“We’re looking forward to a standard,” said Caryn Novak, AOL’s network director for the UK. “The present situation with two separate technologies is a headache for us. It’s doubled our workload and forced us to invest in more hardware.”The arrival of V.90 should simplify matters. The most important feature of V.90 modems is that they provide “interoperability”. This means that a V.90 modem from one manufacturer will be able to communicate properly with V.90 modems from any other manufacturer.

So ISPs can upgrade to V.90 without taking any risks, and their customers can buy V.90 modems knowing that there won’t be any compatibility problems.Anyone with an ounce of sense might ask why this has not been the case all along. However, as one modem manufacturer commented: “a year to agree a standard isn’t that long for the ITU”.Now that the standard has been agreed, many existing X2 and K56 Flex modems can be upgraded to V.90 simply by downloading some free software from the manufacturer’s Internet site. But before buying a new V.90 modem or upgrading an existing modem, you should check what your own ISP’s upgrade plans are.It’s not at all clear how long it will take for ISPs to move to V.90. CompuServe refused to comment on the situation, which won’t be much help to its thousands of customers. And there are many smaller Internet companies that have already invested in X2 or K56 Flex and won’t be able to afford the upgrade to V.90 right away. There’s not much point in upgrading your own modem to V.90 if your ISP hasn’t also upgraded.The transition from X2 and K56 Flex to V.90 will probably take place gradually this year.

In the meantime, if you are planning to buy a modem you should do two things first: check with your ISP to see which of these standards they plan to support, and then make sure that any modem you buy can be upgraded free of charge when necessary.Cliff Joseph. Paul Gosling’s article about e-mail (10 February) was timely, and we need more on this topic. E-mail was not designed for the transfer of large, application-produced “attachments” (ie, stored binary files). The problem of sending such files is what causes 90 per cent of the garbage you receive via e-mail, and huge frustration for all concerned.

I used to send binary files happily and painlessly via my CompuServe account to other CompuServe users until my colleagues switched to the Internet, which, unlike the CompuServe network, can’t transmit binary files until they have been sealed in a special envelope which most people don’t know how to use.
UU Encoding (or Mime encryption) is the envelope that enables you to put a binary file inside and send it from one computer, say, an Apple Mac, to an incompatible system, say, a Windows 95 PC. But this is a clumsy way to work.You mention FTP sites, but most people who want to exchange files have absolutely no idea what an FTP site is, never mind how they could use one or set one up.Other than CompuServe, the best solution for people who want to exchange files regularly is to set up a personal FTP site and use it as a mailbox for binary file exchange. Users and their colleagues could then collaborate by installing an FTP file exchange utility. Hey presto – no more frustration.The days of struggling with unformatted text documents are thankfully almost over, except in the Unix community.Jonathan Chapplejonathan.chapple equanet I read the article by Paul Gosling with much amusement.