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Found some information about it. I recalled only seeing one brand with any Shotgun mentions on their boxes, but couldn't remember until I read the information I linked to. It was Diamond Multimedia, and no ISP in my area (out of about 4 or so) supported it, so none of them ever stayed out of the store for long (people would buy them, then within hours return them).

Voyager.net supported it once in it's short run as a ISP. I had the pleasure of taking that call.

Found some information about it. I recalled only seeing one brand with any Shotgun mentions on their boxes, but couldn't remember until I read the information I linked to. It was Diamond Multimedia, and no ISP in my area (out of about 4 or so) supported it, so none of them ever stayed out of the store for long (people would buy them, then within hours return them).

Never let facts confuse the issue. Just follow Cheney and stay out of shotgun range.

It "seems" like a good thing, but there are three major reasons why it isn't:

A) It does so without you being aware.
B) It illegally installs software that you do not have a license for.
C) Most modern viruses and trojans are so complex that the only way to remove them is by disabling system restore and running thorough scans in safe mode and/or boot time scans.

So not only do you have no control over it and become an "unexpected software pirate", but you likely don't even get rid of the other trojans/viruses on your computer.

Plug: I have a step-by-step process writeup intended for the average joe on removing viruses at http://www.modemhelp.net/antivirus/

--
Bradford Liedel
ModemHelp.Net

This is a great idea so I've gone pink too.

Modems have the capability to retrain, which lets them renegotiate the line speed mid-connection in response to line conditions. It doesn't drop carrier, but it does cause a few second pause in traffic.

You mean like this? The only reason XP and later Windows OSs have/will have polish is because of Mac OS X. Before that, Windows looked like it was stuck in the '80s with blocky icons.

looks alot like http://modemhelp.net/modemhelp.net's april fool's joke

Distribution is really up to the ISPs themselves. Ideally an ISP's CD will contain DUN updates, generic modem drivers, etc, so that the techs can get users only faster without having to send out disks or send the customer to the OEM. Then again, this can cause liability concerns. Honestly support is the biggest question and really where most ISPs need to focus. My personal feeling is that ISPs should officially support only the software that they feel their department can easily get proficient in and is widely used (IE, Netscape, Eudora, OE, etc..), but "off the records" I believe they should support everything and anything. I work as a senior tech for an ISP ( and run one of the largest helpsites on the Internet, http://www.modemhelp.net ), and our opinion is to "do whatever it takes" for the customer. If we don't know how to setup a Palm, well too bad, we'll support it anyhow. I mean, we have Google, what more do we really need? You say you don't support Callwave, but why not support Callwave, when you can jump to their page and look at their help documents, reading them with a better understanding than the average user then translating for the customer? Unfortunately many ISPs have very strict policies that do not allow techs to attempt support outside of certains boundaries. The thing is, there many are ISPs like us that will go outside of those boundries and this is what sets most support departments apart. Though in the end (in theory) we *shouldn't* do support for those software packages that we do not know much about, it ends up not mattering because the client will go to those who *will try* to support those software packages that they are unfamiliar with. -Bradford Liedel Webmaster, ModemHelp.Net

Getting 28.8, 26,400, very high pings? If you do enough research and put enough work into it you can fix most of it. There are plenty of tweaks and ways to deal with US phone companies to get these items resolved. I will be introducing a new section to ModemHelp.Net within the next few weeks that goes into detail on detecting line noise using the different 56k modem chipsets, how to deal with your phone company, and other topics. I will also be introducing a section on speed tweaks and one on determining your modem chipset. Cable and DSL stuff on the page are a ways off, but things have been going pretty well on the progress of the page. I hope to have the noise section up in 1-2 weeks and the tweak section up another 2 weeks after that. Those of you on 56k, keep yer eyes peeled!

Bradford L.