 | |
| Vol. 18, No. 10 | Nov. 5, 1998 |
| |
| Vol. 18, No. 10 | Nov. 5, 1998 |
If you have a computer at home and a device called a modem, you know how valuable it can be to dial into the University's award-winning computing network.
Because so many students, faculty and staff are dialing in from off campus to complete assignments, perform research and communicate with colleagues around the world, the University recently installed 176 new, higher-speed (56K) modems on the Newark campus.
According to Dan Grim, Information Technologies/Network and Systems Services, the new modems were installed on Oct. 30.
"Some of the new modems replaced older ones, and others are part of our plan to increase by one-third the number of lines available in Newark," he said.
"The new modems will also provide 'overflow support' for our main modem number, 831-0100," he said. "But, as more people take advantage of the newer, high-speed modems, we'll switch that and have the older modems back up the newer ones."
When all the modems are installed and configured, there will be a total of 384 connections in Newark available to off-campus users. "When we are done, we'll have 192 new 56K modems and 192 modems that support speeds up to 33,600 BPS," said Grim.
New 56K modems will be installed in Dover and Lewes in the near future.
Members of the University community whose home systems have a compatible modem can take advantage of the new modems' higher speed by dialing 831-1000.
However, Grim had two cautions.
First, he indicated that not all 56K modems are compatible with the University's equipment. "We had to decide between two proprietary standards," he said. The University's new modems are manufactured by US Robotics and support the "X2" protocol. They will be upgraded to support the new international v.90 protocol in the near future, he added.
Second, even though the new 56K modems are physically able to send and receive information at speeds up to 56,000 BPS, current FCC regulations limit the actual transmission speeds. "Users report that they see information moving at speeds between 33,600 and 53,000 BPS-the maximum permitted under current regulations," he said.
"Installing the new modems is part of our on-going commitment to provide efficient access to campus computing resources," Grim said. "This upgrade is just part of the continual process of evaluating and upgrading our network resources."
How fast is my modem?
In the early 1980s, modems typically transmitted 300 bits of data per second-or about 30 characters of text per second.
Over time, modem speeds have increased dramatically. The fastest types of modems the University supports are v.34 (speeds up to 33,600 bits per second) and US Robotics X2 "56K" (speeds up to 53,000 bits per second). Support for the international v.90 "56K" standard will be added soon.
Back in 1984, it might have taken your computer a full second to receive this sentence in an e-mail message: "The brown dog sleeps in the kitchen."
With today's modems, your computer can receive a photo of that sleeping dog in 5-10 seconds.
For more information or to report a problem, visit the IT Help Center's web area <http://www.udel.edu/help>.
Phone number Location Number Supported
(302 Area Code) of modems speeds
831-0100 Newark 192 300 - 33,600 BPS
831-1000 Newark 192 300 - 53,000 BPS1
645-4052 Lewes 16 300 - 33,600 BPS2
734-1472 Dover 16 300 - 33,600 BPS2
1 The new modems support the US Robotics X2 communications protocol and will, with a future upgrade, also support the international v.90 communications standard.
2 Dover and Lewes modems scheduled for upgrades in the near future.
