# I pit my modem (BT Voyager 100) and BT in general

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-modem-bt-voyager-100-and-bt-in-general/230073>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [February 19, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-modem-bt-voyager-100-and-bt-in-general/230073 "2004-02-19T21:47:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-modem-bt-voyager-100-and-bt-in-general/230073/1 "2004-02-19T21:47:25Z")

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This modem is by far the crapiest computer peripheral I ever had.

First of all, its a USB modem. And it is prety heavy on computer resources. Not much of a problem for the desktop computer, but my poor laptop suffers whenever I hook the modem onto it. And being USB means I can’t use the modem with a router.

Then, the modem refuses to work for more than a day continuously. For some reason, it crashes at random intervals. The “Sent” light on the system tray will still blink, but the “Received” goes dead. Many times I have left the computer turned on during the night to download a big file, only to wake up in the morning and realize that the modem decided to die.

Also, I pit the BT installation program.  
BT believes that only a computer with a Pentium II processor or higher, and a certain amount of memory, can use an Internet connection. So, along with the modem drivers, they have a nice little program that identifies your system. If your computer is not a PII or higher, then the installation process is halted.

Now, according to this piece of steaming sh…erm I mean program, this P4 2.6GHz processor I bought from [microdirect.co.uk](http://microdirect.co.uk) was just a plain old 386 in disguise (and not a 40MHz 386, just 33MHz). And those two 512MB memory modules, encased in shiny aluminum heatsinks were probably cardboard props or something, because absolutely ZERO memory was detected.

I finally pit BT.  
You pathetic shit-for-brains at the Broadband Helpdesk, I know how to connect a fucking modem, I know how to spell my name and I know how to spell “[BTBroadband.com](http://BTBroadband.com)”. The problem is obviously on your end, not mine.

Update: I was preparing this rant a couple of days ago, and now I think I found what causes the crashes. I believe the modem suffers from overheating. Now I have it standing on its side and it is much cooler than before. It hasn’t crashed yet and it is turned on for more than a day.