|
| prepaid | cost per month | |
| monthly | $16.95 | $16.95 |
| quarterly | $47.85 | $15.95 |
| annual | $179.40 | $14.95 |
includes: 3 email accounts, Postini spam/virus filtering, newsgroups
Unlimited connect time "56K" dialup accounts. Monthly accounts must be charged to credit card (VISA, MC, Discover, AmEx) unless invoiced along with other services so total invoice is at least $50. Businesses needing quantities of dialup accounts, contact us for volume pricing.
V.90 is the international ITU standard for "56K" modems, mostly resolving the incompatibilities between the US Robotics "x2" and Rockwell "K56Flex" proprietary techniques. The main difference from the previous V.34 standard is the ability to use direct PCM coding on certain telephone lines, increasing the maximum downstream speed to 53.3 kb/s. The maximum upstream speed remains 33.6 kb/s.
Each time you dial a connection to your ISP, the V.90 modems send tones to determine the quality of the connection and the speed that can be supported without errors. Impairments from a long or noisy line (or poor inside wiring) can limit the speed. If your phoneline has multiple A/D conversions (because the phone company is using digital "pads" to adjust the signal level, or is using older digital loop carrier equipment to reach your neighborhood) the modems will operate in V.34 mode. Typical V.90 speeds are in the 40 to 50 kb/s range.
When the V.90 standard was first released, different brands of modems did not consistently talk to each other. If your modem is more than 4 years old and you have problems with failed connections, dropped connections, errors or poor speed, you should probably consider buying a newer modem. Call waiting tones can cause dropped connections, which can be fixed by configuring your computer to dial a code (typically *70) to temporarily disable call waiting.
V.90 is a superset of previous modem standards including V.34, so there should be no reason to buy a slower modem.
V.92 is a new superset of V.90 that offers several enhancements:
Most modem vendors are only supporting a subset of V.92 features, typically Modem on Hold and Quick Connect. Firmware to support V.92 on ISP access servers is slowly becoming available, but ISPs that are conducting beta tests report incompatibilities similar to the days of the x2 vs. K56Flex wars. We expect the problems to be ironed out eventually, and will evaluate whether to roll out V.92 service when it becomes more stable.
If you are buying a new modem or PC, there is no reason not to buy a V.92 modem, since V.92 is a superset of V.90. Eventually if you take advantage of the V.92 features it may be necessary to download the latest modem firmware, and current hardware may not support all the V.92 enhanced features.
It is important to use an access number that is a local call from your location, so the phone company doesn't charge you for a toll call. Otherwise, all our access numbers will provide the same performance, none are "faster" or "less busy" than others, and your modem connection speed does not depend on how far away the access number appears to be. From a residential phone, local calls are within "Band A" which is 8 miles. We have local access numbers throughout Chicagoland (be sure to change the access number if you are calling from various locations). SBC has a webpage where you can verify your local calling area.
Our dialup accounts include the following features:
Customer supplies phoneline and modem, and is responsible for all phone company charges.
Call us at 630-942-1090.