What is "v.92 designed"? Firmware needed?

[dozer]

hi guys,

With DSL not available here in the hills, I'm always working on maximizing what I can get from this old POTS dialup line.

I'm used to not being able to get better than 31.2 kb/s on either the old HP6000 'internet server' or my wife's T41.

I got a T60p earlier this year; but never got around to dialing up with it directly; since we use the HP6000 to serve Internet to both of us via Wifi....and it never occurred to me that the T60 might hook up better.

Well, a couple weeks ago, I happened to try it, and was shocked to see that the T60 would consistently connect at 37.2 kb or better....many times at 40.0kb...and a few times at 42 something.

This has me eagerly wondering what the difference is between the modems in the 3 laptops....and what I might be able to do to give the other two laptops the same speed ability.

I've noticed in the tawbook that a lot of the IBM modems were called "v.90 / v.92 designed". That got me thinking that perhaps the 2 older laptop modems are running as v.90, while the newer T60 is running as v.92.

One possibility anyway; for the extra speed.

What exactly does that phrase mean?

Do I need a firmware update for the modem itself? (do the typical internal laptop modems even have on-modem firmware anymore?)

Of course, it's possible the difference is just that the T60 modem might use a different chipset. But both the older laptops connect at identical rates; and neither of them ever do better than 31.2....and they have entirely different modem brand/models in them.

Any info on this v90/92 business....and on which modems give the best possible line-speed, would be much appreciated!

Richard

[moronoxyd]

v.92 on Wikipedia

Basically, v.92 increases the throughput, so your observations are correct.

[dozer]

Yes, thank you, but I knew that v.92 increased throughput.

My question was in regards to Thinkpad modems which are listed in tawbook as "v90/v92-designed". I'm trying to discover what exactly that means.

I.e., whether they need a firmware update to actually work in v.92 mode.