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Picture courtesy of Integrity Computers.
| Quality | 5.8/10   |
|---|---|
| Ease of Set Up | 8.7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8.7/10 |
| Value for Money | 4.6/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 4.1/10 |
| Overall Rating | 4.1/10 |
Full review by
JDigital
on 4th Aug 2004
User Rating : 1
Respect :
0
Good Points: It was free.
Bad Points: It only seems to work when it wants to, and even then it's not great.
General comments: Although a friend of mine has a Alcatel Speed Touch USB and it works fine for him, I've had nothing but trouble with it. I get the error where the SpeedTouch icon in the system tray goes yellow and says "Initializing ADSL Line", and it won't connect. BT's techsupport, as usual, has been unhelpful.
Sometimes, especially when I'm on a BitTorrent download or downloading from a great number of people at once, my Internet-using programs will stall, even so far as to become unresponsive to CTRL-ALT-DEL. Sometimes, I have to restart my computer to get it to working again, or else wait for around twenty full minutes.
I've had the unusual finding that switching off the other computer in my house - which isn't even connected to the network, and is fully three rooms away - temporarily rectifies the problem. Freaky or what?
In short, I advise against using BT Internet's broadband options if you have a choice - it's overpriced, it now caps your monthly bandwidth and their technical support is poor. However, if you do choose BT Internet, note that this modem (which they supply free) has a fair chance of malfunctioning for you as I described above, in which case you may find yourself shelling out around £35 for a proper ADSL modem.
JDigital's review and ratings | 230 words
Review by
Mouse Nightshirt
on 21st Jul 2004
User Rating : 7
Respect :
+1
The Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem came free with my ISP package, but is still reasonably cheap otherwise. An absolute breeze to install, and reliable with good support from the manufacturers.
However, on testing of various systems, this modem will cause regular freezing of many AMD processor systems if you are not using USB 2.0. So if you have an AMD system, with no USB 2.0 support, then either get a different modem or buy a USB 2.0 PCI card (not that expensive and useful anyway).
Mouse Nightshirt's full review | 104 words
Review by
Seany
on 13th Jul 2004
User Rating : 9
Respect :
-1
The Alcatel Speed Touch USB is a fantastic little modem. Extremely fast and very reliable when used with Windows XP.
There is a Driver update available for Windows 98/ME which definitely cures the problems.
It's maximum speed is supposed to be 576.0 Kbps but mine has achieved 615.0 Kbps on a good day but only around 70.0 Kbps when the network is very busy.
I have found it to be a very good and reliable product.
Seany's full review | 97 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
Neel.
on 14th Jun 2003
User Rating : 3
Respect :
+2
On windows xp it always goes offline automaticly, the icon in the corner is yellow and it says "intalizing adsl line". My ISP is BT, does anyone else have this problem?
Neel.'s full review | 69 words | 5 comments added.
Review by
David.
on 5th Apr 2003
User Rating : 7
Respect :
+1
Got from pipex March 2002. Came with 1.4 driver so no blue screen probs. Installed ok except didn't read pipex instructions properly and so installed as broadband connection instead of dun conection at first(alcatel connection worked straight away).Rarely disconnects-sometimes requires restart about once a month in order to connect. Used up to 8 hours daily without problems. See adslguide.org for useful tips/comments.
David.'s full review | 73 words
Review by
techie.
on 27th Mar 2003
User Rating : 5
Respect :
+2
I got it when ordered my BT Openworld package and I paid ~£80 for it. I just realised this thing does not have an Ethernet interface, only USB, and I have to buy another modem when I setup my home network.
techie.'s full review | 40 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
lazza.
on 3rd Mar 2003
User Rating : 0
Respect :
+5
Well im glad i didnt have to pay for this , i just feel a little sad that my boss tried to do something nice and now i have to go and buy a real adsl modem/router, thats gonna make my boss feel like he wasted his time and money im sure :-(
I've had the phone company test and then retest my lines , ive had a replacement speedtouch modem , i've had alcatel support on the phone various times , had my ISP involved and guess what , yup it still disconnects randomly and leaving me with a "no dial to ...
lazza.'s full review | 189 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
Team434.
on 12th Feb 2003
User Rating : 1
Respect :
0
I joined BTopenworld broadband who supplied me with the Alcatel SpeedTouch USB Modem which i had to pay an extra £80 for.
I found that the modem was difficult to set up and unless you know really what you are doing it's easy to get confused and install it wrongly. So it's not very "user friendly" as such. It also looks like nothing i have seen before, i was a bit shocked when i opened the box, its looks nothing like a ADSL modem more like some alien creature.
Once set up it was not the ...
Team434.'s full review | 349 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
Bane.
on 3rd Feb 2003
User Rating : 8
Respect :
+2
Had a lot of trouble with this modem when I first got it. It used to disconnect and both lights would go off on the unit. Only solution was a reboot the machine. This was all due to the modem and my VIA chipset. I took a bit of time getting the right BIOS and USB upgrades before the modem was stable, but all the instability was caused by my machine and not the unit itself. I think the SpeedTouch USB unit gets a lot of bad press due to problems with the via chipset and their incomplete suppor ...
Bane.'s full review | 101 words
Review by
Sogekihei.
on 4th Jan 2003
User Rating : 0
Respect :
0
I was given the freeserve broadband boxed set as a christmas gift, along with this modem. I had a lot of trouble with the device and so decided to uninstall it. Using the uninstall wizard, it failed to remove any of the device's drivers or software, but instead took a handful of window's .sys files off my system leaving me scrambling about in DOS for three days. I could not restore my system properly and was forced to shell out for win xp and total reformat the hard drive. I cancelled my subscri ...
Sogekihei.'s full review | 100 words
Review by
rik.
on 14th Nov 2002
User Rating : 7
Respect :
0
I've only had the modem for 2 days but it seems to be running fine on my computer (which runs on WinXP). I can get a solid 550 kbs (nearly the maximum avalible to me) with a good download source. My ISP is freeserve.
rik.'s full review | 57 words
Review by
MO.
on 1st Oct 2002
User Rating : 7
Respect :
0
I have found the Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem good overall. It's always on 24/7, no disconnections ever since i subscribed to 512k services (connects at 576kbps??)
isp is freeserve.
MO.'s full review | 87 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
hiXis.
on 7th Sep 2002
User Rating : 10
Respect :
0
The Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem connects but it disconnects A LOT when leaving gaming enviroments. Don't buy it
hiXis.'s full review | 29 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
Hydramus.
on 24th Aug 2002
User Rating : 5
Respect :
+2
My Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem disconnects for no reasons and can't connect sometimes. I think this modem is bad because when i bought it it was meant to be an ADSL modem. On the side of the box it said "no more disconnections".
Hydramus.'s full review | 51 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
Warriorgrey.
on 14th Aug 2002
User Rating : 0
Respect :
+3
Crash screen always says a driver is not installed properly. didn't really understand all the jargon till i did a little PC spring cleaning and recognised the file name (alcan5wn.sys) this is the driver for my modem. Tried to upgrade it -like looking for needle in haystack- to no avail. This modem worked fine on my win2k pII. now i got XP home p4 keeps crashing. SOMEBODY PLEASE SORT THIS OUT.
p.s my value for money is high as i got mine for nothing. Ten a penny these things.
Warriorgrey.'s full review | 134 words | 13 comments added.
Review by
Finalstryke.
on 2nd Jul 2002
User Rating : 0
Respect :
+1
Before I connected this Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem I'd never had a BSoD in the 10 months since I purchased an XP machine. This modem has been connected for 2 weeks and I experience BSoD every day, after I've been onlince for 20 +/- 6 hours. Pretty damn annoying. (Have managed to upgrade the drivers to 1.6, this took a while as the manufacturers website download section was not working for the last WEEK - this made NO DIFERENCE).
I've heard that there are some general USB - XP difficulties, ...
Finalstryke.'s full review | 98 words | 3 comments added.
Review by
Simon.
on 28th Jun 2002
User Rating : 3
Respect :
+1
The Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem works and is dead simple to install. Every now and then it does drop the connection but it's not that often, 99.9% of the time it works. My only gripe is that it seems to draw too much current with the result that the PC fails to go into the BIOS on boot up. The simple fix is to unplug the modem before booting, but I've just ordered a USB PCI card to see if that'll fix it.
Simon.'s full review | 121 words | 3 comments added.
Review by
Joe.
on 22nd Jun 2002
User Rating : 9
Respect :
0
I have been using the Alcatel Speed Touch modem supplied by BT for almost 3 months.. Absolutly no problems at all. Stays connected 24/7. On many full download tests I always get 500kbs+ (Using IMESH etc. with segmented downloads) Having read most of the BAD reviews I feel most of the problems are XP/ISP/PC related. My server is only 300mhz 64mb machine serving 3 other PC's on network without ANY problems so far.
Joe.'s full review | 76 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
exiter.
on 14th Jun 2002
User Rating : 1
Respect :
+1
My Alcatel Speed Touch USB started out as a good modem bundled with the isp stuff but since i formatted and gone on to win xp (so i can play games and have not the resources to purchase another machine) it now seems i get just plain misery. I even loaded the newest drivers (version 1.6). even on the old drivers i get the same results, disconnects. the cd doesn't see the installed modem (sbc). i wish someone would resolve this and soon, the isp i'm currently with is good. and cable is so overpopu ...
exiter.'s full review | 123 words | 1 comment added.
Review by
zion28.
on 12th Jun 2002
User Rating : 0
Respect :
-6
This Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem came free with my dsl service and with good reason! it is not worth the package it came in! The service that I ordered said download speeds of up to 1.5mps. I, with this modem on a good day, can do a file download speed of 100kps. If it is offered, do not take it. Spend a little extra money and get something dependable!!!!! I did. (check out www.bestdata.com under products)
zion28.'s full review | 87 words | 2 comments added.
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