modem difficulties

[Guest]

Until just a few weeks ago, I was connecting to AOl regularly around 48 to
even 52bps on my XP desktop.
Then I was notified that the access number I was using no longer supports
v.92. So I had to switch to other numbers that supposedly do. Since then,
however, I'm lucky to connect at 40bps. I've reinstalled the modem, updated
the driver(s) and am now using an Agere win modem 8.31 which comes with an
annoying process attached to it so I can hear the handshake through my
computer's speakers. Great. Anyway, I also often get prolonged handshakes,
and the sound during that handshake often "drops out." Does it sound like a
failing modem? P.S. I've also got a laptop which connects just fine using
the same phone lines, so I guess that's not the problem.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

I would say that anything between 40 and 48kbps for a dial up modem is
absolutely fine. I've gone up as far as 50.6kbps but never higher, but i've
also gone as low as 33kbps. It may simply be the amount of traffic on the
phone line (bandwidth) that is causing the problem. The prolonged
'handshakes' may also simply be the delay between your modem connecting to a
free server, particularly at busy periods.
As for the modem handshake noise. Go to Control panel and click on the
Network Connections icon. In the network connection window right click on
your dial up conenction and select Properties. On the general tab of the
properties window you will see a section marked 'connect using'. Click the
Configure button. In the next window look near the bottom of the window and
you will see an option marked 'Enable modem speaker' remove the 'tick' from
this option.
While you are in the properties window make sure that the 'maximum speed
(bps) of your modem is set to 115200. You may find there are higher speeds
available but increasing the speed to a higher level than quoted above may
cause problems.
Finally press ok to exit each window.

 

[Vagabond Software]

Until just a few weeks ago, I was connecting to AOl regularly around 48 to
even 52bps on my XP desktop.
Then I was notified that the access number I was using no longer supports
v.92. So I had to switch to other numbers that supposedly do. Since then,
however, I'm lucky to connect at 40bps. I've reinstalled the modem, updated
the driver(s) and am now using an Agere win modem 8.31 which comes with an
annoying process attached to it so I can hear the handshake through my
computer's speakers. Great. Anyway, I also often get prolonged handshakes,
and the sound during that handshake often "drops out." Does it sound like a
failing modem? P.S. I've also got a laptop which connects just fine using
the same phone lines, so I guess that's not the problem.

At first glance, I would say your winmodem just can't hack the new lines. The prolonged handshake is probably an indication that the winmodem is negotiating a V.90 fallback. V.92 reduces the handshake by "remembering" the line characteristics and bypassing the full line probe. If it does not recognize the line characteristics, it begins the normal V.90 line training with the clearly identifiable *bong* - *bong* sounds.

carl