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I have a 56K rated modem but never get connections that fast. |
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You never will. Many factors go into what connection
speed you can have. First and foremost, your ISP has to support 56K transfer.
And, in this, it must support the type of 56K of your modem. Most now use the
V.90 specification and most ISPs also support it, but if you have a older one
that uses X2 or k56flex, you need to pay attention to this. Also, the quality
of your phone line could bring down connection speeds. Having the PC a far
distance from the wall via a long phone cord could bring down speeds. also,
at full speeds and optimal quality, you will still never get 56K as the lines
limit you to 53K. Also, you must keep in mind that when online, your true
transfer speeds also depend highly on the system at the other end. If the
network is running slow or the server us running slow, your connection will
be slow no matter the speed of your modem. [Top] |
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Many times this is just a symptom of a crappy ISP.
After you have ruled a couple other things out, the thing to do is call your
ISP and raise some hell. the first thing to check is whether you have call
waiting or not. Call waiting, as you know, emits a beep over the phone line
to indicate a call. This beep interferes with the modem connection and can
knock you offline. To disable this, include *70 in your dial-up access
number. Second, if you are idle for long periods of time, many ISPs will bump
you just to save connections. You can either stay busy or you can download a
program that will intermittently ping your ISP and keep the connection
active. If these things don't ring a bell, call your ISP. If it happens a lot
and your ISP gives you the run-around, then consider switching to another
provider. [Top] |
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More than likely, you don't have the modem connected
correctly. Check your phone setup. Is the phone wire connected? Is it
connected to the LINE jack on your modem and not the PHONE jack? I some times
grab a spare phone and use it to do some line tests. This often finds the
problem. [Top] |
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I try to use my modem but it keeps saying it is already busy or in use. |
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You have a conflict with another device. You are
probably trying to use the modem over a COM port that is already being used.
You will need to re-assign the modem to a different COM port. [Top] |
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You can adjust it by going to your modem settings under
System Properties and using the slider to adjust the volume. [Top] |
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Try to notice the pattern. Is it only certain sites?
Are those sites running different client apps or java? Sometimes after a long
time online, your PC will start to lose memory, called memory leak. Its a
common thing. But, this gives your browser less room to breathe and it may
crash more often. A reboot could help. It if is things like java that do it,
then update your browser or check your java settings for your browser. Also,
if you use Netscape, switch to IE (okay, that is a personal preference, but
I'm entitled). [Top] |
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It depends. Many DSL ISP's are able to run a line test
to see if you are able to get DSL, but they are not always cut and dry. It
depends on your line quality. If you have an older house with thin, high-guage
wire, you may not be able to do DSL. Likewise, if you are too far from your
phone company's central office, you cannot to DSL. Some more rural areas
compensate for far distances by running phone lines out from the central
office and to a separate router, then going out to the individual houses.
This setup will usually not allow DSL on those houses on the other side of
the router. [Top] |
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See the question above that addresses connection drops.
Also, you may want to consider getting a download manager or an FTP program
that can resume dropped downloads. Just do a search on the internet for one,
or check out the common download locations like SHAREWARE.COM or DOWNLOAD.COM
. [Top] |
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You need to grab a virus scanner, update the virus definition
list, then run a scan on your system. [Top] |
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I have a cable or DSL modem and notice the connection is sometimes active for no reason. |
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Two things could be happening. You may have a program
running that is set up to automatically perform some task over the internet.
In this case, you will have to search it down yourself and disable it if it
really bugs you. The other thing is a result of internet activity. There are
many computers on the internet. Many of them are setup to automatically scan
IP addresses and do certain things. Most of them are harmless, but some,
nonetheless, could be someone looking to wreak some havoc. So, I would
recommend downloading some firewall software. it is available for free in
some cases. Instead of my naming them off, just run a net search for it or
uses the common download hubs of the net. You're bound to find one without
too much trouble. [Top] |
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Join the club. WinModems were a weird invention to save
cost. They replace some of the typical modem functions with software
counterparts to make it cheaper. Unfortunately, they often give conflicts and
problems. Rather than going into troubleshooting this, I'd recommend to stay
away from these things. If you un-install one, make sure you also un-install
whatever software you installed for it, as this will only conflict with a
real modem. [Top] |
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