Not fond memories of the early days of the internet (and to a greater extent, BBSes ... YModem-G FTW).

When I saw the title, I knew the real title was "Should I replace my 56K WinModem with the 28.8k U.S. Robotics modem that I used previously"

I ran a BBS in the early 90s back when my income was "whatever Mom would give me." When it came time to get my first job, I figured "CompUSA has an employee discount, I'm working there." The first serious purchase I made was a USR 16.8k modem to let me move my aging 9600 baud external to a second BBS node[0]. Employee discount was "at cost" which for a hot item like that, which was being sold at MAP price[1], meant it was like $5 less.

However, US Robotics occasionally sent a company rep[2] who informed me that I could get one for like $120 by filling out a form and sending some proof that "I sold four(?) of them" (I think receipt numbers/printed copes was it). There were limits, but I owned two of them, eventually their best 28.8k (I think it was something like $450 retail at the time).

Back then it was "US Robotics", "Sort-of-Hayes", "Zoom or Zoom Knockoff" with the last one meaning nothing but grief. IIRC, the "Zoom Modem" was the first form of what was later just called "WinModems" -- modems with minimal hardware, implemented entirely in drivers, heavily reliant on the CPU for handling the work. It wasn't that the modems broke/failed/were unreliable hardware-wise. The quality of those software drivers was abysmal. The overhead was too high for 90s PCs. They regularly connected well below their advertised rates. They were Plug/Play "jumperless" (sort of plug/play) ISA cards. Meanwhile, you plugged your USR into your serial port. If you had two, you got a serial port card with 16550 UART chip and Bob's your Uncle.

Had this person asked me, at the time, I would have said "I don't know anyone who successfully negotiates a 56K connection to anything" and "Stick with the USR; at least you'll disconnect less."

I never ended up bothering with 56K. Our wiring was pre-modem and there was something related to our actual service (distance to the CO, like DSL?) that meant we couldn't support the speed, anyway. Nothing but the US Robotics modems performed above 16.8k and even the USR stumbled to 24K occasionally.

[0] From memory, and I'm sure I have bits wrong: USR released a 16.8k one at that speed earlier than everyone else before a standard was in place. I bought after they released one that had both standards

[1] Same memory issue as above: I was told this was "the minimum we were allowed to advertise a product at. Basically, the manufacturer pays for advertising space in the retailer's circular, and in return the retailer agrees not to advertise a price beneath what the manufacturer dictates. There were other requirements (such as not selling things before release dates, etc) and we could turn around and sell it at 20% off if all day if we wanted to, but couldn't advertise a lower price (so everyone sold Windows 95 for I think, $45). It's a workaround the typical laws that prohibit a distributor from setting retail prices.

[2] I learned later (at least at the retail stores) these were often people paid by a third-party that supplied swag and a small manual, sometimes "one-time gig" paid cash, usually paid for not by the company but through a staffing company paid for via some marketing company. Or maybe that was just me, the very part-time Fuji rep where I spent most of my time hitting on the Intel girl and scoring Pentium keychains (the ones with the dead Pentiums in them -- still have a few) and those weird dolls that were based on their clean-room staff outfits.