HiRO H50113 V92 56K External USB Data Fax Dial Up Internet Modem Windows 10 8.1 8 7 Vista XP 32-bit 64-bit

I had been using the PhoneTray call screening software for a couple of years with an old, nearly-dead laptop that had a built-in modem. After two years of running it 24/7, the old laptop was starting to fail. I had to get a new laptop to run PhoneTray, but couldn't find one with a built-in modem. I bought this to fill the gap. It worked perfectly, plug-and-play, on both the old laptop (Vista) and the new one (8.1). I am very relieved! I tested it first on the old dying laptop that already had PhoneTray installed (an old Toshiba Satellite). Plugged it in to the USB, plugged it into the phone line. It took a few seconds to recognize it and set it up automatically, nothing I needed to do in Windows. I went into PhoneTray's settings to change which modem it was using, then called the phone it was plugged into. PhoneTray answered the call through the HiRO modem exactly as it is supposed to. I then bought the cheapest laptop I could find that had Windows (for PhoneTray), WiFi (for updates) and USB (to plug this in). This was also a Toshiba Satellite. Plugged HiRO into the USB, plugged it into a phone line, and a few seconds later I heard a chirp that I assumed meant the device was recognized. Installed PhoneTray on the new laptop and again called the phone. PhoneTray answered the call through the HiRO modem on the new laptop exactly as it is supposed to. I am very happy that this was able to fill the gap! And the price is right!

I tested it with a dial up internet service (NetZero) and it does indeed work perfectly in that usage. Computers nowadays lack a modem so this fills the bill perfectly. Obviously, you only need this for dial-up internet access over the telco copper pair, or alternately is can be used to allow the computer to detect caller ID info from the phone line. I bought this modem to use with a computer as an answering machine/call blocker (using CallClerk software). This was a recommended modem for the service and it works perfectly. I am using it with one of the new HP Win8 laptops as a call blocker to keep some sanity around here (political robo-calls, scammers like Card Services, fake Microsoft Customer Services, et cetera). The dial-up phone line must have caller-id for this use... UPDATE 6/17/2016 I have been using the HiRO H50113 modem since I wrote the above review and I can give nothing but praise for it. It has worked flawlessly for me all this time. I use it only as a caller id detector and call blocker on a dedicated HP Pavilion TouchSmart 14 Sleekbook. My caller ID software is CallClerk. Google it. I did replace the original hard drive with a solid state drive for additional speed. I have tried out the modem on a dialup connection to try it out and it works GREAT here on an original AT&T POTS twisted pair. Yes I still have a traditional phone line and my original number that has been assigned to my address for more than 50 years. :) Summation: I can not say enough about htis modem and how well it has worked!

IT NOW WORKS! UPDATE: The modem has been working well now for a couple months. I've manually copied the Windows 7 version of the fax driver app and overwritten the Windows 8/8.1 version. Prior to doing this none of the USB modems we tried worked. So it was a Windows software problem. There are several websites that will walk you through overwriting the FXST30.dll Pros: Good documentation in the box and online. Blue LEDs on device show status. 12" long USB cable, device doesn't sit directly at PC's USB port. 2 phone line ports on device, line in and pass-through. Function: Plugged into Win 8.1 laptop. Device was recognized and LSI 2.0 drivers installed automatically (no CD ROM so cannot utilize included CD). Restarted PC. LEDs operational. Computer recognizes, Windows Fax & Scan recognizes. Unfortunately we've only had success sending to one of five different recipients so far. The Hiro device dials out, clearly sounds like it connects to the receiving machines, but then fails to transmit. I took the extra step of downloading the drivers for Win 8.1/64 from the Hiro website, and installed, but that changed nothing. I have no idea why it sends and receives perfectly from one recipient but fails to all the others. Still working on this issue. The internal fax modem on our ancient Dell XP machine has no issues sending and receiving faxes, but I really want to put that machine out to pasture...

I was hopeful that this product would replace my old Zoom External Serial Fax/Voice/Modem. I've used this for years in conjunction with FaxTalk Mexxenger Pro software as a business answering and messaging system. The old modem finally quit and now I'm on my search for a reasonably priced replacement. When the Zoom modem first died, I started out replacing it with a Sewell USB Fax/Voice/Modem. It works fine, but the sound quality is horrible. The positive reviews for the Hiro H50113 had me hopeful. I received the product quickly and in good order. Installation was simple and, following the recommended download of current drivers from the Hiro website, I made a test call. The sound quality was wonderfully clear and I was excited that this would be my solution. However, following that first call, the modem would not re-initialize. No amount of uninstalling and re-installing resolved the problem. As an aside, this modem has two led lights to indicate activity: a Data Ready, and Off Hook. The Off Hook light never came on during my one successful test call. The Data Ready light is a super bright blue LED that would light up a dark room. Don't look directly at the light...it will temorarily blind you! I'm returning this unit today and will figure out plan C.

I bought this modem because it has a long USB cable. With the stubby cables of the other models, the modem would have been dangling off my tablet. With this long cable, I can store the modem further from my tablet. I'm using this modem with a call blocker. I have PhoneTray Free v1.39 on a Windows Home 32-bit tablet. I plugged in the modem, the modem initialized and the modem blocked calls. No disc, no downloads, no fuss. However, a couple days later, Windows automatically updated the driver from 2.2.98 to.2.2.102, and the modem stopped blocking calls. Although PhoneTray would report the calls as "zapped," the modem, I suspected, wasn't passing the disconnect signal. This created other bizarre reactions. Because the modem wouldn't pass the disconnect signal, my phone would ring until the answering machine picked up the call. Robocallers leaving messages is not good. Additionally, the disconnect signal from PhoneTray seemed to "bounce back" into PhoneTray. Meaning, after I receive a call with Caller ID info, PhoneTray would immediately receive 2 more calls without Caller ID info (Unavailable, N/A). Every call had this bizarre reaction. I looked at the driver and the option to rollback was grayed out. Initially, I thought there was nothing to rollback because it was the original driver. After researching, however, Windows had replaced the generic driver (2.2.98) with the latest driver (2.2.102). HiRO has a how-to article to rollback the driver: - Internet search the following: hiro h50113 driver - Look for an article on hiroinc dot com - Click H50113 External USB Modem Driver roll back to 2.2.98 after update to 2.2.10 I also configured Windows to stop automatically updating drivers: - Internet search the following: 4 Easy Ways to Disable Windows 10 Auto Update! - Look for an article on drivereasy dot com - Click the fourth step Other than that, it's a good modem.

HiRO H50113 V92 56K External USB Data Fax Voice Dial Up Internet Modem Windows 8.1 32 and 64-bit Due to a known Win 8 & 8.1 problem I and other people have had difficulties using any fax, however, a most gracious technician from this company spent over an hour on the phone with me fixing the issues so we could get this beautiful piece of technology finally working for me. I highly recommend this company and ANY of its products. Treat yourself to this incredible product line and a gracious customer experience. Day 2-additional info: The next day I rebooted and suddenly my fax stopped working, so I called back and the gracious tech again tried to help, and even supportively sat on the phone with my as I whined and cried, declaring the 'impending' end of my job and world w/o a working fax . . . We finally figured out how to override yet one more apparent Win 8 conflict. (They are amazing!) - - even tho the modem said its driver was up to date, we decided to give reinstalling the driver another try - - I put in the CD and clicked on "Install Driver." It lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree as soon as I clicked it and the modem refreshed and started anew, so MS - - ARE YOU LISTENING? I think you are interfering with a great modem. Please fix this in Win 10. And how about some more backwards compatible???? Like I said, treat yourself to this charming HiRO customer experience. This gets 10 stars! (Double the allotted amount!) 2/17/2017- Still 10 STARS! (I ordered this in Jan 2015 and love it! However, Microsoft INSISTS on messing this up every time they update their forced install to Win 10 (Why has no one started a class action suit? Why isn't the FCC & FBI investigating this rape and extortion of so many user's to get access to their computers or the loss, vandalism and destruction of them? This wass/is a criminal; A HUGE one ANYWAY... today I called HiRO and again spoke with Richard, and he spent a long time on the phone with me to get my caller ID back, (bless his heart). Even without it working for a time, thanks to MS, I would buy this modem again and many more as gifts. It took some time and eventually we were able to get part of it working. The great CS alone is worth it!

I bought this because we lost our only internet carrier and getting a satellite was just too expensive. Out of the box install was easy and the included phone software worked. But it is only a trial version. I ordered a dial up carrier and found I couldn't connect, I keep getting "error 676" message. I went to the company web site (at the library) and downloaded a new driver for Windows 8.1. It seems to work but I won't know until I get home to try it out. If it works I'll update this review. Until then anyone who buys this may have to download the newest drivers. UPDATE --- Well I tried other internet providers after loading the newest drivers. The modem made the call easy enough but couldn't "hand shake" with the remote server. I then decided that Windows 8.1 program couldn't connect. Back to the Library for another session where I downloaded a new modem program and also some "test" numbers. Nothing worked! Still couldn't "hand shake" with remote server. At this point I gave up. I cancelled service and was happy for a full refund.

I am running Windows 8.1 on my PC and I use a data modem for caller-id functions only. I did a lot of research on USB modems and there seemed to be a lot of people complaining about getting this type of modem working in Windows 8. I haven't tried other functions with this modem but I can tell you it works very well for caller-id. I have tested it with two programs so far, PhoneTray Free/Paid and Advanced Call Center (my favorite). Ahead of time I downloaded the drivers from the HIRO website so I couldn't tell you if the included disk has up to date drivers or not. When I unboxed the unit, I just plugged it in and it worked, that simple. It is a Lucent chipset because I chose that in the caller-id program and the modem was recognized immediately. The previous modem I was using was a dongle type meaning the usb cord was hardwired into the modem. This modem is much better because it comes with a detachable usb cord, allowing you to place it on a desktop without having to add a usb extension cable. The modem has two blue indicator lights on the top, Data Ready and OH (off hook) if you have a phone plugged into the phone out side of the modem. Included in the box with the modem are a standard phone cord, usb cord, instruction manual and a driver CD.