The Survey

56K.COM readers were asked to test the speed of their 56K modem, providing the initial connect speed and FTP transfer rate for compressed files.

Please note: I am no longer accepting reviews. If you would like to see the methodology used to create these results so you can test your own modem, click here.

A note on KB/s and Kb/s

Different programs report speeds in different units, and in some cases readers have confused the units. The main units of modem speed are:

KB/s or KBps    kilobytes per second
Kb/s or Kbps    kilobits per second

When transmitted over a modem, there are ten bits per byte (eight data bits plus a start bit and a stop bit). So if one modem seems ten times faster than another, it's because different units are being used.

Survey Results:

• Acer
• Banksia
• Best Data
• Boca
• Cardinal
• Diamond Multimedia
• E-Tech
• Elsa
• Garnet
• Global Village
• Hayes
• Jaton
• MaxTech
• Modular Technologies
• Motorola
• Philips
• Premier
• U.S. Robotics
• Zoom

56K ISP Results

These ISPs have posted the results of their 56K modem tests.

Mindspring