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Hayes is Dead 61

Posted by CmdrTaco from the end-of-an-era dept.
Several folks wrote in to say that Hayes is dead. Remember the 'Hayes AT Command Set' that somehow became the standard? My first modem was a gigantic silver and black Hayes. It's strange that once again, a protocol they started has been extended, and outlived them. Update: 01/05 06:27 by CT : several folks wrote in with this story where the Hayes big shots deny the comments in the above News.com story.
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Hayes is Dead More

Hayes is Dead

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  • BBSs are not dead damnit. I still call BBSs. Quite a few in fact. And one is a 4-line system that runs on several networked Amigas, so Amigas aren't dead either :P
  • Posted by modefan:


    Hayes was good.
    USR was better.

    Long live USR.
  • Someone had to do that too. =)
  • USR used to be just as pricey as Hayes. When they first came out with Sportster modems, it was a big deal because I could actually afford one. Their Courier modems were always very pricy.
  • I remember using Hayes silver and black modems at work years ago. 1200 up to 9600, I think. Always liked the way they looked - kinda tough sitting there on top of the crufty old rs6k 320. Heh. Nothing like old tech...think I'll go visit the Computer Garage for a shot of nostalgia.
  • Actually, Hayes filed chapter 11 a few months ago. This isn't news... I doubt they will really go under though. Usually when this happens, another company looking for a good deal with snatch up another after they have filed chapter 11 and have relinquished all of their debts... Happened to Cardinal (which was bought by Hayes...).
  • Overpriced? Maybe. You got a good quality modem with a warranty the company wasn't afraid of standing behind. They are workhorses. I work in a bank and we have some 1200's and 2400's that are kicking around here that still work flawlessly. They were nice enough to reduce their prices to BBS', which was a cool thing. Some of my best friends sweared by them... I wish them well in their next incarnation...

  • modems (Score:1)

    by zonker ( 1158 )
    if you want info on how 56k works, and modem in general for that matter... head over to www.56k.com

    also check out this white paper:

    http://www.nb.rockwell.com/K56flex/whitepapers/k 56whitepaper.html

    Normal phone lines are analog: they transmit data
    as a series of peaks and valleys. Your "modem" is a MOdulator/DEModulator: it modulates outgoing data from digital to analog, and demodulates incoming data from analog to digital.

    Above a certain threshold (called Shannon's Limit) the signal-to-noise ratio of any medium becomes too low to reliably transfer data. The analog phone line is the limiting factor in the speed of data transmission because of the inherent noise it contributes.

    Today's telephone network is increasingly digital. In particular, the portion of the phone connection between the phone company and the Internet Service Provider (ISP) is often digital. Digital lines still have noise, and are still subject to Shannon's limit, but they have less noise and a higher ceiling.

    Several companies have created techniques that take advantage of the digital portion of the phone network to achieve higher speeds than were possible with a purely analog pathway. These new techniques treat the phone system as a mostly digital network that just happens to have an analog portion.

    There are several consequences to the reliance on a half-digital connection. Your Internet service provider (ISP) must have digital phone lines to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). That's the easy part: if your ISP offers 56K, they've got the digital lines.

  • oops! (Score:1)

    by zonker ( 1158 )
    Yeah, your right... I breezed through the article and didn't really read it. Sorry...



    ouch!


  • At least, they claim not to be. At least, ZDNet says so.

    http://www.zdnet.com/ zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2182458,00.html [zdnet.com]

    --

  • Yes the AT command set worked brilliantly, and it gave a standard method of communicating with the modem.

    Other manufacturers agreed and implemented it in their modems, making it incredibly easy to write terminal programs and such back in the early 80's.

    That's about when Hayes decided to sue everybody who was using the AT command set for copyright infringement.

    In a way Hayes sort of killed themselves. Their last good product was the Hayes Smartmodem 1200.

  • However, check the stock-ticker box on the article. Is it just me, or is something wrong with that?

    In any case, we all owe a lot to Hayes, whether or not we use modems. If not for them, I'd consider it quite likely that the Net as we know it would be vastly different, and the change wouldn't be for the better.
  • I remember having a hayse... for about day. Asked for an AppleCat (1200 baud with the 202 (or was it 212?) card) for the 'ol //e but got a micromodem ][e (300 baud) instead. Took it back the next day and got the right modem (the applecat of course). Doing a 2 way transfer while chatting in the text window and 1200 was pretty damn cool back them... Then all the AE sites started popping up. I ran one on a 15 meg external mountain that would never spin up. Had to remove the cover and spin the platters >by hand to get it going.... I'm sorry, what were we talking about?
  • This kinda sucks for Ron Howard. I know that he was the CEO of Access Beyond and somehow after either merging or being bought out by Hayes he ended up in control.
    He gave a talk at a WPI entrepreneurship class a couple of years ago and was very inspirational. I would expect to see him active in the remote access business in the future.
  • The Courier were and remain very pricy, but they tend to be well worth it if you need a reliable modem for 7x24 service.
  • It was actually bound to happen. I have only seen 3 Hayes peripherals in use in my time. 2 of them are at work. Hayes was always overpriced, which definitely proved to be their downfall.
    Why pay $200 for a Hayes 33.6 when you can get a USR 33.6 that's Hayes compatible for $120? (Don't knock the prices. I haven't been 33.6 shopping in over a year)
    All of my non-Hayes external modems ran flawlessly, and quite cool at that. You could prepare a 7 course dinner on the external Hayes at my place of employment.
    But nonetheless, adios, Hayes.
    -mickey
  • >Didn't Hayes sue other modem manufacturers for using the +++ interrupt idea?

    It wasn't so much the use of +++, as it was the use of a guard time around the interrupt characters(+++(or any other pre-defined interrupt characters) within a data stream wouldn't switch to command mode, but receipt of the interrupt characters with a second before and a second after of no activity would). This makes it unlikely that a modem will switch to command mode just because the interrupt characters happen to appear in the data stream.
  • Haha to the ATH post :D

    I bought a Hayes Accura ISDN last year which I am still using. But the Hayes name on a sticker couldn't disguise it was exactly the same box, board and firmware as the Zyxel ISDN modem: both companies seem to OEM it from the same Far East factory.

    If Hayes' big deal was superior high-end quality, then I guess I'm not surprised they came to a sticky end seeing as Zyxel were selling exactly the same product cheaper.

  • Hayes (Score:1)

    by FiNaLe ( 4289 )
    I recently got a 56k hayes. Albeit a tad overpriced, heck, I didn't pay for it, it sure looks cool. Like something out of 2001, or it's action packed sequel, 2010.
    It has a white case, then in the front where all the blinking lights are, it has this dark, transparent-red cover, with lighter red lites under it. the thing is way more stream-lined then a USR sportster.

    New poll: I would by a modem based on
    ( ) Performance.
    ( ) Looks.
    ( ) You poor souls.
    ( ) Huh?

  • For those who are too young to remember, Hayes invented much of the modem's technology, pioneered the "AT" command set, and tried to make their investment back by positioning themselves as the premium brand. For many years, they were significantly more expensive than - we're talking maybe twice the price of - any other brand.

    Everyone respected Hayes for their work and thought standardizing the AT command set was a great idea. All the BBS people I hung out with in the 1980s thought they made great modems. None of us actually owned one.

    Jamie McCarthy

  • Didn't Hayes sue other modem manufacturers for using the +++ interrupt idea? I say good riddance. What an idiotic thing to patent.

    On the other hand, this article [zdnet.co.uk] reports that a Hayes VP says they aren't dead. Too bad.

    --
  • Ah, those were the days. I had a 1200bps Hayes hooked up to my "FAT Mac" back then. I don't know how "flaming" has come to mean what it does now - that is, any form of criticism. Back then a flame was an uninhibited trashing of someone, usually written entirely in capitals and full of ANSI graphics.


  • I go back to the days before Hayes. Hayes
    didn't have anything to do with the signal
    processing that makes modems work, but they
    were the first to produce a successful
    modem that you
    could type at. In the pre-Hayes days you had
    to dial the phone for the modem manually,
    and manually clear the connection after you
    were done. With Hayes modems, you could be
    down the hall from the modem and operate it
    by just typing on your terminal. The +++
    sequence was just a clever hack that completed
    the job, so you'd never have to physically
    touch the modem to make it work.


    The signal processing, on the other hand, all
    came out of the US and European phone companies
    in those days.

  • I go back to the days before Hayes. Hayes didn't have anything to do with the signal processing that makes modems work, but they were the first to produce a successful modem that you could type at. In the pre-Hayes days you had to dial the phone for the modem manually, and manually clear the connection after you were done. With Hayes modems, you could be down the hall from the modem and operate it by just typing on your terminal. The +++ sequence was just a clever hack that completed the job, so you'd never have to physically touch the modem to make it work.

    The signal processing, on the other hand, all came out of the US and European phone companies in those days.

  • I hope this means that we never see another "Hayes is dead" article on /.
    they were getting to be as bad as a horror movie villian when it came to being resurrected
    --
  • I still have a data sheet for the Hayes DC-103 internal smart modem. It was a S-100 format card intended to be installed in an 8-bit microcomputer, a la Altair and IMSAI. It ran the standard 110 baud (not Kbps) modulation of the time, and the spiffy new 300 baud modulation as well. And it used the AT command set. Anyone who's ever seen the insane lash ups used to get computer control over switched-line MODEMs at the time knows what a "scathingly brilliant" idea the AT command set was. I note their passing with sadness.
  • It's sad, in a nostalgic sorta way. I remember how exciting it was learning the Hayes command set on my first modem, a blistering 1200 baud.

  • I've never owned a hayes, but since my modem was compatible, I could use it with any OS.
    - Thank you hayes :( ATH
  • I got a Hayes Accura 56k modem just before Christmas for only $10!! It was on sale and also had a mail in rebate.

  • ATH1 (Score:1)

    by Splork ( 13498 )
    ATZ
    ATS7=45S11=50S0=1
  • I always liked Hayes. I have an internal Hayes right now on my pc. But, other modem companies did what they did, and did it better. Now Hayes is dead.

    Strangely, other OS companies can do what an industry leader (who shall remain nameless), and do it better, but that company still remains.

    But I'm also thankful that Hayes didn't turn out like the implied OS leader, or all our modems would be 9600 baud, lose connection often, and cost $300 a pop.

    Isn't competition great (for us)?
  • They're still selling the U.S. Robotics, Inc. brand name (unlike Adaptec when they bought Trantor) so at least there's still one Isaac Asimov-derived brand name out there!
  • I remember my first Hayes modem. A 300bps S-100
    plugin card. I also remember when Concord (I believe that was the name of the company) so the rights to their AT command set to Hayes. Hayes didn't invent it, but buy purchasing it they set
    the standard for th AT style commands.

    It's been a long ways from the 300bps to the T1's and frac T3 is use now.

  • I was under the impression that Hayes went under several years ago and somebody else bought the name. Anybody know?

    Ah, the joys of inband signalling...
    pause +++ pause ATH

    Div.

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