Specifically, since early February 1998, the latest 'coming to terms' agreement regarding the current 56k modem standards has been made. This is an agreement behalf of U.S. Robotics, now 3Com and the rest of the 56k community.

This new international standard(ITU) is called v.90.

Now, that the manufacturers have agreed on this, a timeline has been made for the worldwide deployment of it. The line starts with February and goes thru many steps until it is formally adopted in August 1998.

What does this mean to me?

Well, almost immediately, 3Com announced an update, to the built-in firmware on USR modems, available free of charge, to their customers. This firmware upgrade, stated simply, allows USR x2 modems to connect at v.90 speeds to modem servers that are v.90. This will not affect the connect speed to current K56 Flex servers.

This patch should not be used on ANY modem other than those listed on 3com/USR's website.

Users of ANY, K56 Flex modem do NOT need this upgrade from USR. Do NOT attempt to install it. YOU WILL RUIN YOUR MODEM.

K56 Flex users should first, check our K56 Modem Updates page, and try to find an applicable upgrade. If your K56 Flex modem is not listed, consult your modem documentation and/or manufacturer.

Now, recently, K56 Flex manufacturer's have begun to offer K56 Flex upgrade code to the ITU v.90 standard. This release by them is premature. Currently, there is no up front support for this technology on our dial-in servers. It is not that we will not support it, the manufacturers simply have not released this code. The 100% reliability and security of these servers is paramount. Much more time will be spent on the firmware code for these machines.

What does this mean to K56 Flex users?

It means that if you perform this v.90 upgrade to your modem, AHEAD of the servers you are attempting to connect with, the results will be unpredictable at best. You may even fail to connect at all. Keep in mind, when you perform this upgrade, it may be IRREVERSIBLE. There is no backing out procedure.

We will keep ALL our users up to date on the latest availability of fully compatible v.90 code available for your modems as well as when we will impliment it on our servers.

It should be mentioned, that PlantageNet, does not provide support on how to do this upgrade. Please consult your modem documentation, manufacturer, or the company from where the computer was purchased.