Modems that EdZone Recommends

Note: This page was designed as a reference for EdZone customers and reflects opinions derived from our experiences. We are pleased that so many people across the Internet are finding it helpful but would remind these people that they should contact THEIR ISP with questions regarding modems - our recommendations may or may not apply to your situation, your ISP, or your modem.

Having a good quality modem is vital to your Internet connection - it is the most important factor in how fast you connect, your Internet performance, and how consistent & stable your connection to EdZone is besides the quality of your phone line. Being that many of our customers live in a rural area, a good quality modem can be the difference in connecting and not connecting at all. With that said, here is a summary of what modems work well with EdZone service & particular modems that don't work well at all.

Please trust OUR recommendations over a salesperson at one of the chain stores like Best Buy, Circuit City or the like - they sell modems and can only read the features on the box - which gives them absolutely NO real world experience in communications. We connect hundreds and hundreds of users to the Internet every day - we know what works and what doesn't work.

We have had the best experiences with the following hardware (controller) based modems and recommend the following specificially by model number if you are purchasing a new modem or computer system:

If the above 20 modems aren't enough for you, rest assured that most HARDWARE based modems work fine - if you are not sure if it is a hardware based modem, have the salesperson call the manufaturer to verify the modem! Most manufacturers have BOTH hardware modems and winmodems to offer - be sure to spend the extra money and get the hardware modem!

Not Recommended

Following are several modems that we have found to be very poor performers - DO NOT buy one of these modems and expect to connect reliably - to clarify this point, some of these modems WILL connect to EdZone under optimal conditions with little difficulty, but have many major difficulties connecting if your line quality is poor or questionable (which can easily happen in rural areas).

Be sure about the modem included in computer systems that you are shopping for - MOST manufacturers skimp out on modems (Dell, Acer, Gateway, IBM, CTX, HP, and Compaq to name a few) and include a software based modem (commonly called winmodems and are "controlerless modems") instead of a good quality, hardware based modem as mentioned above. Why? Because its an easy place to cut corners and make their price tag look better. We've talked to technicians from all major computer manufacturers about these modems. Most swear that these are great modems and "its your ISP's fault if you can't connect" but have no response or explanation when we replace the modem with any one from our recommended list and ALL of the customer's connection problems vanish. We're not saying don't buy from these vendors, we're saying insist on a GOOD modem when you purchase a new system - one on our recommend list - if they won't or can't provide one then consider buying from somewhere else.

Your modem is the most important factor in your Internet connection - be serious about what you choose. Stay away from these modems and computer systems including these modems:

What if the modem that I want to buy is not listed anywhere above?

Because there are dozens if not hundreds of modems in production today, we have noted only those that we have had GOOD experiences with and those that we have had BAD experiences with. That leaves many modems that are not mentioned in our listing. If you are interested in a modem not listed above, our suggestion is to check with the modem manufacturer before you purchase to make sure that it is a hardware based modem.