Computer spode question....

[OnAnySunday]

Well my old Gateway 166p mmx is temporarily retired.
My son got a new comp. from Dell.
Thing is a beast compared to the ol' trusty Gateway!
2.something gig P4 processor, 256mhz ram, CD-RW, Windows-XP, Harmon/Kardon speakers -w- subwoofers (of course, he's a KID yaknow...) :think: , etc, etc, etc.
But we get internet set up....thing connects.....(holding breath)....at 28.8 kps????????????
Wwwwhhhhhaaaaatttttt the??????????
Ive heard everything from having 2 phones in the house to it being the poor quality NM phone lines to "did your dog dig up the phone cable?" as an excuse for this.
Well actually our old dog DID dig up the phone cable once. heh heh, but that was years ago!!! :confused:
My computer spode question is.........could this be true?
What exactly does it take to connect at higher speeds??
I was hoping to get around 50kps but.....oh well.
Thank in advance for any input! :)

 

[tx246]

as best as i can tell a lot of it has to do with the equipment connections from your neighborhood to the swtiches. take my neighborhood for example. most of the houses were built in the 70s. back then homes usually had only one phone number with maybe an extension for a bedroom. the phone companies put in equipment to meet these needs. todays homes are wired for phones in every room and the telephone companies realize that most new homes are going to need more than one service number per house. hence they put in more equipment. this added equipmet allows for clearer connections which allows for greater speed. the public utility commision has minimums for phone line clarity for voice transmission. this is met pretty easily but "clearer" phone lines which benefit internet dialup is not mandated or regulated. people on the block behind me (with newer equipment) have houses built in the late 80s and early 90s. they get better speeds than me. if i want speed im gonna have to go to cable modem. bottom line dial up speed is now more dependent on phone line quality than your computer components.

 

[biglou]

OAS-When I had my MSN dial-up, they gave me several local numbers that I could use. If I noticed a consistantly slow speed with a certain number, I would just go into the dial-up networking folder and change the number to one of the other ones they gave me and this would usually get me a higher speed connection. You might see if you can do that. FWIW, the highest speed I ever got in the 14 months I had MSN was 50.666kps. Periodically it would start to fall, have a hard time connecting (take multiple tries to connect), that is when I would shuffle the numbers until I found one that would hit the 50k range consistantly.

 

[evenslower]

tx246 is on the right track from what little I know. Another factor is how close you live to the switching equipment and how many "switches" are b/w you and the phone company. My previous home and my current home were both built around the same time and are wired pretty much the same but the old house was in the country so distance to phone co. equipment caused slow speeds. New house is in a more urban area with more equipment to handle the traffic thus higher speeds.....50k or so normally. Still not fast but serves our needs for now, especially for $10 a month.

 

[linusb]

When we moved to a new house in the country, I went from 33.6 to 24.4. This was with a 56k modem! Sucked bad. I lugged along like that until I got cable last year...I'll never go back to dial up now!

 

[Senior KX Rider]

If you are hooking up at 28.8 you are doing better than me. Out here in the sticks my normal connection is 24k :( We have a T-1 at work. It rocks :yeehaw:

 

[Anssi]

If the thing always connects at 28.8 (one of the "standard" speeds), I would take a look at the modem and dial-up settings and make sure the max speed in there is not limited to 28.8 but something higher like 115k.

 

[125 rider]

Back when i had dial-up 48k was about all i could get. 56k modems cannot use the full bandwith of the line due to FCC restrictions, so around 50-52 is the best your gonna get. Now, i connect at about 850-950 kbs and am wanting more : )