I understand that the battle between US Robotics and Motorola over the standard for 56K modems is over and that a standard has been decided upon. What does this mean for people who already own modems that were either x2 or K56Flex? Will distributors replace modems free of charge? ANDREW TO Hong Kong The new V.90 international standard for 56K modems was decided upon two weeks ago by the International Telecommunications Union after much bickering. The last time there was so much fiddling about was in 1993 when the 28.8K modem class was introduced.
The V.90 standard has been put together from different bits of the x2 and K56Flex technologies. Testing of the new standards and interoperability between them has started to ensure that modem makers using either one of the older standards can make their devices work together after they have been coded with the V.90 technology.
3Com, which bought US Robotics last year, is one of the companies already testing both its end-user and Internet service provider-side 56K systems.
Once testing is finished - no time has been specified - users of modems such as yours will be provided with free software and firmware upgrades . . . provided you registered your product upon purchase. You will be able to download the upgrade patches off the vendor's Web sites or secure bulletin board services. The same goes for ISPs using 56K products.
While on the subject of 56K modems, I will answer two more related questions. Both refer to problems with US Robotics Sportster 56K external modems.
The first is from Anthony Penn, who cannot seem to keep up a connection to an ISP. He writes: I have no problems connecting to my ISP, but every time I do, about 15 minutes after I make the connection, all data transfer activity between my computer and the ISP ceases. The modem remains connected. Windows 95's dial-up connection dialogue box tells me so. I know it is so because I've picked up the phone connected to the modem and heard the hand-shaking process going on. What is wrong and how can I fix it? The answer, according to Francis Fong of Synergy, the Hong Kong distributor of 3Com products, is to get a new modem. Mr Fong is familiar with similar symptoms that generally spell a product gone badly wrong.
The second question is from Carrot Lai, who writes: I'm having major headaches with my US Robotics Sportster 56K external x2 modem. The problem is that the connection breaks every time I'm dialling an ISP. It doesn't happen right away. Using Windows Dial-Up Networking on my AcerBasic desktop PC with AMD K5 133 MHz processor, I can get to the terminal window and enter my login and password. The ISP will approve me, at which point I type 'PPP' and press F7 to continue, so that I can run Netscape or Eudora. At this point, the modem hangs up, leaving me with a message about the PC unable to connect due to a configuration problem (though under Modems in my Control Panel, the Sportster 56K External driver is loaded). This happens with two different ISPs, and both when I'm dialling a regular 33.6 kbps line, or a 56 kbps x2 line.