The Best (and Worst) of 1997

This is the beginning of critical mass, and hopefully by the end of next year POP will be more of a legacy option than the de facto mail retrieval protocol. In order for this to happen, ISPs are going to have to start making IMAP their primary mail delivery system. This is going to require new thinking in terms of user storage requirements, on-line connection time, etc., but these issues can (and hopefully will) be overcome. Also, companies like HotMail need to start making IMAP an option for connecting to remote mail systems, allowing folks like me to use HotMail's web-based mail service for more than just POP.

I use Netscape Communicator's Messenger component as my IMAP client because of its support for connected and disconnected modes, and because it works with my mail server (always important!). I also use Pine on my LINUX host when I need to Telnet into the mail server, although this is strictly a secondary option. I tried using Microsoft's Outlook Express, but it couldn't locate my server-based folders. I've never been a fan of Eudora, and have not yet tried their new implementation.

For my IMAP mail server, I use the University of Washington implementation, mainly because I could get it to compile on my LINUX host. It also integrates directly into sendmail, allowing me to use it along with the hundreds of other sendmail-based add-ons, plus it comes with POP daemons that provide legacy access.

This lets me use AMPS for voice while simultaneously using digital services such as encrypted dialing, caller ID, short-text messages, integrated paging, voice mail indicators and the like. Another example: I can use my laptop's modem with the analog circuit, and still receive pages over the digital circuit at the same time! It is the best of both worlds in one handy unit. Although other vendors offer the same sort of dual-mode access, only Nokia has the 3-line alphanumeric display, critical for use as a paging device. There are also a large number of after-market products available, from hands-free kits to cellular-aware modems, rounding out the total product nicely.

Although the 2160 was released in 1996, the product has only begun to live up to its full potential this year. This is Cellular One's fault though, as the phone has been a bitchin' little multi-purpose communications unit since its release. Unfortunately, you'll have to use Cellular One if you live in the Bay Area and want to use this phone. The national PCS dealers are, as I said, strictly digital for the most part. Although the 2190 is a PCS-only equivalent of the 2160 -- and still a damn fine phone -- the dual-mode nature of the 2160 is what makes it such a kick-ass gizmo.

The product offers what is perhaps the broadest range of integrated protocols, ranging from AppleTalk to IPX, along with other neat features like automatic conversion of LF to CR-LF, and even FTP uploads to a printer port. This latest feature is pretty neat; you can use any old FTP client to send files to a printer! It also has the most full-featured web-based management of any print server that I've seen. Anybody in the market for a print server should look at this one. A "Buy It Now" kinda product. Intel, I'm sorry for not giving it an "Excellent" in the review.

Another of my favorites is Macromedia's new Dreamweaver product, the first HTML management application to fully support frames and JavaScript, and as far as I'm concerned, the first professional-class HTML editor ever to be released. Although a bit too eager to correct what it sees as coding errors, overall this product is a must-have for anybody wanting to code HTML outside of Notepad.

Finally, Funk Software's Steel-Belted RADIUS is one of those products that you never think about once you've got it. But if you don't have it, you wish you did, and on a daily basis. For anybody doing RADIUS authentication on dial-in servers, this is the only thing you need. The only product I've ever reviewed that I've given an "Excellent" rating, by the way.

I've got an old IIvx here that I love, but unfortunately can't get much software for since it's not a PowerPC-based system. I was going to buy one of the Power Computing or Motorola clones, but now I'm going to wait-and-see what happens with Rhapsody instead, just like the rest of the mainstream market. If it runs fine on Intel, then I won't be buying an over-priced, end-of-the-line Mac from Apple, anyway. Stupid is as stupid does.

Meanwhile, the good providers of DHCP aren't getting leveraged, either. Part of DHCP's beauty is that it lets you define things like the default mail server, the browser's homepage, and other application-level settings. As far as I am aware however, not a single mainstream TCP/IP application takes advantage of these already-existent options. This means administrators still have to define these settings at every desktop across the organization, revisiting them whenever the Intranet's URL is changed. While ACAP promises to address these problems and is building momentum within the industry, we've already got DHCP servers in place that already do the same thing, albeit on a lower scale. This is just another example of DHCP losing merit.

A couple of reasons why xDSL may not succeed: it takes forever for telcos to roll-out the technologies they like, nevermind the ones they're unsure of. As we've already seen with ISDN, switch-based services tie up the telco resources in a big way, making it difficult for them to justify the rollout without major financial incentives (meaning you and me). ISDN had lots of promise, but when the telcos found out how much money they were losing it became a lower priority. Yes, there are lots of varietal implementations of basic DSL, but that only muddies the water even more. Consumers won't put up with mixed messages.

Cable modems? HA! Where's the infrastructure? I live in San Mateo, right in the heart of the most technologically-advanced community on the planet, yet I can't get cable modem service for at least a year, probably longer. TCI is the carrier of choice by city sanction, and they don't see the cost justification for swapping out their head-end equipment and stringing new HFC cable in my neighborhood. San Mateo isn't even on the list of planned cities. I can't blame 'em, and that's why I don't think its going to succeed. By the time it's prevalent, there will be other technologies that use the existing infrastructure sufficiently well to make the need for new ones irrelevant.

POTS and ISDN are here to stay people. xDSL and cable modems might work out in some areas, but I'm not holding my breath. We'll just have to see how these things shape up.