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| Diary Entries | These are old entries - see also 16 Aug 2001 - current. | |
| Date | Info | |
| 16 Aug 2000 - 15 Aug 2001 |
I stopped writing diary entries as they were simply a vast list of Manufacturers & chipsets added and/or updated - very boring. Features at the end of this period are:
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| 24 March 2001 | First 3,000,000 pages visited. | |
| 11 December 2000 | First 2,000,000 pages visited. | |
| 13 August 2000 | First 1,000,000 pages visited. | |
| 1-15 August 2000 | Re-writing most Help pages & re-locating many pages to give me an easier-to-handle structure (now stable). Upload all changed files using WS_FTP LE. | |
| July 2000 | Reset entire site with better structure & re-named many pages (chipset pages in 'chips' folder, manufacturers in 'mfc' folder, help pages in 'help' folder). Uploaded all changed files using WS_FTP LE. | |
| Added: | d_amb562.html, d_amb563.html, d_amb565.html, d_amb566.html, d_amb567.html (Ambient chipsets), d_stmpegas.html (Pegas.usB chipset) askey.html, m_pine.html, m_scii.html, m_shark.html, m_simple.html, m_taicom.html | |
| Updated: | Longshine | |
| June 2000 | Complete site update. Created new toolbar, including the site logo, using Paintshop Pro 6. Created new Home page & renamed numerous others. Re-direction pages put in for all renamed files. Tried to avoid using Tables as a layout device, but IE seems to have a glitch in implementing 'float' for CSS1 classes & could not. | |
| Added: | m_atlas.html, m_e-tech.html, m_pb.html (Packard Bell Computers), m_multi-tech.html, m_shine.html, m_well.html | |
| May 2000 | Added a banner ad for Easily.co.uk (a Domain names provider) - perhaps I can recoup the costs of all my uploading! | |
| Added: | A single A-Z index into the Manufacturers/Retailers pages (mfc/index.html). tblident.html - the table part of 'What's My Modem?'. m_dataflex.html, m_emachines.html, m_haicom.html, m_hayes.html, m_his.html, m_kortex.html, M_pace.html, m_zoltrix.html. A public 'Stats' link to all pages. | |
| Updated: | Aztech Systems Limited, Best Data Products, Inc., Boca Research, Inc., Boca Global, Inc., J-MARK Computer Corp. (AmJet), Jetway Information Co Ltd., 'Downloads & Links' | |
| Extras: | Broke the index down into 27 smaller files. Phew! Introduced a copyright/contact details page (copy.html) which is introduced using an IFRAME; this page uses JavaScript to customise the contact details for the page in which it sits - the first use of this script on the site apart from the Counter. Use of this page standardises these details, and also reduces the size of other pages. | |
| April 2000 | Lost use of my computer system due to Windows Protection errors. Eventually turned out to be a piece of fluff stuck behind the cpu cooling-fan, but whilst troubleshooting also discovered software-build errors. This latter resulted from using DirectX7 with graphics drivers certified only to dx5. Rebuilt the system. Slowly. Implemented a change of strategy after rebuild - single topics on single pages using StyleSheets (html 4.0). All previous pages have adhered to html 3.2, but stylesheets allow further size reductions, much improved display capabilities, ease in changing design across many pages at once plus, the greatest majority of the people visiting the site can view them. The principal style for the site is embodied within style.css | |
| Added: | new pages on AC-Link chipset modems - Conexant, Motorola SM56 & PC-Tel - plus all other chipsets, ACS Innovations (COMPRO), CIS, Compaq & COM One | |
| Updated: | HIS, Zoltrix | |
| Extras: | removed ridiculously large list of keywords on Index page (Search sites do not use them all) | |
| March 2000 | ||
| Added: | frames/no frames links to all pages, Lucent Venus chipset, working driver for Conexant SoftK56 with Windows 2000 | |
| Updated: | 'Modem Chipsets', Dataflex, Haicom, Hayes, Kortex, Pace, Zoltrix | |
| Extras: | to the Trouble-shooting pages; registered modem-help.co.uk domain-name | |
| February 2000 | ||
| Added: | eMachines, Inc., link to ESS | |
| Updated: | PC-Tel 1789 links, Zoltrix, 'Don't Blame the Modem', 'Help! The Damn Thing Just Won't Work', 'Modem Chipsets' | |
| Extras: | pci-sm56clean.exe to 'Downloads & Links'; the Miro site has gone | |
| January 2000 | ||
| Updated: | NewCom, 'Don't Blame the Modem', 'Downloads & Links', 'Help! The Damn Thing Just Won't Work' | |
| December 1999 | ||
| Added: | Actiontec Electronics Inc. | |
| Updated: | CIS Industries Inc., Diamond [now S3], 'Help! The Damn Thing Just Won't Work', 'Modem Chipsets', 'What's My Modem?' | |
| Extras: | Spell-checked all files, updated references to '56k=V.Unreliable'. | |
| November 1999 | Added Motorola SM56 v3.0 Build 62.1 installation files for both ISA & PCI to 'Download & Links', plus a cleanup file for the ISA version only. I'm obviously prescient, but also forgetful, as I downloaded all earlier in the year, then forgot where on my hard disc they were. Had problems my end during the upload & fell into a trap with the FS webspace - a large file upload which gets aborted part of the way through will leave a problem with this name-space on the FS webspace, making it subsequently impossible to successfully upload a same-name file [it may transfer, but will not appear]. A fix which works is to upload a 1KB file of the same name - this will work successfully - and to then delete this file. This will fix the name-space corruption, & the large file will then transfer plus appear in the webspace. | |
| Added: | The Acer Group, Digital Integrated System Sdn. Bhd., Paradyne Corporation, SPIDER Electronics, TELES AG. | |
| Updated: | CIS Industries Inc. [Wisecom], 'Download & Links', DSI, J.SIR, Jaton, Puretek Industrial Co., Ltd., 'What's My Modem?' | |
| The First Year | ||
| Added: | 138 modem manufacturers/suppliers 'Flashes of Brilliance', 'Modem Chipsets' & 'Why Don't High Speed Modems Work At Their "Rated" Speed?' in July usrwinfix.zip in June W95ws2setup.exe, winSock 2.2 in March 'Don't Blame the Modem', 'Downloads & Links', mdu.exe [Modem Diagnostic Utility], 'Site Info & Diary', 'What's My Modem?', Windows 95 DUN upgrade file & Windows 98 40-bit encryption file in February |
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| Extras: | The Counter code passed 100,000 in September Had a month's gap due to a fibrillation episode in Mar/April Finally got V.90 speeds with Motorola Beta Build 10 drivers in March |
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| Webmaster specifics: | Move images from inside to above tables to attempt to fix a reported browser problem. IE5 will not link correctly to anchors containing spaces, so all internal links changed to lower case & spaces removed. Insert link for Frame-disabled browsers in index.html. Validate files with CSE 3310 HTML Validator (March). Register with TheCounter, putting a page counter on the site, plus removed base-url from home page <META> statement as it prevents browsing offline. modem-help.freeserve.co.uk established 13 Feb 99 (February). |
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| 12 February 1999 | ||
| First completion of website - files consist of 1) home page, 2) modems home page, 3) Frameset & toolbar pages, 4) 8 a-z pages plus index, 5) 'broke' page - all uploaded to personal sub-domain using WS_FTP LE - painless. HTML files in root plus all graphics files in graphics sub-directory. Toolbar buttons are v small & I use .gif files accordingly. Screen shots are much larger, so .jpg format is used at 75% compression - any greater compression & there is too much colour distortion. | ||
| early January 1999 | ||
| Make decision to construct website & sacrifice myself to the decision. Goodbye social life. Begin with trial copy of Hotdog Professional 5 Webmaster Suite from Sausage Software - found on cover of October 1998 edition of PC Pro. The software is good, with some glitches, but I baulk at the 200 dollar price. PC Pro, by the way, is an excellent magazine & I recommend it to anyone that likes a bit more depth. I flirt for a short while with FrontPage Express, then move to a combination of TextPad 3.2.5 and Internet Explorer 4.01 SR1. The toolbar buttons were initially constructed in Buttonz! by Bjorn Ischo [obtained from the January 1998 edition of PC Pro]. Buttonz! is OK if a little eclectic - nothing wrong with that - but I can't seem to find the way to remove the button backgrounds, so they are massaged and given different coloured backgrounds plus anti-aliased text in Paintshop Pro 5 - if you don't have PP5, get it; it's in every edition of PC Pro, as are TextPad, IE4 & Netscape 4.5. TextPad is an excellent shareware text editor, fully recommended. My personal preference in browsers is for Microsoft rather than Netscape [much as I hate to publicly admit this] due to it's off-line browsing mode. This seems to be absent in Netscape, although perhaps I just haven't found it. Screen dumps for the 'broke' page [just to be perverse] are achieved with Microsoft Paint & Photo Editor [latter comes with Office 97]. Also obtained invaluable guidance from a web tutorial page here (more-frequently updated mirror here). | ||
| November/December 1998 | ||
| Prompted by difficulties with my own modem begin to read, then compile reports in, freeserve.help.modems. After ploughing through over 4,000 messages realise that I have the start of an invaluable resource on my hands. | ||
| 18 November 1998 | ||
| After many years of watching and reading, and some try-outs, go to signup with the Freeserve Internet service. Takes a solid 7 hours 30 minutes with just one break for a cup of tea. My so-called Motorola SM56 Soft (cheapo) V.90 modem will not connect without being slowed to V34Bis, & Dial-Up Networking turns out to be corrupt. The hunt begins to fix the modem... | ||