Persons contemplating such action should be aware that
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the Copyright Act of 1976 provides stiff remedies for acts of copyright
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infringement, including the impounding of all infringing copies, monetary
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damages, special statutory damages, costs, attorney fees, and even potential
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criminal liability. 17 U.S.C. Secs. 502-506. USR will take whatever steps it
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deems necessary to protect its copyright rights. In addition, USR's warranty
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will not extend to products that have been tampered with in this manner.
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Also, please note that it has also come to our attention that versions of the
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firmware being disseminated contain disguised code ("Trojan Horse") that may
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inflict irreparable damage to the hard drive of the computer utilizing the
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programs.
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We regret the necessity of having to post this warning. Please understand
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that USR has spent considerable time, effort and money to research and
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develop the software embodied in its products. Like any manufacturer, we
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cannot simply sit back and tolerate attempts to misappropriate our
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copyrighted programs in this manner. U.S. Robotics, Inc."
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We haven't been able to locate anything remotely resembling USR firmware
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online. If it did exist, it would be a copy of the ROM code in the Dual
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Standard ROM and could not conceivably even be run on an 80x86
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microprocessor, much less operate as a Trojan Horse. It would be data that
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garage-shop pirates would use to create unauthorized copies of the ROM using
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an Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM) programming device.
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This would be put in the Sportster to convert it to a Courier Dual Standard.
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This would certainly be copyright violation, and we cannot condone it in any
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form. But it disqualifies itself as a candidate for a Trojan Horse program
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quite thoroughly.
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The only file we can find online even remotely relating to this warning is a
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tiny 24KB program titled USRPATCH.ZIP. It appears to come from Johan Franzn
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of Twilight Garden BBS at 46-8-510-50925 (FidoNet 2:201/258). The program is
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apparently authored by "Jeffe and Alex" who credit Henrik Johansson with the
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discovery. It appears to simply send the AT command previously described to
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the modem from the DOS command line. In this way, you can run the program,
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and then your terminal program, and not have to enter the AT command at all
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each time you use the modem.
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We are thoroughly confused by U.S. Robotics' warning. And any attempt to talk
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to anyone within the company leads to a lot of finger pointing and referral
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to other telephone numbers in an essentially endless fashion. First, the
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program does nothing more than send the AT commands to the modem and U.S.
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Robotics "copyright" to AT commands of any sort is openly questionable.
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Secondly, there is nothing we can find wrong with this file, and the question
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of a Trojan Horse program appears to be blatantly transparent fear mongering
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of the worst sort. In fact, the concept of a software program causing
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"irreparable damage to a hard drive mechanism is ludicrous. The most virulent
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viruses and most damaging Trojan Horse programs can only damage data on hard
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disk drives - not the hard disk drives themselves. This is officially and
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totally utter nonsense. It was undoubtedly drafted by a lawyer to the ongoing
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chagrin and mortified embarrassment of every technical person within this
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fine company.
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We understand their distress. And we'll shed no tears for anyone running
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garage shop EPROM mills that might be prosecuted. But technically ridiculous
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warning messages do nothing but call into question the credibility of USR
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itself. Trying to "scare" users into NOT entering simple commands to make the
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modem they bought and paid for more capable doesn't even make sense from a
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marketing standpoint. And lost in the confusion is the fact that their "Radio
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Shack Intercomm" model is actually a dynamite little modem on its own merits,
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at a reasonable price. That a few of the early buyers of this modem got a
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good deal, can only work to U.S. Robotics benefit - if they don't work too
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hard to turn it into a negative.
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There were rumors of plans within the company to introduce a BBS operator
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discount price on this Sportster model of as little as $279 - which would
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have been quite exciting. The current imbroglio has probably delayed this
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move if indeed those were the plans. U.S. Robotics, Inc. 8100 North McCormick
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Blvd., Skokie, IL 60076; (708)982-5010 voice; (708)982-5092 BBS.
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