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ACCESS SERVER UPGRADES COMPLETED
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The operating system and modem firmware upgrades to our seven Cisco AS5200
access servers were completed at about 4:30 PM today (Friday, June 27).

The main benefit of the upgrade is that the modems are now capable of 33.6
kbps connections.  Those of you with 33.6 modems should now be able to
take advantage of slightly higher connection speeds. 
 
However, please understand that consistent 33.6 connections are NOT
guaranteed.  If you have a 33.6 modem and were able to get 28.8 kbps
connections before the upgrade, then you should be able to get at least
28.8 kbps connections after the upgrade.  Most of you should have no
trouble getting 31.2 kbps connections. Some of you may even achieve 33.6
connections fairly often.  The typical 33.6 modem user should be able to
achieve 31.2 kbps most of the time and 33.6 kbps occasionally.
 
The problem is that 33.6 kbps is a much higher transmission speed than
normal analog phone circuits are designed to handle.  While 33.6 kbps is
possible under ideal conditions, in the real world such conditions rarely
exist.  On many phone circuits it is simply not possible to ever achieve
33.6 kbps.  On most phone circuits it sometimes is, sometimes not. 
 
If you consistently get connections that are unacceptably slow, it may be
possible to do something about it.  We recommend that you visit the
following Web sites, both of which contain many tips for getting the best
possible speed out of your modem:
 
  The Navas Modem FAQ
  http://users.aimnet.com/~jnavas/modem/faq.html
 
  Curt's high-speed modem FAQ
  http://elaine.teleport.com/~curt/modems.html
  
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If you have questions about this, or about anything else related to
your BCPL Internet Account, please contact the BCPL Help Desk.

 Phone:   410-887-3297
 FAX:     410-887-2091
 E-Mail:  help@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us

 Help Pages:            http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/help.html
                        (or enter "help" at the UNIX shell prompt)

 System News Archives:  http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/sysnews.html
                        (or enter "sysnews" at the UNIX shell prompt)