Reduced Modem Speed

[StormBringer]

About a month ago my connection speed dropped by almost half. This is a huge problem because I'm on a dial-up and my average connection ranged from 42.5kbps-52kbps. The drop put me down to 26.4kbps MAX. That means that sometimes I actually get lower than that.

I have already tried the usual suspects, Phoneline, different modem, network settings, MTU, etc... I even called my ISP but as usual, they said it had to be either one of three things, my settings(which are correct) my phoneline(which I checked for noise as well as having the phone company check) or my modem isn't 3com compliant(I've tried three different modems and two of them were USR)

My question is, does anyone know of a way to restore my connection speed? Is there some settings I'm missing?

 

[Jusb]

Did u mess with the modem init settings? Try using the latest drivers.

 

[Vehementi]

Go to your modem control panel, and check the maximum speed. May have accidentaly lowered somehow. You've probably already checked this, so I don't know why I've bothered...

I don't think your ISP should have been so quick to dismiss your problem, it may reside there.

What were you doing, exactly, when it suddenly dropped?

 

[StormBringer]

Already checked the itit settings. I even changed modems, like I said before.

Vehementi, My ISP has a 5hr, auto reconnect, this means that after being online for 5hrs my connection is broken and has to reconnect. I reconnected as usual and the speed was dropped and hasn't been back up since.

I don't find it so unusual that they dismissed it being their problem though, they always do that. Their standard answer to all connection problems is; modem or phone line.

 

[mnosteele52]

The most common reason for low connect speeds is static on your phone line. Have you had any storms lately? Try updating your drivers and if you tell me what OS you are using I will give you all the information you need to fully optimize your connection.

 

[StormBringer]

Originally posted by mnosteele52
The most common reason for low connect speeds is static on your phone line. Have you had any storms lately? Try updating your drivers and if you tell me what OS you are using I will give you all the information you need to fully optimize your connection.

No storms lately, or anything else that would cause line problems as far as I know. I checked the line for noise, also had the phone company check it(actually a friend that works with the phone company)

I'm running Windows XP.

Drivers can't be the issue because as I said before I've tried three different modems all using latest drivers.

 

[StormBringer]

I have one last thing I'm going to try, I doubt it will work, but at this point I'd light it on fire if I thought it might work. All the modems I've used so far have been hardware modems, a friend brought me an Intel hAm V.92 56k modem. He says it is a software modem(winmodem) I'll take his word for it because I'm not familiar with it and have yet to find drivers for it but as soon as I do I'll give it a try and see if it makes a difference.

 

[Vehementi]

I was gonna say you might have brought the storm steele was talking about :haha:

Well under the circumstances I'd say it's definitely your ISP. Explain to them what happened, everything about when you reconnected your speed was severely low. I'm sure it's something there.

 

[Vehementi]

As for those drivers I think I found them here

 

[StormBringer]

Thanks for the driver link. It didn't change anything when I tried that modem, but thanks anyway.

As for my ISP, they won't listen when I explain the problem. They just give me the same answer, modem, settings, phoneline. I even talked to the Administrator and he told me that there was no problem and that was an acceptable connection and transfer speed according to their guidelines.

Times like this, I wish I lived in town where I could have another choice of ISP.

 

[Vampire1]

New phone line....

Did you install a 2nd phone line? Did you have a neighbor possibly get a new line? Standard line can(and often is) used by two phone numbers at the same time. They share the maximum "bandwidth" between them. (Bandwidth isn't the right word but is close enough.) I have seen this happen several times when adding 2nd phone line.

Just a thought.

 

[Jusb]

Perhaps there is some problem with the phone line in your neighbourhood. Is your phone line new?