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Modem makers play hide-and-go-seek with web sites
According to 3Com public relations, the www.usr.com site is gone for good. Use www.3com.com instead. As reported previously, x2.usr.com was down this weekend, but came back Monday afternoon. According to 3Com, the downtime was due to a server relocation.
Two more modem makers' web sites are AWOL.
On Tuesday, readers began reporting that attempts to reach pages at Digicom Systems resulted in "403 forbidden" errors.
Amquest's web site has been giving "404 file not found" errors since this weekend. I emailed Amquest's web hosting provider and received this response:
Amquest currently does not have a web site available. For further information you will need to contact them directly.
I couldn't find a phone number for the company, but I've emailed them at a non-amquestcorp.com address.
The one bright spot in all of this is Practical Peripherals. The company recently changed their web address from www.practinet.com to www.practical.com, but the old web site continues to work. Many URLs from the old site can be converted to the new address simply by replacing "practinet" with "practical". Three cheers for the webmasters at Practical Peripherals.
3Com has apparently pulled the plug on some U.S. Robotics' web sites. The pages at www.usr.com advise visitors to use the 3Com web site, while the pages at x2.usr.com report "404 file not found" errors. The USR UK web site still works, as does the Total Service web site. It may take a while for me to update all of the USR links on 56K.COM. If anyone knows the new address for the USR line test page, please email me.
U.S. Robotics web site update
x2.usr.com is back up. I've contacted 3Com to get the offical word on
the web site changes, and will post as soon as I know something.
Viking Components has announced plans to provide free upgrades to the ITU 56K modem standard, which is expected to be approved in draft form at the ITU meeting that begins today in Geneva. Once the standard is set, I expect many other manufacturers to make similar announcements. Click here for a list of companies promising upgrades to the final standard.
Several readers spied Zoom firmware updates for their external K56flex modems. Upgrades for the internal models were released last week; see January 19 news.
ISP News
The new ISP listing is ready for use by ISPs. If you have requested information about the ISP program, you will receive email today. If data entry goes well this week, the new area should be available to the public next week.
To request information about the program, send email to isp@56k.com. Don't send information about your company: when you have access to the pages, you will be able to add your company's information to the pages.
56K.COM is written and maintained by Les Jones. Artwork by Mark Maxwell.