Dial-up modem slowly lost speed, now connects at 7.2kbps and randomly won't connect

I recently built my mom a new computer and everything works great on it.

When I took it to her house and got her dial-up connection set up, it initially connected at something like 37kbps, which I thought was weird because when I had my computer at her house using the exact same phone line cable, jack, dial-up number and username and password, I connected anywhere between 44kbps and 48kbps.

Over the course of the next 24 hours that I was there, it started connecting at slower and slower speeds...33kbps...28...26.4. There were severe storms in the area a day or two ago when I arrived with her computer, so I assumed there was noise in the phone lines from damaged lines and that the phone company would repair the lines and the connection speed would come up. (I didn't hear any noise in the phone line when I tried talking to somebody with it but still assumed that anyway. What else could it be, right? )

Now, my mom lives out in the sticks in a small town of 200 people. Broadband is not available right now but will be there next week. She has an appointment to get hooked up set for Tuesday. However, it will have to be a wireless connection from a satellite to the town's water tower, and there's tall trees between her house and the tower not to mention that she sort of lives in a low spot in town. In fact we, really can't even see the water tower from her house...so...dial-up may have to be plan B. My mom is the coordinator for an organization she is in and needs to have data sent out Tuesday afternoon, with either dial-up or broadband. Which means that this problem pretty much needs to be resolved right away.

My mom was on the phone with her ISP (which is local to the area, not some huge-ass one like Comcast) and she said they said that everything was mostly set OK except they had her change the connection speed on the modem from the max to a smaller number, but that didn't work. So they basically told her that the modem was slowly going bad. Well, I bought that modem several months ago for her when her Windows 98 was only connecting at 28.8kbps, but never got around to installing it. So I put it in her new computer and now its the same modem that won't connect at a good speed or connect at all.

Additionally, she has another phone line going to her old piece of shit Windows 98 computer. That won't even connect with its modem. It started not connecting about the time the modem speeds with the new computer were getting painfully slow. I don't know know if this is a coincidence or not because the Windows 98 computer is VERY unstable and slow, so it could have been just a matter of time before that would have happened anyway.

So, basically, my questions are:

1. What is the cause of this problem?
2. Knowing the cause, is it possible to fix the modem?
3. If the problem can't be fixed, will getting a new modem will fix the problem?
4. This may sound kind of paranoid, and it's something my mom brought up, but is it possible that her ISP is somehow deliberately causing this (both computers went out at the same time....) just get people to switch over to their more expensive broadband service that is coming to town? I told her that it's probably illegal since it probably goes against the Terms of Service agreement, but, you never know....

If anybody could help answer these questions to help me resolve this issue, that would be great! Thanks in advance!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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It could be the phone line going into the house that is the prob.

I already had my computer hooked up to the exact same phone line cable and jack using the exact same phone number, username and password and it connected anywhere between 44kbps and 48kbps. Additionally, when I talk on the phone with my mom using that line (she only has one), I don't hear any noise. So if you're trying to imply the thunderstorm caused something, it could be the case, but like I said, I don't hear any noise. :-/

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What happens if:

You use this computer at your place with the modem?

I didn't use the modem at my place. I don't even have a phone line as I have a 10mbps cable connection and a cell phone. I did hook its ethernet card into my router and I remember I got about 900KB/sec-1MB/sec when I downloaded files with it.

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You use your mom's old computer with the modem?

I didn't try that because my mom's old computer is so crappy that trying to start Firefox (IE won't work anymore) and load a web page, let alone install a piece of hardware, is a challenge. So there wouldn't be any point in doing that other than for troubleshooting purposes. Keep in mind that when I left her house, I assumed the connection speed would come back up.

The only reason she keeps the old computer around is because she wants her new computer to be operating at 100% capacity before she trashes her old one.

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You try a different phone jack and line?

No, because of the same reason I didn't try the modem with my mom's old computer - I assumed that the connection speeds would improve, not to mention that I already got good speeds with my computer when I had it there. HOWEVER, this one might actually be something that my mom and stepdad can do on their own. But the other phone jack that can be tested is hooked up to the old computer and that one won't even establish a connection, so even if they went to the trouble of unhooking both computers, moving the new one to the old one's spot, and hooking the new one up, I don't think anything would improve, but it could be worth a try. :-/ By the way, something like this is a couple hour project for them. (Yeah, yeah, I know it would take somebody like you or me 15 minutes to do.)

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You try a different modem(your above post confuses me and I am THINKING you have yet to use a new one)?

I don't know what's so confusing about my post, but no, I didn't try a different modem. The modem was one thing I couldn't test at my house because of a lack of a phone line. When I got there, I didn't have another modem to put in it, except for the one in the old computer and I didn't see the need to mess with it at the time.

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It sounds like something weird happened with the modem, the phone jack, or both. THunderstorms can do that.

I'm thinking something happened to the modem; I'm pretty sure the phone lines are fine since I can't hear any noise in them. However, the thunderstorms were already over when I got there with her computer, so...if something was fried in the phone line or jack, wouldn't the connection speed just start off at a low number instead of gradually slowing down?

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If you installed the modem in another computer...

I didn't. My mom's computer was the first one I installed it in.

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I have found that sometimes hardware will partially work if you don't do anything to it. However, if you move it to another computer, install new software/firmware related to it, etc, then that finishes the hardware for good

Well, I'm thinking that this is a case of the hardware partially working since the speed slowed down, but as to what's specifically causing it, I have no clue.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

Best way to know really is to a.) try another modem in the same line AND b.) try the same modem in another line. That'll tell you for sure what went bad - the line, the modem, or both

Well, that's kind of what I wanted to do too. Unfortunately, even if I had wanted to do that, I don't know if it would have been possible because I live an hour and a half away from my mom. And like I said, something that should take somebody like you and me 15 minutes to do would turn into a couple hour project for them.

FORTUNATELY, a connection was able to be established between the satellite they put in my mom's yard and the water tower so she now has broadband Internet. I had her run a speed test over at www.speedtest.net and she has 1818kbps down, 904kbps up, which converts to 227KB/sec down, 113KB/sec up. Not too shabby.

Anyway, now that this is no longer a problem, would you recommend removing that modem since it's probably half dead or would it matter if it stayed in the system? If it's recommended to be removed, it's something I can do next time I go back to her house, but if not, then I won't mess with it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.