Modem War
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 7, 1998
While a new protocol for modems is due shortly, Rob Pegoraro reports that there is no need to rush to upgrade.
NOTHING is more annoying in the computing industry than a whose-side-are-you-on standards war. Consider 56 kbps (thousand bits per second) modems: because the manufacturers couldn't all just get along a year ago, they devised two equally effective, incompatible standards - x2 (developed by 3Com's US Robotics division) and K56flex (Rockwell and Lucent).
Either can work fine with older 33.6 kbps modems. But you must use the same technology as your Internet provider to get the promised 56 kbps.
But now our long incompatible nightmare is almost over.
Last month, the International Telecommunications Union announced the new "v.90" protocol, which should bring an end to the cruel division of the 56-kbps world. But getting there won't be simple.
The first step is upgrading your own modem. In most cases, you should be able to download an updater program that will reprogram your modem's "flash ROM".
Expect these upgrades about the end of this month, although some companies may take a little longer. For instance, Compaq doesn't expect to offer upgrades for its bundled K56flex modems until later this year.
But a few older K56flex models, along with some 33.6 kbps modems that were previously "flash-upgraded" to x2, will need hardware replacement. And some early Rockwell-based K56flex modems lack enough memory for both K56flex and v.90 code; conducting such an "upgrade" (which would dump the K56flex code) before your provider moves to v.90 will transmogrify your 56 kbps speedster into a
33.6 kbps slug.
In other words, don't rush to upgrade - especially since Internet service providers, not usually anxious to do things that will cause angry calls to tech support, plan to test the new standard thoroughly first.
"We want this convergence to occur; it's going to make life much simpler," one Internet service provider director said.
"But he warned that it will take several months. We don't expect anything serious within the next 30 to 60 days."
Most ISPs shouldn't have to buy new hardware in the process, but there's still the risk of undiscovered defects.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS:
If your modem and your ISP happily speak fluent x2 or K56flex, don't do anything until after your ISP successfully upgrades, since you won't gain any extra speed by upgrading now.
If your 56 kbps modem doesn't play nice with your provider's 56 kbps setup, you should still wait until your provider upgrades - its x2 or K56flex hardware can't speak v.90 with your own modem.
But if you've been waiting to get a 56 kbps modem, you might as well buy now; anything sold will either be flash-upgradable or, starting in the next few weeks, will have v.90 built in.
For news and updates on 56 kbps modems, plus links to manufacturers' Web sites, see the unofficial 56k.com page: http://www.56k.com.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald