28kps hell: aaaaauggghh help

[alex666]

Hi all,
To conserve finances, my wife and I decided to have our dedicated data line (dial-up) discontinued and to use the internet via our regular phone line. In this part of Virginia, which is rural Shenandoah Valley, dial-up is all we have, no dsl, no cable, satellite if we want to switch to directTV for 60/month internet fees (we're trying to save money). Now the dedicated data line consistently ran at 50.6kps or better from all computers. Most of the time, that was sufficient, as I keep our systems running pretty well, I tweak as best I can. Our modems are hardware faxmodems, 3com/usr, pci and isa.

Okay, as soon as I connected to the regular phone line, I cannot get any faster than 28.8. Called the phone company, they say they will only guarantee a noise-free voice line, so there's nothing they can do. Called my ISP, they said call the phone company and ask for a stress test. Well, the phone company said I don't need a stress test given our copper wire connection. Bottom line: are we screwed? Or is there anything else I can do to increase the speed of our faxmodems over a regular phone line. Something just does not seem right about this situation. Thanks all.

marty

[Paul Komski]

I don't get it. Was the dedicated data line an ordinary telephone line that you just dedicated to use only for the internet - or was it special in some other way. If the former then the new line must be faulty or was somehow compromised when the second line was shut down.

BTW pci and isa don't indicate a "hardware modem" - very few internal modems don't share the CPU.

[alex666]

Good question. It was a second line, two are installed into the home within the same phone cable, usually just one is activated, but you can activate the second line. As far as I knew, it was simply considered a second phone line that was devoted to the internet. Physically, it looks no different, nor is it so electronically to the best of my knowledge. It was not until I spoke with the phone company yesterday that I ever heard anything about they only guarantee voice quality on the one line. I don't know if the second line was supposed to be guaranteed to work up to 50kps. As far as the hardware modem, we do not use win modems, we use hardware fax modems that work with linux, dos, whatever. They are 3com/usr. Two use a pci bus, one an isa bus (tho not currently installed int he house). I recognize that bus has nothing to do with the nature of the modem.

I am so completely frustrated with this situation. No one wants to take responsibility for this, neither the isp or the phone company (verizon), and I am feeling very helpless. Not a feeling I like.

marty

[mjc]

Do you have any "extras" from the phone comnay? caller id, call waiting, etc?

If not you may want to consider adding one...for them to work properly they require a rather good phone line...and the phone comapny may just switch the pair to the one usde for the old data line, as oppesd to actually fixing the current voice line. In all likelyhood the data line was on a cleaner/better pair of wires than the voice line (or the actual splice for the voice line is not weatherproof anymore....I was having all sorts of problems when the weather was damp, the Verizon line tech came out, cut the old splice to check the main line, couldn't find any problem, but there was one when he checked at the box on the house. That is why he started checking at the pole. After he reconnected everything the problem was gone...he told me that often a bad splice will not show except under very wet or extreme conditions, but can cause problems any time.)

[kayofcircles]

Little conflicted..yes, one does have a slighter "better" connection with caller ID because we lost our ID ability once and phone tech came out and found that the construction crew had "spliced" lines down in phone box down the road and we had lost sufficient "power" or something to run the IDs. And a regular phone line is only guaranteed for being able to talk on..not "noise free"...but I did think that one could pay for a "data" line that was guaranteed to be noise free and cleaner, and it certainly sounds like that is what you had because we've never gotten anywhere near the 50 bps in our corner of the boonies...average is 26,400 bps.

[alex666]

Thanks, MJC. Yeah, we're in similar situations given our locations. When I spoke with Verizon yesterday, they kept emphasizing how they were going to charge me money regardless of whether they found a problem or not, and they were almost disdainful in their response to my complaint of a slow internet line. That may sound overly sensitive or paranoid on my part, but I was surprised at their response. I mean, I got a call last night from the tech emphasizing the cost, but with no guarantees. It was kind of strange. But asking for an additional service is an idea. Hmm. Thanks, I'll have to think about that. Do they have to come out to set that up? Actually, called id wouldn't be a bad idea. Will keep you up to date. Nothing like battling the phone company.

marty

[mjc]

Since when is Verizon charging to do physical line checks?

And they will only come out to do anything if the line is too bad for Caller ID to work. They do most of the work in the CO, usually that involves upgrading the circuitboard that is assinged to your phone line.