connection speed

[Vic 970]

my modem seems to be connecting at consistently lower speeds than it used to

used to connect about 46,000 - 48,000

I've had speeds as low as 4,000 & frequently 16,000 - 24,000 - 33,000 of late, any ideas what's wrong ?

[Rick]

Check the wiring first ..
Have you had any high winds in your area of late ?

Check the wire from the Modem to the wall outlet
Anything sitting on or near it that can create and elec/mag field ?

[kayofcircles]

High winds, huh, Rick? YEP, in spades! lol But since my problem is similar to Vic's and sporadic..doubt if can blame on the wind. For me, it started about a month ago, on the other puter, which is reassuring in the sense that it's not the puter, I think. Some days, I get the "normal for us" 26,400 bps but then often get disconnected/bumped, and other days or after reconnecting, am down to 21,400 bps, slow but stable. Today, am up to "top", very rare, 28,800 bps and wondering when I will be bumped.

Can older modems just get tired? Or older phone cords? When I was getting new puter configured and up to speed to work on, it was across my office on another desk, and I did notice that if I moved the phone cord (between modem and outlet) that connection speed changed. We do run ours through the power backup for surge protection..so a little unsure about the EMF thing.

Vic 970 : In my case, am pretty sure it's either my ISP or the phone lines..wouldn't be the first time the phone company has screwed up lines out here in the boonies. Read over at troubleshooting to dial a 1 (or whatever gets you to long distance in your area of the world), and "listen" for noise on phone line. One person over at the AT&T's "help" forum said she was hearing a radio station when she did that..which might be a problem...:D Sadly, I don't really hear anything when I do that, so...suspecting ISP, but they will say not, so I have been too busy lately to fool with it. Would suggest changing out the phone cord..just for fun. Not that expensive, and at least you've covered that possibility. And please advise if you figure it out..I would appreciate knowing.

[Vic 970]

thanks for replies.

We have not had any high winds, and re the outlet, it is an internal modem.

however, at the ,moment the puter is in the box room as it's usually room is undergoing building work, I say this because it was hooked up a little in haste (although that was months ago) (but it did work ok until recently) but it does mean that the cables, wires etc. are a little untidy and prone to being disturbed, which could possibly be a cause. I will check it out & let you know if it improves.

[skhips]

You can ask most telephone companies to check out your line and see if the line quality is ok, somtimes they can reduce the noise on the line.

Could your ISP becoming over susscribed for the area.

:)

[Paul Komski]

I surely sympathise with anyone with a bad connection. Me too - out in the middle of nowhere - very seldom "connect at" greater than 28K.

Have played around with more "modem tweaks and settings", pinged ISPs' servers and DNS with various results, etc, etc. Tried different ISPs, different OSes, changed and reinstalled DUN and networking and drivers, etc, etc, etc.

Twice in the past two years things went seriously bad and on both of these occasions I could hear obvious audible noise on the line; the telecom came out and repaired what were loose connections outside the house and that got me back to my normal status quo.

I was on the point of blaming the ISPs or their bandwidth but thought I would try out a new modem; well two to be accurate. So I purchased a Creative Modem Blaster V92 PCI Software modem and a Diamond Supra Express V92 Serial Hardware modem.

Nearly all of my problems have since been solved (for the past two months). The Creative outperforms the Diamond - but not by a mile. The previous CNR Aztech modem (which worked superbly for six months) is now confined to the dustcart.

Over the past 2 years the only "tweaks" that consistently helped-out were lowering the FIFO buffer speads and getting up to-date-drivers. Many other things seemed to help for a while but never "stuck". Getting new hardware has been one of the best investments ever. Though I seldom "connect at" greater than 28K, if I actually time downloads I usually achieve between 3 and 4 KB/sec. Prior to the new hardware the "connect at" speeds were similar but I could seldom ever actually download at greater than 1 KB/sec!

;) ;)

Good luck to all similar sufferers.

BTW - neither of my ISPs support V92 and yet the Creative's "Modem on Hold" software detects incoming calls (with call waiting enabled) and gives me a popup asking me whether to take the call or not. Since I don't have full V92 ISP support, the internet connection is lost if I take the call. But this has been a great bonus from having upgraded my modem hardware.

[ZURKE]

I would also agree that if your line is not dedicated(DSL,Cable,ect.) and you are dialing your ISP from your regular phone line then you are going to get large fluctuations in speed. Depending on the load of the line at the time. Is broadband cheap enough yet?:)

[kayofcircles]

ZURKE: Depends on where you live..no broadband out here at all. We had "wireless cable tv" for awhile. Installer forgot to ground it, so it got zapped. Fixed that, then whole apparatus was "blowing" off the roof in our WINDS , so my husband got a really long pole, and stuck it deep in the ground, attached it with brackets to house, and put everything on that...and then the company went out of business. :( And satellite is available out here for like $70 a month, but my understanding is that you still have to uplink through phone lines, so doesn't seem quite worth the money. And with our luck, it wouldn't work in the wind anyway...:D

Paul: I have a USR Robotics Performance Pro now, so doubt if I can do much better. I prefer an internal modem, and think the one I have is probably the best I can do internally.

Vic: My bet is on the phone wires in the walls..if you're doing remodelling type work. I meant above to replace the actual phone cord that runs from the wall outlet to the puter, but the lines inside the wall could be at fault if they've been disturbed recently. And weird stuff happens sometimes..my son was moving a fire extinguisher to another location, and went to screw the holder bracket into the wall, and hit a sprinkler water line..:eek: Big "oops" and he was fortunate that the apt. maintenance guy was very nice and understanding.

[Budfred]

Kay,

If you can afford the satellite service, it may be worth it because most of the speed needed is in the downloads. For most people the majority of upload is clicking a link to go somewhere and that doesn't take much bandwidth, so it tends to be very fast, even on dialup. The biggest drawback to satellite is really the expense since you have to pay for it and the dialup....

[Vic 970]

well, without doing anything it's back to 46,000 +

but I take on board all your comments as I've never been that happy with my connection. I have had phone company turn up the gain, and (having checked again last night) there is no noise on the line. but at the moment there are many 'loose' phone extension leads about, all going via a 'router' apart from the one to the pc. which were what I was about to start checking until the 'speed' suddenly come back.

also I have been having some problems with my ISP (BT) lately and got a letter yesterday saying that charges are to go up. I have been looking at other suppliers (gas,electric,phone, internet.) so I think it may be time to change and go for



Broadband.......

I think the 'extra' will be worth it, and by changing my other supplies may save a bit to counteract.

[ErnieK]

Vic
BT? Bl**dy Thieves.

My ISP www.eclipse.co.uk has only let me down once in coming up on three years. You do need BT connection though. Pay BT £7.00 a month for internet telephone access and Eclipse £50.00 (+ VAT) per year. (No call charges Evenings & weekends & NO LIMIT on hours used)

Always voted highly in ratings. Personally I would give them strong reccomendation. Devon company. Business company and puts spare band width out to home users.

Broadband with them has once again been voted 2nd fastest in UK. Approx £20.00 per month With one (1) MONTH CONTRACT not the year that others are making you signup for. My area should be getting it over the next few months and I will definatly be going for it.

[Vic 970]

Hi ernie,

your interpretation of their inititials is very apt, could also be

bl****y terrible

I have had a look at eclipse, which seems pretty impressive, but I think telecom plus (nothing to do with BT) is about the best at the moment. broadband is £25 pm (inc vat) with no contract, they also have good deals on gas, electric, phone & mobiles.

I had a British Gas salesman at the door the other day (he had come to the wrong house by mistake, and had a appointment with a neighbour) but not wishing to pass up an opportunity, asked me about changing to dual fuel etc.
at that point I told him that I was in conflict with virgin, British Gas and scottish power, and explained the situation, he was most sympathetic and appologised on behalf of his employer (british gas) even though it was nothing to do with him and beyond his control.

but this did strike off a pretty long and interesting conversation about fuel suppliers, eventually he told me 'secretly' that telecom plus was the best going.

I had been considering changing to them for a while but the current conflict with other suppliers has prevented it so far, anyway I did some further research and am most impressed.

just to satisfy anyones curiousity...,

Virgin signed me up 3 times without my approval, on the fourth occasion they did it without my knowledge, British Gas in particular were very unhelpful.

I now have my supply back, and am in comms with my local MP as I believe virgin acted contrary to unsolicited goods and services act.

anyway if your interested (and I'm sure you are !) have a look at

http://www.telecomplus.co.uk/

I have had my phone routed through one of their 'pigs' for a while now and am very pleased.
Also when I first enquired I had a 'rep' come to see me, and she was great, straight forward facts, her own bill (as an example) and not at all 'pushy'. she answered all my questions, after which she gave the following options

1/ If your not interested, just say 'No' and that's it, you will not be bothered again.
2/ I can sign you up now if you wish, you need to pay £28 (a one off payment for the apparatus) you can cancel at any time without notice or penalty. (but you will lose the £28 for the apparatus which you will keep)
3/ Or, if you want to think about it, call me when your'e ready, or if you want any more info.

what a change from double glazing.

also I get info of any new offers (with my bill) but am not overwhelmed with scams or anything else.

certainly worth a look.

;)

[sleddog]

Originally posted by kayofcircles
... satellite is available out here for like $70 a month, but my understanding is that you still have to uplink through phone lines, so doesn't seem quite worth the money. And with our luck, it wouldn't work in the wind anyway...:D


Some satellite service is two-way (upload and download). You should ask the company providing the service. At that price I would almost expect it to be. Where I am Bell (http://www.direcpc.ca/) offers one-way service for about CAN$50/month (US$34.50) for current satellite TV subscribers and CAN$70 (US$48) for non-subscribers.

Regards to the wind... yes it can affect service if your dish isn't well installed and supported. But if the dish is correctly installed, well-braced and properly peaked it can survive a heck of a lot of wind, rain, icing, snow and just about anything else.

[kayofcircles]

Thanks, Budfred..I didn't really know that stuff about uploading being fast..makes sense when you think about it.

Sleddog: I will check that link out..thanks. It is really the money that hangs me up. There's a rather LARGE difference in monthly charge between the $23.38 we pay now for unlimited dialup (slow as it may be) and $70 something a month. I am online maybe two to three hours a day, sometimes even less, depending on threads here and whether I need to do something else online. So, price per online hour is considerably less when paying $23.38...:)..and one could get tired of beans and cornbread, you know? Anyway, will check out the link and see if available in our area, and also pass along what you said to beloved. He enjoys "shopping" around for new techie stuff.:D