As to the veracity of his statements of the US Robotics Courier V.Everything (v.92 and previous standards).

I have been using that line of Modems for as long as I can remember, period. I started with a US Robotics Courier/HST Dual-Standard 4800. The reasons I switched to it were two fold. I worked with a company that did Credit Union stuff. It was called GEAC. Not the GEAC of today mind you. But at the time, they used ONLY the USR C/HST DS modems for the leased lines(dedicated pairs to each location) they had from the central Office.

Only thing that EVER happened was Lightning taking them out. Usually it was the HUP Relay that was welded closed. They could still use the modem, but could not Hang Up and re-init the connection, so they would use the Permanently off-hook modems as backup devices. Which they never needed. BTW, the early USR Courier/HST Dual Standard 4800 modems were about $1400 each. When I had to replace my 9600 I was personally using, the cost had come down to about $880, but was V.32bis (19.2K) was the fastest available. It was upgradeable, but at a cost of $119 per new supervisor chip. That was until, I bought a daughterboard upgrade ($119 again). From then on it was a firmware update. Infact the Courier I have downstairs at home is now a V.everything. I paid the $49 for the privilege to D/L firmare from the old USR BBS (long distance only to the Chicago number) at a Whopping 19.2K (at the time 14.4K was still vastly prevalent).

After that, the Local Fidonet BBS I was a part of, They had a 24 modem bank setup from US Robotics, that was donated to them but USR. I was the only one to get 28.8K after the first Firmware update. And then 48K, then 52K. But, alas I bought a Courier ISDN (and POTS) after that. So I could browse and D/L at a blazing 128Kbits (you know Dual-B connections).

Well, If I had to go back to Dial-up(((((shudder))))), I'd only use my Courier modem(s).