QUESTION:

When I joined up with Albury Local Internet earlier this year I decided to buy the K56Flex Modem you were recommending and selling. I understood at the time that it would be upgradable to the new 56K standard when it came out. I bought a Motorola VoiceSurfer 56K modem from you. Is it upgradeable and if so when and how?

ANSWER:

The V.90 specification has received preliminary approval. Final ratification of the standard by the ITU is expected in September. While some manufacturers have already released their V.90 code, most have not. At this point in time, we have not been advised of the update code for the motorola, but do expect it to be available soon.

QUESTION:

Why does Netscape 3 and Opera indicate download speeds of 2.5kb/sec maximum, even though I have a 28.8Kbps modem? I have asked Telstra to check the the faxstream line, and I have a copper pair to the digital exchange.

ANSWER:

Part of the problem here is in understanding what the terms mean. A "28.8K" modem is 28,800 BITS per second. Netscape is reporting a speed of 2,500 BYTES per second. A BYTE is 8 BITS. 2,500 BYTES times 8 BITS = 20,000 BITS per second.

Under ideal conditions, a 28K8 modem could transfer about 3.6 K bytes per second, however the internet (like all networks) has an overhead in transferring data. There are address headers, CRCs, packet checksums etc that all add up to 30% overhead.

Further, depending on what site(s) you are accessing, it doesn't need much congestion before the data flow is obstructed, and transfer speeds fall rapidly. Remember, the FASTEST speed you can get, is only as fast as the SLOWEST link anywhere between your computer and the other end.

QUESTION:

Why can't I connect to microsoft exchange when I'm using the same paths as those used for Outlook and Internet Mail. Exchange keeps saying that it can't find the exchange server computer.

ANSWER:

The exchange server computer is expected to be on your local network. You have exchange mis-configured.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of support from microsoft, the number of variations between versions and the general instability of exchange, we don't support exchange. We have quite a few subscribers who have successfully configured exchange, and use it, but many more have failed.

---

SUBSCRIBER's TIPs:

From George Stahl:

How not to install IE4 when installing Win95 version C (this might work with WIN98 as well)

After the second restart, a window comes up which tells you that WIN95 needs to do further customisation. At this point hit ALT-CTRL-DEL and choose 'Shut Down'. Next time WIN95 starts normally and you can install the browser of YOUR choice.

Thank you George. Ed.