Modem woes

Woden

Had to purchase a new modem recently after the old one was fried by static, picked up the cheapest XP compatable one from it direct thinking it wouldnt make much difference, but to my disappointed and astonishment it turns out that the modem supplied with my fujistu computer was actually quite good delivering consistent connections speeds of 48kbps and up, while this new ones default seems to be 31.2 and 48 if it feels in the mood. can anything be done about this or when i want to download anything major will i keep having to reconnect till i geti n the forty's?

theciscokid

afraid so , you're even lucky you get 47/48 some people only get 42,

i'm near to an exchange i get 50.6 nine out of ten times ~ fingers crossed it stays that way

is it a v.92 ?

Woden

the modem is a genius gm56pci-la, which apparently according to he box supports v.92 and v.90, yeah i regularly used to connect at 52 or 50.6, i dont know how close i am to an exchange though

ozpass

Maybe your compression settings are conflicting. If hardware AND software compression are enabled, in some cases it can INCREASE the size of the data being pushed through the modem. Try turning off hardware compression and see what happens.

Woden

thanx ozpass, where exactly is that setting? in the modem options is it?

ozpass

Errrrm, I've never used Windows XP but for Windows 2000 (I assume XP is similar?) you'll find it under Control Panel-->Phone and Modem Options-->Modem Tab-->Properties-->Advanced-->Change Default Settings

Woden

sure thing xp is v similar to 2k, under change default settings i can choose COMPRESSION: ON OR OFF, or FLOW CONTROL: HARDWARE, OFF or Xon/Xoff? any ideas on which i have to implement? cheers
data

ozpass

I'd leave flow control on 'Hardware', try it with compression off.

Woden

right thanx again i'll give that a try next time i go offline, i dont want to disconnect now this is one of the rare times i connect at 48kbps

ozpass

'tis but a suggestion- hope it works for you though! For future reference, USR external modems are much better than internal PCI 'winmodems' (in my experience). Worth the extra pennies ('kay I know they cost twice as much!)

whosurpaddy

there are other factors also such as the length of ur fone cable (the shorter the better) & where u r geographically

Kali

Originally posted by whosurpaddy
there are other factors also such as the length of ur fone cable (the shorter the better)

That's pretty much bollox. It's down to the quality of the cable and its shielding from sources of interference... If you have a telephone cable, regardless of length, and it runs by your tv, hi-fi, radio, tv cable, several power sockets etc. then you ain't gonna have a good time

Woden

all appreciated folks but a wee bit off the point, the only thing that has varied is the modem and hence that is the only thing that is affecting the connection speed, i havent changed the phone wire, or the location of the pc or anything.

cheers

data

DeSpamKiller

have a look on www.modemhelp.net. most modem probs have a fix listed here.

u may wanna try disabling v92 if u have it. use the init string AT&F+MS=V90. might help a bit, if not just take it back out again.

eth0_

Originally posted by Kali
That's pretty much bollox. It's down to the quality of the cable and its shielding from sources of interference

BS it is! I've personally had my connection improve greatly after changing from a 20ft extension cable to 6ft.

It's well known the longer the cable, the slower the speed.I don't think you'll start to notice till you get to about 20ft though.

sutty

ummm.... eth, it is about shielding from external radio waves and electrical sources. The reason that a 20ft bog standard phone cable is pants is because the signal along the cable has to go through more interference. If you use a cat 5 cable with RJ11 connectors you will see a difference in line quality and will be able to have longer wires. (Over a network a cat5 cable can carry a signal 260m or so.) But that depends on the strength of the starting signal as well (a modem wont be as strong as a nic AFAIK) but still should be able to do 50-70 feet with a good signal. Although that said it is always best to use just want you need. IE: If your phone port is 6ft away, you don’t need a 50ft cable.



*Edit: Spelling's fixed

jd

coiling a long, not well shielded cable can cause problems too-prob inductance I guess.

whosurpaddy

Originally posted by Kali
That's pretty much bollox. It's down to the quality of the cable and its shielding from sources of interference...

u can call it bollox if u want but I was helpin a friend troubleshoot his modem not so long ago & after we spent ages eliminating everythin else it came down to the fact he'd moved his pc & was now using a much longer cable, 100ft to be exact. when we tried moving his pc closer & using a shorter cable. whallla better connection. so

although the other guy is rite, unless its upwards of 20ft its negligable

sutty

Again I say, it is due to radio and electrical interference. The shorter the cable the stronger the signal will be and also have less interference on it.

Oh and things to remember. Just because you cable isn't near a TV or radio doesn't mean that it isn't getting interference. Radio signals are everywhere and the wiring with-in your house will also cause it. The better shielding on the cable the better your connection will be. An other way to look at it is. PSDN works on analog signals and as such are weakend by interference. ISDN works on digital signals (with a 64k line you will always get 64k connections)

A problem you may have with a long bog standard phone cable is disconnections. This can be caused by bad or dropped packets AFAIK

I'll put up some links tomorrow if needed. I'm too tired to now..





*Edit: Spellings fixed up.

whosurpaddy

Originally posted by sutty
again I say, it is due to radio and electricl interfearance. the shorter the cable the stronger the signal will be and also have less interfearance on it.

PSDN works on analog signals and as such are weakend by interfearance. ISDN works on digital signals (with a 64k line you will always get 64k connections)

A problem you may have with a long bog standerd phone cable is disconnections. This can be caused by bad or droped packets AFAIK

Yea its a good point about the radio interferance. ISDN's digital packets can come in on differant chanels without disturbing existing connections, why is basically y it gets better results then normal analog.

sutty

Here are some links

link 1) *note when this talkes about "twisted pair" it's talking about Cat5.

link 2

link 3) Not a grat page, but still talks a bit about it

56k.com has some good help pages and what not. Well worth a look.

leeroybrown

The reason ISDN gets better results is that the digital signal is sent through at a set data rate on each of the channels (2 B and 1 D) hence the constant transmission rate.

It is also hooked directly into the digital part of the PSTN, avoiding the analog local loop and the SLIC.

sutty

Aye, which also takes the signal noise off the line. Anyway back to analog lines. If you want to get a cat5 cable with RJ11 connections on it, you should be able to pick one up from peats or maplin. (more than likely you will have to have it made up when your there)

eth0_

Where does one purchase these 'high quality' modem cables? All i've ever seen are bog standard ones in Eircom shops + Pc World.
Do Belkin make some?

sutty

Originally posted by eth0_
Where does one purchase these 'high quality' modem cables? All i've ever seen are bog standard ones in Eircom shops + Pc World.
Do Belkin make some?

/me points to his last post.