Lucent

Lucent's Website

By: Bradford W. Liedel

Modems made with the Lucent Chipset are very low cost modem due to the fact that they are winmodems. These modems use a software driver and your computers CPU to do most of work that a modem usually does on it own. However, they do not use as much processing power as an HSP (Host Signal Processing) chipset. (For more info on HSP's see the PC-Tel article) Lucent winmodems have many problems working with v90, especially when connecting to really good equipment like US Robitics Total Controls. However, they seem to work very well once they have the latest drivers. Some manufacturers and/or distributors of LT winmodems do not have very up to date drivers and it is recommended that if you have a modem that actually calls itself a "LT Winmodem" or "Lucent Winmodem" you should get the generic drivers/firmware from Lucent Technologies at http://www.lucent.com/micro/K56flex/driver2.html. If your driver revision is under 5.49 you should definitely get the latest drivers for your modem. Some modems with this chipset like the Compaq 56k -df may or may not accept these drivers, and it is unknown whether you should try the generic drivers since it may ruin the modem. Some websites recommend doing this for the Compaq 56k -df, but I would just get the latest drivers that Compaq has and try some inits and tuning the modem properties.

Remember, the main thing to keep in mind with Lucent chipset based modems is to get the latest drivers for them. The following steps will either help you get connected without the latest drivers or help to fix issues that you may still be having after getting the drivers:

Fifos: Lower these 1 notch apiece and add an init, if the problems persists try lowering them all the way.

Inits: First lower the port speed to 57600

AT&FX (Basic init)

AT&FX-v90=1S38=0S28=1 (Basic init + enable v.90, disable k56flex, enable v.34)

AT&FX&C1&D2S38=0 (Basic init + basic 56k connection problem string + disable k56flex)

For the following init lower the port speed to 38400:

AT&FX-v90=0S38=0S28=1 (Basic init + disable v.90, disable k56flex, enable v.34)

Other things to try: If dropped connections are a problem, try checking the box that says required to connect under error control. A newer thing we have been trying which seems weird, but works is switching RTS/CTS (Hardware flow control) to XON/XOFF (Software flow control).

Here is a partial list of manufacturer websites who make modems with the Lucent 56k chipset:

Lucent's Generic Drivers:

http://www.lucent.com/micro/K56flex/driver.html

Acer:

http://www.acersupport.com/

Actiontec:

http://www.actiontec.com/support/modems/support_prod_modems.html

Apex Data (Smart Modular):

http://www.smartm.com/support/html/new_files.html

Auxlinx:

http://www.auslinx.com.au/TechSupport.htm

Aztech:

http://www.aztech.com.sg/support/driver_modem.htm

Compaq:

http://www.compaq.com/athome/support/index.html

CNetUSA:

http://www.cnetusa.com/drlib.html

Cybermax:

http://www.cybmax.com/

Dell:

http://support.dell.com/us/en/

Digitan:

http://www.digitan.com/download.htm

Encore:

http://www.encore-usa.com/faxmdmdrv.htm

Fujitsu:

http://www.8fujitsu.com/drivers_frm.html

Gateway:

http://www.gateway.com/support/product/drivers/index.html

Genica:

http://www.genica.com/default2.html

Harmony USA:

http://www.harmonyusa.com/drivers.html

Hawking Tech:

http://www.hawkingtech.com/Download/download.htm

Hewlett Packard:

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/jsnav/pchome.html

Hitachi:

http://www.hitachipc.com/service/drivers.html

IBM(Aptiva's):

http://www.pc.ibm.com/support

Jaton:

http://www.jaton.com/usa/home.htm

Inteva:

http://www.inteva.com/customer3/cusset.html

Lectron:

http://www.lectron.com.tw/download/driver.htm

Lightspeed Tech.:

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~mmallen/firmware.html

Livingston (FTP Site):

ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/lucent/

Maxtech:

http://www.maxcorp.com/html/fl-modems.html

Multitech:

http://www.multitech.com/support/firmware/

Multiwave Innovation:

http://www.multiwave.com/support/download.htm

Packard Bell:

http://support.packardbell.com/

Paradise:

http://www.paradisemmp.com/support/drivers/mdmdrivers.htm

Phoebe Micro:

http://www.phoebemicro.com/drivers/56.htm

Quantex:

http://www.quantex.com/community/qmembers/support/drivers/index.asp

Sony:

http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/pc/softupdates.html

Toshiba:

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/tais/csd/support/files/modems.htm

Viking Components:

http://www.vikingcomponents.com/support/mdrivers/index.html

Winbook:

http://www.winbookcorp.com/drivers.htm

Wisecom (Now CIS Industries):

http://www.wisecominc.com/download.html

Zoom:

http://www.zoomtel.com/techsprt/drivers.shtml