In theory, the standards wars are over and all current and upgraded Kflex and X2 modems can now enjoy full 56K interconnectivity. But the real-life experience is usually something less.

Legally, 56Kmodems are capped at about 53K, so that represents the real-life best case, for now. But how often do 56K owners really see that speed?

I jumped on the 56K bandwagon early, over a year ago, springing for an X2 model because that's the type my local ISP supported. I even got a $50 rebate for ordering the modem through my ISP.

I could connect fine, but rarely at the rated speed. My most common connect speeds were in the mid- to upper 40Kbps range.

Then I moved, got a new ISP, and screech! On came the brakes. I could connect reliably, but always got a 28.8 connection, every single time. (Can you say "standards conflict?" Sure you can!)

When the new 56K standard was first implemented, I immediately downloaded the firmware patch for my X2 modem, and made the upgrade. Guess what? It made no difference.

Now, months later, my ISP finally has upgraded its modems, and my X2 now talks to their Kflex, sort of.

Is this typical? What's your 56K experience been? What speeds do you normally connect at? Maybe with more data points, we can see what the "typical" 56K experience is, and whether it's generally worthwhile to make the upgrade.

For my online column this week, the folks at CMPnet are building an easy-to use online poll---just a couple questions---where we can click to indicate what our typical connect speeds are with 56K modems. If you're using 56K, come on over to share your experience and to see how others are doing. If you're considering 56K, drop by to see what's real---and what's hype---about the 56K experience. Join in, starting Wednesday, at http://www.langa.com/badlink.htm.

Thinking about Win98? Picked up your copy last week? Been running it for a while? Join in to share all three views!

WINDOWS Magazine has several long-running Win98 interest areas where Win98 beta-test veterans hang out. But many people are now getting started with Win98 because it went on sale just last week.

In my WinMag column this week, let's share our "getting started" experiences with Win98. What do you like or dislike? What worked, or didn't work? Any surprises? And, if you're thinking about maybe moving to Win98, perhaps you have a question that the other Win98 users and experts can answer here!

Also, I'll tell you of one little-discussed feature of Win98 that saved my bacon on a business trip last week!

Join in, starting around noon on Monday Eastern Time (GMT-5), via the link at http://content.techweb.com/winmag/!

Fortunately, there are two free ways you can use to isolate the problem.

BrowserTune's Ping and Tracert tests take only a minute to run and can quickly determine if your ISP is up and running properly, and if not, where on the internet between you and your ISP the problem lies. Click on over to the "Speed" section of BrowserTune at http://www.browsertune.com/bt98/speed.htm and click through to the "Ping" and "Tracert" pages. You'll find full instructions on how to run and interpret the tests there!

The other idea is a little sneaky, but it's totally legitimate: If you suspect you're having problems with your ISP or Email account but don't know whether the problem is on your end or theirs, one easy way to find out is to take advantage of a "50 free hour" offer (or some similar offer) from another ISP or online service.

By opening a second account---for free---you can try an alternate route through the internet and an alternate email service. If you run into the same problem, you can be pretty sure the trouble is within your hardware or software. If you have no problems, them the trouble lies with your original ISP or email service.

As long as you cancel the new account before your free trial expires, you'll owe nothing for the second account: Think of it as free diagnostic tool! Of course, if the second account works smoothly, you may wish to cancel your first account, and stick with the new carrier. Either way, you win!

I'll let you know when I have a beta version ready for testing---stay tuned!

Meanwhile, if you have specific suggestions or requests or if you have, or have seen, a great browser test elsewhere that you think should be in BrowserTune, drop me a line at fred@langa.com. Thanks!

But some people are having trouble getting their complete boot disks to work.

Sometimes, it's a hardware thing. The system BIOS on many machines controls the boot sequence. Most systems are set to boot from the A:\ drive by default; if no floppy is present, then it boots from C:\. But not all systems work that way, and many systems can be set to boot from any drive. Some newer systems can even boot from special bootable CD ROMs, or from a network connection.

So if you can't get a boot floppy to work at all, dig out your owner's manual and see how to access your system's BIOS settings. (It's usually a special key combination you enter just as the hardware wakes up.) Someplace in there will be a setting where you can tell the system to boot from the A:\ drive first, and that's what you need.

Other users have been stymied because their system have no Autoexec.bat or Config.sys to copy. Both these files are ordinary text files. If you need to create them from scratch, just fire up Notepad to create the file; save the file as either Autoexec.bat or Config.sys. (Be sure you don't end up with Autoexec.txt or Config.txt, or something like Autoexec.bat.txt or Config.sys.txt)

Not sure what to put in an Autoexec or Config file? My Win95/98 Tips presentation available at http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/pcexpo98.htm gives a real-life example of the contents of working Autoexec and Config files. You can copy those as examples, and modify them to work on your system.

Now, without the crowds, expense, humidity, or the panhandlers, you can see the same presentations and much more, for free. The link page also includes hand-selected links to related sites with tons and tons of other good info. Click on over to http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/pcexpo98.htm and check it out!

Reader Bob Beacham found another instance of, um, unusual programming in the Microsoft Word thesaurus.

Open a new, empty Word document, and type "I have a big nose" in the document. Naturally, you omit the quote marks when you type the sentence. And yes, if you wish to make this R-rated, you may substitute the body part (or parts) of your choice.

Highlight the sentence, and hit SHIFT-F7 to fire up the thesaurus, and see what it says. Depending on what body part you typed, you'll either be flattered, or offended!

See you next week!

Best,

Fred

(fred@langa.com)

A formatted HTML version available in the "what's new" section of http://www.langa.com.