Q: What 56k protocols do you support?

A: We support the v.90 56k standard. Support for K56Flex is also provided for backwards compatibility. x2 is no longer actively supported.

Q: What phone number should I dial if I have a 3com/USR, Cardinal, or other x2 modem that has been upgraded to v.90?

A: You should dial 895-6650 (Kerrville).
We recommend *all* USR Sportster v.90 customers use the following init string for optimum performance:

Add ATS13=64S32=34&U8&N30&K0 to the "Extra Settings" field in Control Panel -> Modems -> Properties on your Modem -> Advanced. What this does is: 1) Disables x2, 2) Disables "fast retrains", 3) Sets a lower connect limit of 14400k and an upper connect limit of 45333k (upper is controlled by the NXX), disables v.42 compression, thereby enabling STAC compression on Win95/98 machines with "Enable Software Compression" checked in Dial Up Networking. (Do not add the &K0 if you are using an operating system other than 95/98). If this provides a stable, fast connection (no retrains/renegotiations), you can up the NXX parameter (i.e. N31, N32, etc) until the connection becomes unstable (lots of retrains/renegotiations). This will find the "sweet spot" for your phone lines.

Please report all results to admin@omniglobal.net

Q: What phone number should I dial if I have a K56Flex or a dual-mode K56Flex/v.90 Rockwell or Lucent based modem (ZOOM, Hayes, Diamond, etc)?

A: You should dial the 895-6650 (Kerrville) . Some Dual Mode modems have a hard time deciding which 56k protocol to connect with. A way to force a v.90 connection on these modems is to add two or three commas (,,) after the phone number (i.e. 895-6650,,). This causes the modem to ignore the K56Flex handshake and connect v.90. Please report all results to admin@omniglobal.net

Q: I recently upgraded my modem to v.90. I now connect at higher speeds, but my Quake/online gaming play has degraded. What can I do?

A: The faster your modem connects, the more it stresses your phone line. While higher connect speeds are great for downloads and surfing the web, they can be a detriment to online gaming. Many UDP-based games, such as Quake, prefer that your upstream and downstream speeds be the same or close to it. Since all 56k protocols are asymmetric, your downstream and upstream speeds are almost always different. With v.90, this does not change. If you want optimum game play, we recommend locking your modem in at lower speeds via AT commands. This will give you the best "ping" times.

If you feel that v.90 is degrading your game play on USR v.90 modems, you can try the init string (this string will only work on USR or USR chipset modems):

Add ATS13=64S32=34&U8&N30S15=128 to the "Extra Settings" field in Control Panel -> Modems -> Properties on your Modem -> Advanced. Also, you can try reducing the FIFO receive buffer slider bar.

Or you can disable v.90 and connect using v.34 by adding ATS32=98 to the "Extra Settings" field in Control Panel -> Modems -> Properties on your Modem -> Advanced.