88Pro Thinking

From the time ADSL has been introduced to Sri Lanka, one of the main question people ask when buying a modem is, should I buy a USB Modem or a Ethernet Modem (the one with RJ45 connectors). US Robotics tries to answer that question for you in this white paper.

Choose USB if:

• You are confident your operating system won’t change and
  
• You never expect to need to attach more than one device or share your Internet connection with more than one PC
  

Choose Ethernet if:

• You plan to share your Internet connection with additional computers, a gaming console or other devices
  
• You want the security of a hardware firewall, protecting your network and attached computers
  
• You plan to add wireless connectivity to your home network
  

There are other limitations with the USB Modems,

• It always consumes one of your USB ports which you can always use for something else, specially when it comes to the limited number of ports you have on Laptops.
  
• With USB modem you always have to dial in once you log on to the machine, however with most of the Ethernet Modems, they manage the connection to ADSL and not a software sitting on your machine, so you don't need to dial in every time you log on.
  
• The previous limitation also adds to one more specially handling disconnections. Say you put something big for download and connection goes down, if you have a Ethernet Modem, most of the time the modem will reconnect and the download will continue(assuming you are using a download manager), the USB guys, hard luck, until you come and dial in again no download (just like dial ups)
  

The last two observations are just from the experiences I have had with couple of USB Modems (Prolink, Planet) and couple of Ethernet Modems (Netgear, Aztech). Both USB modems lacked the ability to reconnect automatically after a disconnection and ability to manage connection themselves rather than having to dial in with the user name and password every time.

My advise, always go for a Ethernet Modem.

posted by 88Pro / Sunday, February 26, 2006