| Comments | I am the embarrassed owner of two U.S. Robotics 5699B modems, neither of which work at my weekend cottage. I am lucky enough to have an old external Supra that I borrowed to test (20-28K connects) and my business Dell Latitude 600 notebook that works fine (28K connects) when I bring it along on weekends. It certainly appears to me that the phone line is okay.
I bought one of the USRs from FutureShop in Toronto in July and installed it in the PC at my cottage. I was never able to connect to my work ISP (BellNexxia) or the USR test line. The problem was usually no carrier. I hooked up my notebook using the same RJ-11 line and connected to both remotes at 28K. I was going to return the modem as defective but I had lost the bill therefore no refund or exchange. I looked around in local shops for another brand of modem but with the boom of high speed internet USR seems to own the market.
I bought another USR and carefully saved the receipt. When I installed it at the cottage I got the same symptom! No connect at any speed. A friend lent me an old external Supra V.34 modem. This connects at 20-28K every time.
I hadn’t thought about it before, but I took both USRs to my home and tried them in my home PC. The both installed and connected at 50K.
I returned the second USR to FutureShop but they will not refund my money or give me a credit since the ESD bag was opened. The will only give a like for like exchange.
Since this happened, when I’ve mentioned my modem problems, people have been saying to me “I bet it was a U.S. Robotics modem. I had nothing but hassles with mine. They’re @#$%”. I wish I had heard these experiences before I bought (both of) mine.
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