Past News Home Search Email Glossary
Todd Spangler of Web Week talks about the V.pcm ITU standard and ISP rollout plans, some of which could happen as early as the end of March. The story quotes a 3Com representative as saying that 3Com expects 56K users will see a performance improvement with the new protocol.
Glenn Mulcaster of The Age reports that Netcomm, the Australia modem maker, is looking for a new name following its merger with fellow modem maker Banksia.
PC Week reports on Ariel's Rascal RS2000, a PCI card for NT servers that provides up to 24 ISDN or 56K dial-in ports.
Backbone provider AGIS has acquired a large amount of Internet network infrastructure from Qwest Communications in a deal worth 260 million dollars plus stock. Wired has the story.
The NewCom 56Kifxc is the latest 56K modem reviewed by Computer Shopper.
Firmware updates
Standard beta disclaimer: the Hayes and Motorola updates are in beta, meaning that they are not fully debugged. If this sounds too risky, wait for the finished version.
Carlos found beta Hayes 1.161 firmware updates at ftp://ftp.almac.co.uk/hayes/accura/. A .dir file describes the directory contents, but refers to files that aren't present.
Global Village has a K56flex 1.2 firmware upgrade for the TelePort K56flex. According to their web page, "Version 1.200 of the TelePort 56 K56flex firmware update provides voice/fax call sensing and stronger 56k performance."
Tom Stanhope noticed a slightly newer US version of the Motorola ModemSURFR 1.12 beta mentioned last week. Motorola tech support told one reader that the update would not fix his problem, and that he should stay away from the update. Another reader called attention to the disclaimer in the readme file:
Revision 1.12 is beta release and should only be flashed into your modem if you have been instructed to do so by Motorola Technical Support. If you have not contacted Technical Support and been assigned a Case Number, do not flash your unit with this code. All none refferals [sic] that encounter a problem with this upgrade will need to send their units directly to Motorola Repair.
56K.COM is written and maintained by Les Jones. Artwork by Mark Maxwell.