Different Modem, still not connecting well in XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter casey.o
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casey.o

I've now connected a USR Sportster to my XP computer. It works better
than the old modem (Creative), but it's still much slower than ANY modem
connected to Win98. In Win98, I normally connect at 42 to 48kbs (with a
56K modem). (Except when the ISP is bogged down during peak usage
hours).

Using this Sportster modem, I am at least staying connected, rather than
getting the "spiral of death" after a couple minutes. But, the fastest
connection I have gotten with thsi modem is 36kbs (which is what I have
NOW). After numerous reconnects, I am usually getting 24 to 30kbs. And
I have tried several downloads, in which I'm only getting an average
maximum of about 2kbs. This has caused most downloads to just give up
and quit halfway thru. Although I did mamage to download an 11 meg
file, but it took hours. Yet I just tried to DL a 1.8 meg file and it
refused to go past about .9 megs. I tried 3 times, then gave up.

On Win98, I normally DL from 4kbs and up to as fast as about 7kbs.

Another thing, when I click on the dialer in Win98, it pops up and I can
dial immediately. On XP, the dialer box appears, but it takes about one
full minute before I can click DIAL. Until then, I just see the
hourglass cursor. I dont understand that either.....

I did download a manual for this modem, but it really dont offer much as
far as settings, and was made for Win95, so it's not helping much in XP.
It also does not say how to set the 8 switches on the back of the modem.
I left them as they were set, which is 3 + 8 down, all others are up.

Modem is a USR Sportster model 005686-02. I do have the proper driver
for it. I did remove the old driver I had installed for that Creative
modem.


Any suggestions?
Anyone know how those switches should be set?

Thanks
 
I've now connected a USR Sportster to my XP computer. It works better
than the old modem (Creative), but it's still much slower than ANY modem
connected to Win98. In Win98, I normally connect at 42 to 48kbs (with a
56K modem). (Except when the ISP is bogged down during peak usage
hours).

Using this Sportster modem, I am at least staying connected, rather than
getting the "spiral of death" after a couple minutes. But, the fastest
connection I have gotten with thsi modem is 36kbs (which is what I have
NOW). After numerous reconnects, I am usually getting 24 to 30kbs. And
I have tried several downloads, in which I'm only getting an average
maximum of about 2kbs. This has caused most downloads to just give up
and quit halfway thru. Although I did mamage to download an 11 meg
file, but it took hours. Yet I just tried to DL a 1.8 meg file and it
refused to go past about .9 megs. I tried 3 times, then gave up.

On Win98, I normally DL from 4kbs and up to as fast as about 7kbs.

Another thing, when I click on the dialer in Win98, it pops up and I can
dial immediately. On XP, the dialer box appears, but it takes about one
full minute before I can click DIAL. Until then, I just see the
hourglass cursor. I dont understand that either.....

I did download a manual for this modem, but it really dont offer much as
far as settings, and was made for Win95, so it's not helping much in XP.
It also does not say how to set the 8 switches on the back of the modem.
I left them as they were set, which is 3 + 8 down, all others are up.

Modem is a USR Sportster model 005686-02. I do have the proper driver
for it. I did remove the old driver I had installed for that Creative
modem.


Any suggestions?
Anyone know how those switches should be set?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The bottom of the unit, should have a table explaining
each switch setting. But it does not list the default.

The CD that came in mine, has TECREF56.PDF and it has
switch settings in it. I have a different model than you,
but you can compare these to yours. The switches are
not noteworthy, in terms of performance, so it's not like
flipping the switches will perform a miracle.

******* page 20 TECREF56.PDf *******

Note: If a DIP switch is on, it is down.
If a DIP switch is off, it is up.

Factory
Switch Setting Function
1 OFF Data Terminal Ready (DTR) Override

OFF Normal DTR operations: computer must provide
DTR signal for the modem to accept commands;
dropping DTR terminates a call

ON Modem ignores DTR (Override)

2 OFF Verbal/Numeric Result Codes
OFF Verbal (word) results
ON Numeric results

3 ON Result Code Display
OFF Suppresses result codes
ON Enables result codes

4 OFF Command Mode Local Echo Suppression
OFF Displays keyboard commands
ON Suppresses echo

5 ON Auto Answer Suppression
OFF Modem answers on first ring, or
higher if specified in NVRAM
ON Disables auto answer

6 OFF Carrier Detect (CD) Override
OFF Modem sends CD signal when it
connects with another modem,
drops CD on disconnect
ON CD always ON (Override)

7 OFF Power-on and ATZ Reset Software Defaults
OFF Loads Y0-Y4 configuration from
user-defined nonvolatile memory (NVRAM)
ON Loads &F0 Generic template from
read only memory (ROM)

8 ON AT Command Set Recognition
OFF Disables command recognition (Dumb Mode)
ON Enables recognition (Smart mode)
******* end of page 20 TECREF45.PDf *******

I don't know if you've tried these. Some of these
settings could affect the initialization string.
(The USR is not a WinModem and has a datapump.)

http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-dialup-connection.html

I seem to have a 00568603.inf file, and it could be that it came
from this page. The contents match the OEM3.inf file in my
INF directory, which means that one was installed (some time ago).
I thought I got that some other way, but that's what the breadcrumbs
tell me today.

http://support.usr.com/support/product-template.asp?prod=5686

The datarate between the modem and computer has to be high enough,
to takes bursts of decompressed data. And I think mine is likely
running 115K. I don't remember exactly where that gets set, in
the modem setup dialogs.

Paul
 
The bottom of the unit, should have a table explaining
each switch setting. But it does not list the default.

The CD that came in mine, has TECREF56.PDF and it has
switch settings in it. I have a different model than you,
but you can compare these to yours. The switches are
not noteworthy, in terms of performance, so it's not like
flipping the switches will perform a miracle.

******* page 20 TECREF56.PDf *******

Note: If a DIP switch is on, it is down.
If a DIP switch is off, it is up.

Factory
Switch Setting Function
1 OFF Data Terminal Ready (DTR) Override

OFF Normal DTR operations: computer must provide
DTR signal for the modem to accept commands;
dropping DTR terminates a call

ON Modem ignores DTR (Override)

2 OFF Verbal/Numeric Result Codes
OFF Verbal (word) results
ON Numeric results

3 ON Result Code Display
OFF Suppresses result codes
ON Enables result codes

4 OFF Command Mode Local Echo Suppression
OFF Displays keyboard commands
ON Suppresses echo

5 ON Auto Answer Suppression
OFF Modem answers on first ring, or
higher if specified in NVRAM
ON Disables auto answer

6 OFF Carrier Detect (CD) Override
OFF Modem sends CD signal when it
connects with another modem,
drops CD on disconnect
ON CD always ON (Override)

7 OFF Power-on and ATZ Reset Software Defaults
OFF Loads Y0-Y4 configuration from
user-defined nonvolatile memory (NVRAM)
ON Loads &F0 Generic template from
read only memory (ROM)

8 ON AT Command Set Recognition
OFF Disables command recognition (Dumb Mode)
ON Enables recognition (Smart mode)
******* end of page 20 TECREF45.PDf *******

I don't know if you've tried these. Some of these
settings could affect the initialization string.
(The USR is not a WinModem and has a datapump.)

http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-dialup-connection.html

I seem to have a 00568603.inf file, and it could be that it came
from this page. The contents match the OEM3.inf file in my
INF directory, which means that one was installed (some time ago).
I thought I got that some other way, but that's what the breadcrumbs
tell me today.

http://support.usr.com/support/product-template.asp?prod=5686

The datarate between the modem and computer has to be high enough,
to takes bursts of decompressed data. And I think mine is likely
running 115K. I don't remember exactly where that gets set, in
the modem setup dialogs.

Paul
Click to expand...


Paul, I got the switches set as (above), No real change (#5 was the
only one changed). I have looked at the websites and saved the info to
text tiles. I'll be trying sonme of the suggestions.

But one question. How do I find what driver is installed for the modem?
I dont remember if it asked me for a driver, or installed one from
within XP?

I already had all those drives as well as the ones for Win98 and Win2K
in a folder called (USR drivers) Seems they are pretty universal for
all USR modems (for each OS). I dont know if the one with the -03 at
the end is ALSO for my modem which model is the one with -02 at the end.
(all other numbers the same). Several articles I've read say that the
drivers for Win2000 are different, but I'm dealing with XP, so that dont
matter at the moment.

I just cant remember where to locate the installed driver in XP.....
 
Paul, I got the switches set as (above), No real change (#5 was the
only one changed). I have looked at the websites and saved the info to
text tiles. I'll be trying sonme of the suggestions.

But one question. How do I find what driver is installed for the modem?
I dont remember if it asked me for a driver, or installed one from
within XP?

I already had all those drives as well as the ones for Win98 and Win2K
in a folder called (USR drivers) Seems they are pretty universal for
all USR modems (for each OS). I dont know if the one with the -03 at
the end is ALSO for my modem which model is the one with -02 at the end.
(all other numbers the same). Several articles I've read say that the
drivers for Win2000 are different, but I'm dealing with XP, so that dont
matter at the moment.

I just cant remember where to locate the installed driver in XP.....
Click to expand...

In WinXP, there is an INF folder with files in it.

The "named" ones were put there when Windows was installed.
Things like "mdmusrsp.inf".

When you see one such as "OEM23.inf", the file is renamed
by Windows before being put into that folder. That is to
prevent name collisions. In my case, I knew the modem was 5686
and searched on that string (did a text contents search against
the entire INF folder). I got a hit on OEM3.inf, as it
has the 5686 model number in it. And the file contents, match
that web site I quoted.

If you use Device Manager, it reports the files that the INF
requested to be used. My modem uses "Modem.sys" and "RootMdm.sys",
which are relatively generic files as far as I know. But the
OEM3.inf has things like mapping strings for the Hayes AT
commands. And so the INF file contains most of the magic in this
case.

This appears to be the file in use. And it probably didn't
come on my WinXP CD, and I added it manually and just don't
remember doing it. I remember some detail about an initial
attempt failing, with a claim the modem was an older version
or something. So I may have hunted this down using the web site.

ftp://ftp.usr.com/usr/dl07/00568603.inf

It's the same file as the OEM3.inf one (gets renamed after
it is installed).

If the OS has a configuration dialog, items like this in the
INF tell the OS how to turn on the modem features (via the
init string when dialing). Adding &K1 to the dialing string,
would turn on some compression protocol on the link.

HKR, Settings,Compression_Off,,"&K0"
HKR, Settings,Compression_On,,"&K1"

Paul
 
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