Better dial-up speeds with better modems...

D

dewd

Active Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
30
Reaction score
0
Well, with the ADSL situation in SA looking pretty bleak at the moment, I will have to stay with dial-up and have considered getting a different 56K modem. I've noticed that different 56K modems can dial in at different speeds. My one normally dials in at 44k/s but then when I tried a different one, it dialed in at 48 k/s and 45 k/s.

What would be a good internal 56K modem to get and what chipset would you recommend?

Thanks,
 
Last edited:
dewd, in my humble and ignorant opinion, and i am probably completely wrong bout this
but isnt the speed set by what you dial in to, I used to have days where i would get 33k then disconnect and get 52k later on.
 
When I still used dialup I used to swear by US Robotics modems.

They used a Texas Instruments DSP with an Intel 8086 but developed their own firmware for it while others just slapped their badge on whatever Rockwell made at the time.

We had customers in the Eastern Cape in some really poor dodge locations near mining towns and the only modems that worked there for remote dialin was USR Couriers.
 
Last edited:
Mean_Monster said:
good and internal in one sentence. ??

I have never had good experiences with any internal modems. preffer external.
Click to expand...

I agree. Internal modems are evil. Stay away!
 
hi man i'm using an internal generic softk56 and when dialing in never get anything less than 53k.& get no problems.
 
I have ADSL, but when I had 56k, I used the white US Robotics External v92 modem. I tried LOTS of other modems and none came CLOSE to the US Robotics. I'd always connect at a high bitrate and my first hop latency would vary from about 90-130 compared to other modems that I'd tried 160+ms... I'd download at 5-6 and sometimes 7 K/s compared to internal 3-5 K/s..
This modem really impressed me. I went through about 4 of them though as they are EXTREMELY sensitive to lightning... :/
 
I don't think the *make* of the modem will affect the speed. There are settings that can be changed in the modem to tweak it to go faster (I think u can even d/l programmes that will do this for you.)

For the most part, it's the quality of your line that determines the speed. This is how TCP(/IP) was created. TCP was originally designed to connect different networks of various speeds and qualities. It will try a certain speed, if it cannot connect, it will reduce the speed and try again, then again and again until it has a connection that it can mantain.

This is why the speeds vary.
 
I dont know whether anyone can help, there MUST have been people in similar situation? A few years ago when they were rolling out fibre optic in my neighbourhood, and switched me over from copper, I noticed that my dialup connection speed dropped from 33.6k to 28.8k. I phoned, and moaned to telkom about the echo that I could now hear on the telephone line, and also explained that I was now getting an inferior Internet connection. I eventually spoke to a technician who told me that it was due to the fibre, and that it is not as clean as copper. I asked whether he could put me back onto copper, which he did, and I was happy...... I was happy for about 2 years or so......until last week.

I now have a 56K modem (US Robotics), and up until last week could connect at 45.2K or 49.5K. I wasnt too bothered about trying to figure out why I couldnt get the full 56K out of the box (anyone know why?). Anyway, towards the end of last week, I couldnt even connect to the Internet....wayyyyy too much static and noise on the line. So I phone Telkom, and tell them about the problem. They tell me someone will attend to it. Friday afternoon I try again, and the line is crystal clear (still only connect at 49.5K), so I phone to thank them for sorting it out. The guy I speak to tells me they were working on it on Friday, but werent finished yet, and would finish the next day. Saturday afternoon, and the line's worse than it was originally. I phone on Monday morning and they tell me that they closed the call unresolved because they couldnt get hold of me.

They reopen the call, and now my line is clear, free of static, but back with that echo. ie, they've just put me onto Fibre Optic again. My connection speed is not 33.6 if I'm lucky, but more often 31.2K. I phoned Telkom last night and asked them to ask the technician that attended to the call to phone me, and I'm still waiting.

Surely FibreOptic should be able to support a connection of 56K ? Surely there are others in the Randburg/Craighall area who have had similar problems, but have then been able to connect to internet at 56K (over Fibre Optic) ? I have tried both MWEBs and ISs connection POPs, which should be capable of accepting a 56K connection.

any ideas?
 
Sorry but you'll never get full 56kb, actually wait I have seen it happen before but not likely. Youre already getting very good speeds for dial-up, even in the states they can only connect at 53kb on dial-up, something to do with limits placed by something.. not very helpfull I know
 
Thanks.
I have since spoken to the technician who explained to me that the copper wire part that i had on my line in the exchange box was faulty, so had to be replaced, and that's why he put me onto fibre. he said he'd get a new part and replace it the next day (yesterday). i took his phone number so that i'd be able to phone him 2 or 3 days later to remind him about replacing the part and switching me back over to copper......

Imagine my surprise when i got hom last night, picked up the phone and heard a crystal clear brrrrrrrrrrrrrr, with no echo, and no static. He'd remembered to get the part, and had done as he'd said he would, so I phoned him and thanked him.

Connected at 49.5kbps last night..... debating whether to try do a firmware upgrade on my modem to upgrade to V92, as it's just V90 at the moment I think. Will this increase connection speed does anyone know?
 
Was happily getting an average of 50.1k before I moved, with an internal modem in my new Dell. :p

However, now I don't even have a phone line yet! Apparantly none available! :mad:
 
The quality of the telephone line and exchange is also important, you cannot expect any modem to function decently on a bad line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X