Glen Cove Computing News

Welcome to the March Issue of Glen Cove Computing News. This month's issue is dedicated to ISDN. Some of you may be aware of the many definitions of the ISDN acronym that have circulated in the computer press. My personal favorite is I S(till) D(on't) N(eed) it. Up until a few months ago I would have concurred with that opinion, but that was before I became an ISDN convert.

To be honest with you I had an ISDN line installed more out of a need for additional telephone lines than for high speed data access. My wife and I happen to live in a house that was only wired with two telephone lines when it was built. When my wife started her own home business it became apparent that two lines wasn't going to be enough. After contacting Pacific Bell and finding out that adding additional lines involved my having to dig a trench, I began to look at ISDN.

After some research I discovered that one of the greatest benefits of an ISDN line is that it allows you to run two analog lines through one digital ISDN line. For those of you without a background in telecommunications it boils down to this. If you have wiring for only two telephone lines in your house and you want to add a third, you can either dig the aforementioned trench or switch one of your existing telephone lines to an ISDN line. That one ISDN line can then be split by an ISDN modem to give you two telephone lines. Now there is a catch. At the present time I know of only one ISDN modem that gives you this ability, the Motorola BitSURFR Pro. The BitSURFR Pro, which was released in November 1995, has two analog ports for you to plug in a phone, fax, or modem.

Now the obvious benefit of an ISDN line is that it gives you a high speed data channel. Most of the ISDN modems that I looked at only offered the ability to use one channel or 64k of bandwidth for data. The BitSURFR Pro allows you to bond together both channels of the ISDN line for a total bandwidth of 128k. Not exactly T1 speed but over four times the transfer rate of the fastest analog modem.

Unfortunately ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in many areas have yet to provide ISDN access. My nearest ISDN POP (point of presence) is a toll call and ISDN rates are higher than your normal telephone service. For the moment I'm still using my Hayes 28.8 modem and an analog telephone line to access the Internet. Luckily my ISDN line provided an unforeseen benefit for my 28.8 internet access. Since an ISDN line is a digital line there is a drastic reduction in line noise even when using an analog line. Before I installed the ISDN line I seldom achieved a connect speed of anything higher than 19.6 on my 28.8 modem. Since the ISDN line was installed I have consistently connected to my ISP at 26.4 and on rare occasions even 28.8.

One of the biggest drawbacks of ISDN has always been the cost. The cost of the ISDN Modem, installation of the ISDN line, and the connect time charges convinced many people to wait. The good news is that in California, Pacific Bell has made a strong effort to promote ISDN. An ISDN line with a maximum bandwidth of 128k and two analog telephone lines is now available for $25 per month. In my case the ISDN line installation charge was waived in return for an agreement to continue service for two years. The biggest expense was the Motorola BitSURFR Pro which I purchased from Fry's Electronics for $375. So for a small investment I now have a 128k data line, three analog phone lines, and a faster analog data connection.

Now there is a downside to all this. First, Pacific Bell is presently lobbying to increase connect time charges for ISDN calls. If they succeed look for a slowdown in the present ISDN boom. Second, this is a relatively new technology for many phone company technicians so be prepared for technical problems during the ISDN installation. It took two to three days to iron out all the problems with the installation of our ISDN line. Third, any analog telephone lines connected through your ISDN modem will not work if you lose power to your house. As a rule always keep at least one analog telephone line for emergencies or have a UPS for your ISDN modem. Lastly, the BitSURFR Pro, like all new products, has had its share of bugs. Motorola is up to Revision E of the BitSURFR Pro firmware and has released a new revision every month or so. With that disclaimer out of the way here's some ISDN sites to visit:

• Computer and Communications Entry Page

• Dan Kegel's ISDN Page

• ISDN*tek Home Page

• Motorola Home Page

• PacBell ISDN

This fifth issue of the Glen Cove Computing News also features some helpful Tech Tips, the Internet Site of the Month, the Internet Technology of the Month, and the Cartoon of the Month.

• The Windows 95 Explorer provides a keyboard shortcut that can expand the entire contents of a disk drive or folder. Hold down the Alt key and press the Asterisk key on the numeric keypad. Explorer will read and display every subfolder of whatever object you've selected.

• Want to create and name a document quickly without having to start the application and save your document? In Windows 95 it's as simple as right-clicking on an empty spot in the folder of your choice, click on New, and choose one of the listed registered document types. You will instantly see a new document of that type in the folder you clicked on. The new document's filename will remain highlighted so you can change it. Double-click on the filename to load the associated application and open the file.

• Windows 95 lets you add comments to help topics. Bring up a topic and right-click on it. Choose Annotate, type in your comments, and click on Save. You'll see a paper clip icon at the top of the topic; click on it to return to the annotation screen.

• For a simple screen capture in Windows 95 hit the Print Screen on your keyboard. This will save an image of your desktop to the clipboard. To capture only the active window, hold down the Alt key when you press Print Screen.

• Unlike Windows 3.x and DOS, Windows 95 doesn't automatically synchronize your system's clock with that of the network server. But the Net Time command included with Windows 95 will allow you to synchronize with your preferred server. You can either run it at the DOS prompt or in batch files (e.g. autoexec.bat), but you must run it after you load your network drivers. If you're on a Novell network, place this line in your personal login script or in the system login script: #C:\WINDOWS\NET TIME \\SERVER /SET /YES. Replace SERVER with the name of your preferred server.

The Internet Site of the month for March is the Windows 95 Page!. The FIRST Win95 Home Page. Here you will find the latest news about Windows 95, 32 bit shareware/freeware products, commercial software, and updates for Windows 95. A great starting point for finding Windows 95 resources on the Internet. The pointers to Windows 95 shareware FTP sites will prove invaluable in your search for 32 bit software

The Internet Technology of the month for March is EarthTime Plug-In for Netscape 2.0 from Starfish Software. EarthTime is the first Internet tool and plug-in that lets you tell time around the world at a glance. EarthTime, which was built for Windows 95/NT, shows you the local time and date in 8 global locations. Choose from over 350 world capitals and commercial centers. The animated worldwide map indicates daylight and darkness so you can plan the best time to make your calls. An essential tool for anyone doing business or making phone calls across time zones, EarthTime also adjusts for daylight savings time.

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