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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:
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. |
It could be the phone line going into the house that is the prob. Thats the only thing I could thing of ATM.
There's nowhere I can't reach. (\__/)(\__/)(\__/) (\__/)(\__/)(\__/)(\__/) (\__/) (='.'=)(='.'=)(='.'=)(='.'=)(='.'=)(='.'=)(='.'=)( ='.'=) (")-(")(")-(")(")-(") (")-(")(")-(")(")-(")(")-(")(")-(") |
What happens if:
You use this computer at your place with the modem? You use your mom's old computer with the modem? You try a different phone jack and line? You try a different modem(your above post confuses me and I am THINKING you have yet to use a new one)? It sounds like something weird happened with the modem, the phone jack, or both. THunderstorms can do that. If you installed the modem in another computer and it didn't work at all, then it's probably the modem (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). This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it. |
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.
I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?
Last edited by Joe Wiewel; Jun 11, 2007 at 11:51 AM.
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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
I was speaking idiomatically. |
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. What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?
Last edited by Joe Wiewel; Jun 12, 2007 at 04:24 PM.
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Last idea even though it's too late, you could always try the phone cable itself going from the wall to the PC. Something wonky could have happened there (stepped on the cable and kinda destroyed a connection or something).
I'd remove the modem if you're not going to use it again and it seems to be malfunctioning. Never know when it might decide to cause some sort of random conflict with other hard/software. How ya doing, buddy? |