Does anyone here know anything about the Digicom Eagle 9600 baud modem
with Fax capability?  It's got all the usual alphanumeric soup
(V.32, MNP5, V.42bis, MNP2-4) and is being offered at a price of $199
for people who subscribe to Prodigy's new 9600 baud service.

26 responses total.

It's supposedly similar to a Digicom Scout, which is supposed to be
a nice modem.  It may or may not be V.32bis (14.4Kbps) in addition
to V.32 (9600bps); some people say that it does V.32bis, but
Prodigy doesn't mention that because they only have V.32 lines.
(It's strange, but I used to think V.32 was fast -- until I tried
V.32bis.)

The talk on comp.dcom.modems is that these are essentially a Digicom
Scout Plus.  I own a Scout Plus, and I like it a lot.  After going 
through the initial hassles of getting the modem and comm program
set up, I have had no problems with it. I haven't really tried faxing
with it, though.

If the thing actually does v.32bis, I'd say it's a steal.  I paid $289
for my external Scout Plus.

   Yeah, but how much is the Prodigy 9600 service that you have to get?
And how much is it worth?  (about as much as a single sided single
density 8" disk?  Or less?)

I believe the 9600bps service will be $2 more per month.

Actually, the description of the modem on prodigy does mention V.32bis.

We've decided to upgrade to the 9600bps service and get the modem.  They
say it will be delivered in 2 to 3 weeks.  We'll let you know how it works
out.

The Eagle modem arrived today, and so far, so good.  Without even
opening the manual I was able to install the fax software and both
send a receive test faxes.  The 9600 connection to Prodigy sure does
make that slug of a system move along nicely.  Downloading from 
Hal 9000 went amazingly fast.

Included for $199 was modem, Win/DosFax Lite software, cable and
adapters, and manuals.  Not bad.  Now, does anyone have the fax
number for Santa's workshop?

Is it only a 9600 or does it do 14.4 k as well?

Data transmission is V.32bis 14.4Kbps, V.32 9600 bps, and on down.
Fax is 9600 bps Group III, TR 29, Class 1 Command Set.  There is a note
about "up to 57.6 Kbps throughput".  I think I may have reached the
point where the data can come in faster than my little 386SX can
deal with it, or at least refresh the screen.

  Is this an internal or external modem?  Must be external, since you
mention that "cable and adapters" were included..

It's external.

I've been reading some on Prodigy about this modem offer.  Seems
that when it started, a few months ago, they were indeed offering
Eagle (non-plus) 9600 baud data modems for the $199.  Then Digicom
discontinued the Eagle (also known as Scout) and instead substitued
the Eagle Plus (Scout Plus) 14.4 v.32bis modem for the same price.
Prodigy updated the capabilities in their information blurb but
kept the upgrade very low-key.  

True to what you'd expect, some of those who ordered early on are
outraged they aren't being given the option of exchanging their
Eagles for Eagle Plus modems.

If anyone is interested in getting one of these, Prodigy is now
offering free software and (I believe) free trial time, so you 
could get on and order one.  Members are limited to ordering no more
than six.

This is a *good* deal.  I payed $279 for the same modem just a couple
of months ago.  I still think I got a good deal.  It worked great once
I figured out how to get it set up properly.

Well, the Eagle isn't exactly the same as the Scout.  According to
someone in comp.dcom.modems who works for Prodigy, a few changes
were made in the default configuration to allow people to connect
to Prodigy without changing anything -- error-correction is off
by default, for example.  But as I understand it there's nothing
significant that's been changed.

If the hardware is the same, who cares about the default configuration?

  I'm very interested in how well this works out.  I've been looking
for a V.32bis faxmodem for some time now.  I've been leaning towards
the Zyxel, but my wallet keeps saying "not yet"..  Something that
clocked in at under $200 would be great if it worked well..  All I 
know is that I can't continue using SLIP at 2400bps or I'll go insane!

OTOH, someone just posted in comp.dcom.modems that they were very
pissed off when they ordered what they thought was an Eagle+ from
Prodigy, and ended up getting an Eagle (no plus).  Apparently
the Eagle just does V.32, while the Eagle+ does V.32bis.

  <<that would pisss me off too ....>>

So far, so good with the Eagle+ modem.  I'm connecting at 14.4 modem
to modem, with much higher flow from my modem to my cpu.  Z modem
dowloads are closer to 9600 baud though, and from what I've been 
reading that's probably due to a non-buffered UART serial chip which is
causing a bottleneck with higher-speed transfers.  The modem tries,
but errors slow the whole thing down to about 1000 cps.  But my 
download needs are modest so I don't think the difference is going
to be a problem.  I also understand upgrading that serial chip is
quite inexpensive, like $20.

Connecting to Grex, M-net, Prodigy, AOL, Hal 9000 goes without problem.
I did need to alter a couple of things in non-volitile memory, settings 
which were intended to make Prodigy logins easier (which I can't 
really see why they did this as the init string for dialing Prodigy
already saw to these settings in volitile memory).  Fax transfer works
flawlessly, and the fax software which came with the modem will do me
just fine.  Overall, I'm pleased.

And if you're pleased, so am I !!  Q: does this external also
mate with Macintosh, complete with fax Send/Receive software?
  
A friend of mine is looking/looking/looking ...?

If the friends comm program talks Hayes-compatible command sets I
don't see why not.

Prodigy says the Mac version of this offer will be available soon.
I'd think that means the same modem but with Mac software and cables.
I'll let you know if I hear of it being available.

(And now the guy complaining about the absence of V.32bis has
retracted his statement, saying it was just a configuration error
on his part.  I'm not sure *what* to believe.)

chelsea - I'll forward this selected part of this .cf to friend
iwth your permission.  thankxx

No problem.

  Assuming you didn't already subscribe to Prodigy, how much would this
cost you, total?

Well, Prodigy is now $14.95 per month, if you pay monthly, and access
to 9600 service is another $2 per month.  They do offer some type of
a start-up deal, with free software and maybe some free connect time.  The
deal tends to change some from season to season, but if you're interested
I could have the software and info sent your way.

But if you're only interested in the modem I could order one for you
and all you'd need pay is the $199 for the modem, MI tax, and shipping.
My total was $214 and it arrived in about a week. 

  Hmmm.. I'm tempted..  Guess I'll wait until the V.32 vs V.32bis 
question is settled, though it sounds like they probably are V.32bis.

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