56k Help Page
Having problems with 56k modems? Here is some help we have compiled
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56k technology, be it X2, K56Flex, and v.90 were designed around how most phone switches work. It is not a 100% stable across the board technology. At any time the phone companies could change something with the phone switches, not have to tell anyone, and 56k connections would then become impossible. Since this is true, the technology is constantly adding fixes to what the phone companies change. This means a user with a 56k modem must be active with regard to upgrading their modems whenever there is a new version. If you have problems connecting and do not have the newest firmware for your modem, realize that the first thing we will ask you to do is upgrade it.
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Some people who have not been able to get X2 to work when connecting to EPUD.net might be able to now connect at v.90. But also realize that just because v.90 is new and different, the same issues that could have prevented X2 connections can still prevent v.90 connections and limit your speeds to 28.8K (v.34)!
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The way X2 reports its initial connection speed is not a good judge of your real throughput speed. X2 always connects at 32k to the server modem, and then makes it's best guesstimate as to the highest speed attainable. With v.90 the connection speed is determined better at connection time. Because of this, users will notice that they may connect at slower speeds. This is not because v.90 is not as fast, but is more acurate. In any event the best way is to always ignore the initial connection rate and just test your throughput. Net.Medic is a good program to test with while downloading a large file.
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Users have reported gaming latency with X2. This latency is caused by the X2 modems retraining very often. The cause is not really known, but with the new v.90 the retrains have gone back to nornal (retrain only when line conditions change).
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After upgrading to v.90 users might notice that the connection rate now reports a value of 57,600 or 115,200. This is the DTE speed that is now being reported. To fix this, users must obtain a new modem .inf file that understands the values that a modem with v.90 will report. If you have an X2 modem from US. Robotics/3Com you can get this mdm3com.inf (Win 95/98/NT only) file to help. Just download it and reinstall your modem pointing to this file.