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Black Box noticed that Livingston has some interesting info on their K56flex page, including a list of Rockwell-based K56flex modems (with firmware revisions) that have been certified to operate with Livingston Portmaster K56flex servers. If your ISP uses Livingston Portmasters and has upgraded to K56flex, this is a must read before buying a modem. Expect more modems to be certified as 1.0 firmware updates are released.
The Livingston page also contains this tidbit:
ISPs using Channelized T1 lines generally get a 2Kbps lower connect speed than ISPs who use ISDN PRI lines.
PC Computing has reviews of the Cardinal Connecta 56K, Diamond Multimedia SupraExpress 56e, Hayes Accura 56K, IBM 56K Modem Internet Kit, and Motorola ModemSURFR 56K. For links to other 56K modem reviews, see the 56K Modem Buyer's Guide.
Boca Research is guaranteeing free, software-based upgrades to the eventual ITU 56K standard.
Tornado Belgium has announced their first 56K modem, and is also guaranteeing free upgrades to the final standard. The story was released on the PR newswire, but Tornado's web page has not yet been updated.
Wired is reporting that Internet backbone providers have complained about the methodology of the Boardwatch/Keynote survey of backbone performance (see the June 27 news). In particular, they object to the fact that the study only looked at the speed of the provider's web servers. As a result of the complaints, the providers will now be able to choose which server is used as the basis for comparison.
The ad banners were down yesterday because the site was unexpectedly moved to a new server on our web host. After modifying our cgis, everything is back to normal.
Today: clarifications from Rockwell, inside information about K56flex from Blackbox, news nuggets from Diamond Multimedia and Bay Networks, and the new 56K troubleshooting guide.
Bay Networks this will will release an access concentrator that supports both x2 and K56flex. According to an Information Week article, the concentrator will require separate hubs to comply with licensing agreements with U.S. Robotics and Rockwell.
The new Diamond Multimedia firmware update mentioned last week has been removed from Diamond Multimedia's web site. Richard Wheelock of Diamond's PC Modem Team wrote to say that, "Since the release of that firmware code, it has been removed from the Diamond Multimedia web pages and has returned to the labs for further beta testing."
Clarifications from Rockwell
In response to recent questions, Rockwell forwarded information from Mike Ziehl, communications product marketing director for Rockwell, who was quoted in the Information Week article mentioned in last week's news:
Here are the responses to your questions on Friday.On the 56K/FCC issue: Mike Ziehl's statement was that RSS product was designed to be able to get 56K while living within the FCC power limitation, BUT that other phone network impairments like noise on the local loop etc would still prevent 56K from happening in most cases. We do not "get around or bypass FCC" we are fully compliant with the FCC power limitation. We just utilize different coding schemes than x2 that allow for the average power over a 3 second interval to remain less than -12dbm as the FCC specifies.
From this statement, it seems clear that K56flex can, in principle, acheive 56K speeds without surpassing FCC power regulations, but that such speeds are unlikely due to line noise and other issues. Now if Rockwell would just change the confusing wording on their web site.
On Rockwell/Lucent interoperability: Lucent's clients now shipping interoperate with our servers and RSS clients now shipping are using a fully interoperable firmware. Client companies are making that firmware available on the web for upgrades when required.
Mr. Ziehl's comments confirm Blackbox's information about the 1.0 K56flex firmware updates that several modem manufacturers have recently released.
More inside information from Blackbox
Blackbox, our anonymous source for K56flex information, has new info about the various versions of K56flex firmware:
K56Flex 1.000-1.003 were the first tries for interoperability with Lucent and Rockwell code. The code has several bugs which prevents it from working correctly one of which is a retrain bug which causes the LAPM Retry limit to be reached (and the connection drops). The first code that works well is 1.005, with 1.009 being even better and VERY solid. Rockwell sent the 1.009 code to modem manfactures the first week of July.<rant>It is VERY frustrating from the ISP side of things about the SLOW pace these K56Flex modem manufactures are taking getting the new code out. We have our all office modems flashed to 1.009, and results are great (all employees can connect between 42k-48k from home)! We routinely see 5-5.2k/sec download speeds and great all around performance (no quake problems either). We have lots of customers who can't connect at K56Flex speeds because they still have 0.5x code, or 1.000-1.003 code. Hopefully when enough people starting yelling loud enough the modem makers will release new code in a timely fashion.</rant>
56K troubleshooting guide posted
The new 56K troubleshooting guide is online. It has all of the troubleshooting information I know of, and will be updated as new information becomes available.
PCTODAY has reviews of x2 modems from ActionTec, Cardinal, Global Village, IBM, Logicode, Practical Peripherals, and U.S. Robotics. Note that the review states all of the modem manufacturers offer free upgrades to the final ITU standard. I do not believe this is correct. For a list of companies guaranteeing free upgrades, click here.
When asked about K56flex's ability to achieve 56K within FCC power restrictions, Rockwell public relations referred me to their FAQ, part of which reads:
Performance testing in the Rockwell Laboratories indicates that Rockwell's K56flex modem chips will achieve full 56Kbps speeds on good lines while meeting the FCC Part 68 power limitations. Not all lines in the total PSTN will be able to support these speeds within these power limitations, however. Even then, our testing shows a potential average that's still as high as 50Kbps -- a situation we see with today's V.34 modems which connect at 33.6Kbps over clean lines but drop to mid-to-high-20Kbps speeds over "dirty" lines. If the FCC waives the Part 68 regulations, 56Kbps modems will operate at top speeds under all line conditions, and may be able to operate at even higher speeds up to the 64Kbps limit of the digital lines between the telcos and the ISPs.
Based on this statement, it sounds as if the question hinges on the quality of the user's phone lines. However, considering Rockwell's ambivalence on this issue (see the August 1 news and August 6 news) it would be nice to have a clear, unambiguous answer. Speaking of which...
When asked about the interoperability of K56flex 0.5 and 1.0, Rockwell public relations stated that they felt this was a level of detail that was not of interest to most users.
56K.COM Redesign
After totalling the results, the current grey design was the winner by a large margin. Thanks to everyone who voted! Several people with large monitors noted that the background stripe repeated when their web browser was stretched to full screen. My current graphics program seems to be limited to 999 pixel widths, so I'll have to fix this sometime this week with another program.
56K Troubleshooting
I'm close to completing a 56K troubleshooting guide. One way or another, I'll probably post it on Wednesday. Here are some highlights that everyone should be aware of:
Previous week
56K.COM is written and maintained by Les Jones. Artwork by Mark Maxwell.