Tuesday, August 25

Router giant Cisco Systems has agreed to buy American Internet Corporation for $56 million in stock. American Internet produces solutions for IP address management and cable modem deployment.

PC World has published its list of Top 10 Modems, part of its annual Top 100 list.

Looking for a PCMCIA card modem? Check ZDNet's comparison of 16 brands.

Troubleshooting slow connections

I know from reading email and message board posts that many 56K.COM readers aren't getting the full speed out of their 56K modems. In fact, many don't see any improvement over their old 28.8 modem. That's probably why the most popular message board on the site is the one for help with slow connect speeds.

Likewise, the most popular part of the the 56K Troubleshooting Guide is the section on improving slow connections. I get the feeling, though, that people don't believe some of the troubleshooting tips and skip over them. Some of the advice does sound pretty far out at first: who would believe that a phone line surge suppressor, for instance, can sometimes prevent fast modem connects?

Can I get a witness?

To help readers conquer their disbelief, I'm collecting testimonials. If any of the advice in the Troubleshooting Guide has helped you overcome the modem doldrums, write me with a description of the problem and the cure. I'll link the troubleshooting step to your testimonial.

To get things rolling, here are a few recent letters. Interestingly, both readers discovered the fixes on their own without reading the Troubleshooting Guide. This one attests to the fact that unplugging other telephony devices can help, even if those devices are in a different room from the modem:

I have recently solved (much by accident) 56k or low connect problems with home or an additional phone line. Be aware of people who use their home phone line for Internet with multiple jacks. I have had occurrences where someone with multiple jacks hooked up to another modem or fax machine either could not connect 56k or at extremely slow speeds. In one case a man had a dedicated line but ran a line to a second jack with a fax plugged in. When the fax was unplugged a 10k increase was seen.

In another case a man had a dedicated phone line with a second jack in another room (on another computer) and a third jack upstairs (for a fax) upon unplugging the two the increase in speed was from 12000 to 44000. You might want to look for similar problems or solutions or corroboration.

-- Kurt Kruegel

Here's why I say to try passing the phone line directly from the back of the modem to the wall:

Thanks for your great web site. Thought you might be interested in a little fix I recently discovered. I wanted to be able to connect my desktop modem (X2 internal) and my laptop modem (X2 PCMCIA)to the same wall jack, but, of course, at different times, without having to screw around under my desk plugging and unplugging lines into the wall.

So, I had installed a little 2 for 1 phone line splitter. I kept one line connected to the desktop, one to a line I could connect to the laptop when I wanted to.

I found that the desktop modem did not care about this. It still connected at 48.8 to 50.6, no matter whether the little splitter was in or out, whether another line was connected at the same time or not. No problem. But the laptop modem would not work at anything over 33k unless plugged DIRECTLY into the wall. It hated the splitter. No matter whether there was anything else connected to it or not.

SOLUTION: I found, at Radio Shack, for $14.95, a little phone line A/B switch. Now it is plugged into the wall jack and the A/B box sits on my desk. A is for the desktop modem and the phone and fax daisy-chained to it. B is for the line I can connect to my laptop. When I click B and connect my laptop, it thinks it's the only line into the wall, and it connects, every time, at 48.8 to 50.6 -- just like my desktop.

-- Gary Davis

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Friday, August 28

There was an outage on the server that runs 56K.COM on Tuesday afternoon. Apologies to everyone who wasn't able to get in.

Macintouch and MacWeek are covering issues surrounding the iMac's modem. Some of the complaints seem to involve not being able to connect at speeds above 33.6 with some ISPs, which is common enough with 56K modems. Some specific complaints involve not being able to get high speeds with x2 ISPs, which is a fact of life since the iMac's modem uses V.90 and K56flex. It also appears that the modem script included with the iMac doesn't like to fall back to 33.6 speeds. Apple has posted a new V.34 modem script to fix that problem.

Phil Karn has a page to help users of Time-Warner's RoadRunner cable modem service.

Hello to KLIF listeners in Dallas, Texas

On Saturday at 5:00 Central time I'll be a guest on the Computer Junctions radio show on KLIF 570. Kathleen Weaver and I are working out the topic list right up until air time, but likely topics will be buying a 56K modem, and a discussion of how Internet infrastructure affects your download speed. If you can't tune in, there should be an AudioNet recording available next week.

V.90 Upgrades

Phoenix Research has V.90 upgrades for some of their units.

Gateway has released V.90 upgrades for many of their desktop and PCMCIA modems.

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