June 19

Mark Hoffart was the first to spot Zoom V.90 upgrades for the internal model 2819. The upgrade will also work with Zoom's 33.6 flash upgradeable internal modem (2805-00-00C) if it has already been upgraded to K56flex.

Lucent has new firmware. Version 4.28 is available for the LT Win Modem, and version 2.28 is available for the LT Win PCI Modem.

There are now 1,777 Web pages linking to 56K.COM, according to Alexa.

---

June 17

CoolInfo.com reviews the Zoom PCI DualMode modem.

Glenn Fleishman describes an FTP scam that spammers use to get your email address from your Web browser. The page includes a test to see if your browser is vulnerable.

Point Topic has a new 56K modem area.

Alex P. Madarasz, Jr. wrote us about a problem he ran into after upgrading to V.90:

Just stumbled across the feature which _may_ have been causing my V.90 disconnects during initial handshaking - Win95 DUN [Dial-Up Networking-Leslie] has a default of 60 seconds for the "Cancel the call if not connected within" option, and some of my V.90 handshaking sessions have definitely been disconnected right in the area of 60 seconds. For me, the symptoms of this are that the modem handshaking tones go silent for 25+ seconds but the Win95 DUN "Dialing ..." dialog stays up (evidently while the modems are re-training) between the modem "CARRIER ..." and "CONNECT ..." responses. To "fix" this feature _before_ you have any such problems :

For Win95 DUN :

DUN Connectoid Properties Dialog :

- General tab

- Connect using :

- Configure ... button

Modem Properties dialog

- Connection tab

- Cancel the call if not connected within :

Either un-check this option, or set to 120+ seconds

---

June 16

The Motorola firmware upgrade mentioned yesterday is for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East only. Kevin Harper used it to flash his U.S. modem and had problems, but figured out how to downgrade to an older version of U.S. firmware:

I downloaded it and flashed my modem to 1.12 from 1.009. Afterward, I could barely connect to my ISP AT ALL. What a nightmare. Let me tell you how I was able to flash my Motorola ModemSurfer 56K External modem back to the 1.009 firmware.

Luckily, I had a copy of the original 1.009 firmware program. JUST RE-RUNNING THE 1.009 FIRMWARE PROGRAM WILL NOT WORK. This is because as a result of the changes made by the 1.12 update program, the 1.009 program will be looking for a file named eusm56c.hex rather than a file named unsm56c.hex.

Prior to re-running the 1.009 update program rename the file unsm56c.hex to eusm56c.hex.

Then when you run the 1.009 update program again, you will sucessfully flash back to the 1.009 software. It may say the program failed at the end of the update, but the modem should connect just fine as it did before the 1.12 update.

At least my Motorola ModemSurfr 56K EXTERNAL did. I'm sure you have to re-name a different file for the different Motorola modems. You just have to find file names that look similar.

---

June 15

A French Web site, Tout Sur Les Connexions Rapides A Internet, looks at high-speed Internet access options in Europe.

Coolinfo.com has posted an ISDN Fundamentals page.

Motorola has version 1.12 K56flex firmware for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Note: this is not for use on U.S. modems.

Michael Cozzi's generic K56flex scripts are perfect for Mac users who have a K56flex modem, but no CCL files (modem scripts) for Apple's PPP for Open Transport. Michael has given me permission to make the scripts available from 56K.COM.

V.90 Upgrades

MacFixIt is covering problems with Global Village's new V.90 upgrades. Some people are having problems when dialing into V.90-enabled ISPs. The fix is to disable V.90 with S32=66. (For V.90 disable strings for other modems, see 56K.COM's V.90 Upgrade FAQ.) Global Village suggests adding S7=60 to the init string if you're having problems with the modem hanging up prematurely.

Bunkit Liu notes new AcerOpen V.90 firmware, version 2.081, dated May 21.

MIN Communications has shipped V.90 upgrades for some models of its Garnet modems.

Mike Paetz spied new Macintosh V.90 beta firmware at Diamond Multimedia's beta site.

Rod Pain writes:

The Motorola V.90 TidalWave upgrades are shipping, we got ours today. Units indicate:

Motorola ModemSURFR 56K External
V2.081-K56_DLS
RC56DPF L8570A Rev 47.20/47.20

We've checked them with the AOL V.90 POP (202-722-4736) and they connect at 50kbps. Unfortunately, they do not appear to be K56Flex backward compatible, as they don't connect at 46-48kbps which the K56 units (v1.12) to our Mindspring and AOL K56Flex POPs

Previous week