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Find the lowest modem prices!
As promised on Wednesday, 56K.COM now helps you find the lowest prices on brand name modems. The new page searches for prices from top catalog companies like BTI, Cyberian Outpost, Mac Zone, MicroWarehouse, NecX, and PC Zone.
While I was at it, I updated the advice in the buying guide to reflect the changes brought about by the new ITU 56K modem standard. One piece of advice has remained the same: for the near future, you should still buy whichever kind of modem your ISP uses - either x2 or K56flex. It will take several months for ISPs to upgrade, and even longer for the inevitable bugs to be worked out.
Now that there is an international 56K modem standard, I've combed through the web site updating pages that mention the lack of a standard. If anyone finds any others, let me know.
V.90 56K modem standard
In a joint press release, 3Com and Rockwell have announced completion of V.90 interoperability testing between their products.
3Com announced that it was the first company to ship a V.90 modem. The announcement covers other points:
TDK Systems expects to release V.90 upgrades during the second quarter.
PC-TEL has plans for a V.90 upgrade, but no firm timeframe has been announced.
Other news
As announced in a press release dated last month, Erol's Internet was acquired by RCN, a cable and telecommunications company.
Another modem manufacturer has bitten the dust. GBrinson reports that Amquest's phone numbers (800-577-1819 and 717-569-8030) have been disconnected. Amquest's web page stopped responding a month ago.
Craig Schultz notes that IBM has 4.23 firmware for their LT Winmodems. If you've been unable to get higher than 33.6 speeds with an LT Winmodem in your IBM computer, this firmware update is highly recommended. For more information about LT Winmodems, see the entry in the 56K Troubleshooting Guide.
Ready to buy a 56K modem? Don't open your wallet until you've seen the new feature at 56K.COM. Tune in Friday.
3Com is now shipping V.90 modems to stores. Upgrades are not yet available. If you registered your 3Com, U.S. Robotics, or Megahertz 56K modem, you will be notified by 3Com when upgrades are released. You can register and get more information at 3Com's 56K Central web page. Information for 3Com/USR server products is available here.
The ITU has decided to use a stripped-down version of Discrete Multitone (DMT) for G. Lite, its lower-cost, consumer-oriented DSL technology. Wired and xDSL News have coverage.
A press release from Keynote Systems - a testing house for Internet performance data - says that DSL and cable modems won't completely solve Internet speed issues, because the Internet itself will limit the performance of these new technologies. The report includes performance data and recommendations for increasing Internet speeds.
Who made this stupid modem?!
I frequently get email from readers who have no idea who
manufactured their modem. Here's one way to find out: all products
approved by the U.S. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) have an
FCC ID number printed somewhere on the device. You can search the
FCC Equipment Authorization
Database to match the FCC ID number to the product and
manufacturer.
New ISP areas open
The High Speed Internet Service Provider list now features ISPs offering ISDN, DSL, and cable modem access. These latest additions put the number of web pages at 56K.COM at more than 500 strong. (That's 500 pages, not links.)
News
Sprint and Earthlink have joined forces to create a 600,000-member ISP. There's a press release, and coverage in Media Daily and Wired News.
Cirrus Logic, a popular OEM modem maker, announced plans for V.90 interoperability testing with 3Com, GDC, Lucent, and Rockwell.
Shane Lord of Sirius Technologies - the modem maker that now encompasses NetComm, Banksia, Dataplex, Simple Computing and Avtek - wrote to say that Sirius has announced support for V.90. Upgrades are expected in March or April.
Shane also provides an explanation for something I noted on Friday:
Just a bit of info you may or may not know... You mentioned in your news that two other companies have announced that their modems will support V.90 in March, but that they can only use one or the other (V.90 or K56flex).The reason for this is because the original reference design (and the single chip RCxxx56ACF/xx chipset) supplied by Rockwell to modem manufacturers for K56flex, incorporated 1 meg flash EEPROMs, as the chipset used was limited by the memory it could access.
K56flex, being the highly complex code that it is, takes almost all of the 1 meg flash EEPROM, and therefore there is no further room for extended code expansion (such as V.90 implementation). The need for two firmware revisions loaded at once was not foreseen in the iniital implementation of 56k. This is why units based on this design can only have K56flex or V.90 loaded in firmware at any one time, not both.
To support both in firmware, Rockwell have released a new reference design, and a 2 chip solution, that can reference a larger set of memory. All future designed products from the Sirius Technologies group of companies (NetComm/ Banksia/ Simple/ Avtek) will incorporate this.
56K.COM is written and maintained by Les Jones. Artwork by Mark Maxwell.