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Technology Stocks : Voice-on-the-net (VON), VoIP, Internet (IP) Telephony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (2412)	2/2/1999 9:28:00 PM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3178

OT If you're running Windows NT Server or NT Workstation, version 3.51 or 4.0, or Windows 95, you may experience a problem caused by the TCP/IP protocol stack. Microsoft has updated the TCP/IP protocol stack to correct this problem, which may cause your system to stop responding if it receives corrupted Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) data-gram fragments from a client. You can avoid this problem by obtaining and applying the latest service pack for Windows NT version 4.0. ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/NT40/ tidbit-temp

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (2412)	2/3/1999 7:59:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

Cupid-VoIP> Voice Your Love Over the Internet This Valentine's Day February 3, 1999 WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE) LifeTimes.com offers unique and interactive ways to hear what's in the heart Looking for new ways to say "I love you" can be a daunting task, but this year you don't have to sweat the sweet stuff! LifeTimes.com, a new kind of Internet community that brings together family and friends to celebrate special occasions, will help you send your Valentine's Day message in your own voice over the Internet with a variety of do-it-yourself greeting cards and Web pages that let your heart be heard. "People are always looking for new ways to express their love, but sometimes the best way to tell someone that you love them is to do just that -- tell them. The new technology we've created at LifeTimes.com allows people to greet their loved ones with a spoken message," said Bob Ellis, founder and chairman of LifeTimes. "All you have to do is follow our simple instructions online about how to record a personal message in your own voice using a regular telephone. Imagine your loved one's surprise when he or she opens this romantic online message and hears your voice speaking directly to them!" LifeTimes.com has a new face for Valentine's Day complete with all of the resources to send messages of love. In addition to the unique romantic voice card, you can easily create special occasion Web pages (including guestbooks and photos as well as your own voice), send animated greeting cards and select unique handcrafted gifts. Still not sure how to make this Valentine's Day different? Check out Jane's creative romantic ideas and gift suggestions in the Just Ask Jane section of the Web site. Or, impress your loved ones with your quirky Valentine's Day knowledge after visiting our special Valentine's Day trivia/history area. Send your Sweetheart Something Special For those who would like to send their valentine something they can touch, taste or smell, LifeTimes.com has a selection of more than 200 gifts, including Valentine's Day gift bags and jewelry, chocolates, and flowers that can be purchased from their online florist. The special gifts are created by artisans and family-owned businesses, meet quality standards and can be shipped internationally. "People find love on the Internet every day, and now they can use the Internet to honor that love in so many ways," says Kathleen Miller, president of LifeTimes.com. "Valentine's Day is just one event that can be celebrated with LifeTimes.com. We created the Web site to give people all of the resources to make any day special. These resources help people share the excitement of engagements, birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, holidays and many other occasions." For this Valentine's Day, whether you are a fresh or seasoned Internet cupid, you can create a meaningful celebration all in one place. With your Web greetings and gifts and messages, LifeTimes.com will help you Net points for love. About LifeTimes.com LifeTimes.com is a new kind of Internet community that brings together, in one place, all the necessary tools to celebrate special occasions with family and friends. The site provides free services for creating interactive Web pages and greeting cards and also sells unique, custom gifts. LifeTimes.com was founded by former Time Life executive Bob Ellis who has developed prize-winning interactive products for Time, AOL and CNN. Ellis currently serves as chairman at LifeTimes.com. The production team of LifeTimes.com consists of the team that formerly developed Compact Publishing, a pioneering multimedia publishing company. Executive offices are located in Washington, D.C. and can be contacted at 202-237-0087 or via the Web site at www.lifetimes.com. <<Business Wire, 02-02-99, 10:43 Eastern>>

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (2412)	2/3/1999 8:13:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

Low-cost DSL, cable carry bottlenecks "For example, smaller ISPs that have only taken a single T-1 to connect to regional Bell operating companies are in for a few surprises. Today it only takes one high-power user to melt them down. Incumbent local exchange carrier backbone oversubscription must also be considered. With prices so low, SBC probably will have to increase levels of oversubscription to the Internet. We wonder how many simultaneous users it will take to affect the performance of the system." Here is where the "premium ISPs" will differentiate themselves with 24-7 service, service-level agreements (SLA) for their high-end users and a slightly higher price in some cases. February 3, 1999 Network World: Many common phrases come to mind when writing this column: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts," "Caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware)," just to name a couple. But here's one in plain English: Be careful of low-cost access services. SBC Communications fired a massive shot across the bow of just about every major cable company, telco, competitive local exchange carrier, ISP and satellite access provider when it reduced its digital subscriber line (DSL) access pricing by 45% to $39 per month (plus $10 for Internet access). Your $49 gets you a 384K bit/sec service. We figure this cost is aggressive enough to spur the mass deployment of DSL services. This is a great deal for remote users and small businesses. You get guaranteed bandwidth in the local loop that cable modems - which share the local bandwidth - don't offer, and you get the low cost that cable modems provide. SBC has sent a strong, competitive signal, and rival providers are studying this DSL development. Why? Well, as Concentric Network's Chief Technology Officer Jim Southworth said in our newsgroup (www. xdsl.com/alert/discuss), "This will certainly separate the players from the wannabes. This could initiate the DSL deluge that people have been anticipating. This is going to be the year in which you can get really low-cost DSL in a large number of places." So what's wrong with that? Well, most ISP backbones are not ready to deal with the potential traffic that volume low-cost DSL services could generate. Some larger ISPs, such as Concentric, have anticipated this, "But that doesn't mean the pricing of our backbone transport has caught up with what is breaking loose here," Southworth said. For example, smaller ISPs that have only taken a single T-1 to connect to regional Bell operating companies are in for a few surprises. Today it only takes one high-power user to melt them down. Incumbent local exchange carrier backbone oversubscription must also be considered. With prices so low, SBC probably will have to increase levels of oversubscription to the Internet. We wonder how many simultaneous users it will take to affect the performance of the system. Here is where the "premium ISPs" will differentiate themselves with 24-7 service, service-level agreements (SLA) for their high-end users and a slightly higher price in some cases. Look for those choices when you buy into inexpensive access options. You won't get them anytime soon from cable modems, but there are DSL options that will offer SLAs. Some cable companies have stated they will address SLAs to make their products more appealing to the business market, so SLAs might only be a short-term differentiator. Pricing will go nuts in the DSL industry as vendors scramble to react to SBC's lower prices. Southworth predicts: "You will see a whole suite of performance measurement tools being used by various customers to judge the actual performance of various vendors and ISPs." Briere is president and Heckart is vice president of TeleChoice, a consultancy in Boston. They can be reached at dbriere@telechoice.com and checkart@telechoice.com, respectively. [Copyright 1999, Network World]

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (2412)	2/4/1999 10:26:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

ADSLite = Another-Dead-Service-Lease?>Trials Expose Dark Side Of ADSL Lite February 4, 1999 The new "lite" version of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line technology that was supposed to be easy for consumers to buy and install on existing copper phone lines is facing one definite kink. Early trials show most consumers who want to use Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) Lite to get faster Internet access for their computers also must install microfilters -- tiny devices that can be plugged into a phone line -- to keep their voice service from interfering with their data service, and vice versa. Fujitsu Network Communications, GTE, Intel and Orckit Communications tested ADSL Lite, also known as G.Lite in the international standards arena, in 47 homes in Hillsboro, Ore. In 81 percent of the homes, at least one phone needed a microfilter to share a phone line with a G.Lite modem; in half of the homes, multiple microfilters -- as many as five -- were required. Fujitsu (www.fnc.fujitsu.com) officials were neither surprised nor terribly dismayed by the findings, considering that microfilters are a low-cost solution to sending out telephone company technicians. But other vendors aren't so sure. "We tell our customers to take a similar group of homes and trial ADSL Lite with half, and full-rate ADSL with the other half, and then compare costs of installation, phone support, technician dispatch and other problems," said Steve Makgill, ADSL product line marketing manager at Alcatel (www.alcatel.com). "We're not convinced that ADSL Lite will be easier or less expensive." [Copyright 1999, Ziff Wire]