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Download Problems ]
I am experiencing pausing behavior when using my modem. Data transfers seem to stop for
several seconds and then resume, either consistently or intermittently
Explanation: You are not having any problem establishing connections to your remote
server, but while performing downloads you notice that the connection seems to
"pause". You do not get disconnected but there is no data transfer for a few
seconds. Then the transfer resumes, only to pause again later on.
Diagnosis: I have found that the most common cause of this problem is a temporary
interruption of the line. The same sorts of things that cause a connection to be dropped
completely, will sometimes cause the connection to be interrupted. For example, a call
coming through on call waiting or someone picking up the phone will interrupt your
connection, but if your modem is able to recover from it then this will appear as a pause
of several seconds' delay instead of the call being cut off. There are several other
possible causes of this problem as well.
Recommendation:
- Try a different host or dialup line, if possible, to eliminate the possibility of the
remote host being the cause of the problem. It is quite common to see pauses on downloads
when retrieving a file from a very busy host, or if there is more net traffic on your
service provider's network than they can handle cleanly. Trying a download from the same
host to more than one PC will similarly help isolate the problem to one end or the other
in most cases.
- The problem could be due to the particular software package that you are using to
perform the download. You may want to try using a different application to see if it works
better.
- Any of the causes listed in this section describing common
causes of phone line interruptions or disconnections could be to blame. Chief among
these are call waiting interference, line noise, or an extension handset being picked up.
You will typically only see these sorts of causes being responsible if the problem is
fairly infrequent. If the pausing is every few seconds, it's more likely something else at
fault.
- You may have a bad serial port on the system. If possible, try the modem on a different
PC and see if the problem goes away.
- The modem may be bad. Double-check its configuration first, then if you can, try
swapping another modem into the PC and see if the problem clears up.
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