From Nick Chin (of Global Village's Quality Assurance department) comes this information about our previous postings on Global Village's new V.90 upgrade:
Regarding comments that "older versions of the x2 protocol" being the cause of dropped connection problems:
"Actually, it looks like the problem is calling an x2 backend that has been upgraded to V.90. If you call an old x2 backend, you get the better connection results that half the users are reporting. That's why disabling V.90 is the workaround."
Regarding the inability to downgrade to the older firmware:
"Not that is safe for the modem, anyway. There is a chance the modem could be permanently rendered dead due to flash loader module mismatches and customers wouldn't want that."
Regarding modifying the modem script for OT/PPP:
"For those who don't like to mess with scripts, GV's tech support may be posting a script that disables V.90. Or you can get the script now at my private website <http://www.accesscom.com/~nchinn/scripts.html>.
Using S7=60: Because V.90 connections sometimes take a few re-negotiations, changing S7=60 to S7=90 (in your init string or modem script) will prevent the modem from hanging up prematurely."
Regarding the new Call Waiting feature:
"The feature is undocumented in the original manual and in the Read Me that accompanies the updater. This means it is untested and unsupported by Global Village, which means calling them for help on using the feature will probably get you very little if any assistance."