Modem Speed

[David Miner]

Hi All,

I have a ThinkPad A31p with a 1.7 P4, 512 RAM, and an Agere AC'97
modem, connecting almost always at 45.2. It generally downloads files
at around 1.5 - 2.5. Is that slow? And if so, has anyone got
suggestions as to how to speed it up? TIA.

 

[John Barnett - MVP]

Yes it is slow but, in most cases, the problem lies with
the download server traffic and not your modem.
Basically, the more people downloading from the same
server, the slower it is going to be. To take an example.
I live in the UK. I have a normal dial up connection that
connects at around 48kbps. If i try to download from the
Microsoft site at say, Midnight UK time I can usually
guarantee a download of around 3.5-4.0kbps. The reason?
Most of America are online. Now if i change my strategy
and start downloading at say, 7.30am UK time I can
increase my speed from around 5.0 to 7.5kbps. This,again,
is because most of the US have logged off.
You also need to take into account what sites you are
downloading from. If you are downloading popular
utilites/software etc the site will obviously be busy,
resulting in a low transfer speed.
The solution, as far as the telecom companies are
concerned, is go for broadband. Ok, that's fine if you
need it. I don't, so the other option is, download at a
quieter period.

Hope this helps

John Barnett - MVP
Associate Expert

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Find out what your ISP has on their end. If yours is doing v.90 and
theirs is doing 56Kflex (or vice-versa) you won't connect any faster
than about 40-something.

The best is to get an ISP that's doing v.92 and get yourself a real
modem; like an external v.92. They are only slightly more expensive than
the internal winmodems but they are much easier to configure, work with
any OS and don't hog CPU time. Winmodems are not true modems, they are
telephone interfaces to the cpu. I realize this is an inconvenience when
dealing with a laptop so it's your call. But at least get your modem
matching your ISP's. There are v.92 modems available for laptops, too.
Not sure if there's one for yours but look into it.

Phone line conditions will also affect connections speeds so you might
ask your Telco to test your lines for you. In the US they usually do
that for free. Try substituting your phone cable, too. Sometimes they
get flakey.

I got tired of slow connections and bought an external v.92 modem,
connected fairly consistently at 52K. Then my ISP upgraded their modem
pool to v.92 and now I connect at 115K ! Not to make you jealous or
anything, just ot let you know that dailup technology has gotten better
in the last couple of years.

Good luck
Steve

 

[dev]

Steve Nielsen said:

David Miner wrote:

Find out what your ISP has on their end. If yours is doing v.90 and
theirs is doing 56Kflex (or vice-versa) you won't connect any faster
than about 40-something.

The best is to get an ISP that's doing v.92 and get yourself a real
modem; like an external v.92. They are only slightly more expensive than
the internal winmodems but they are much easier to configure, work with
any OS and don't hog CPU time. Winmodems are not true modems, they are
telephone interfaces to the cpu. I realize this is an inconvenience when
dealing with a laptop so it's your call. But at least get your modem
matching your ISP's. There are v.92 modems available for laptops, too.
Not sure if there's one for yours but look into it.

Phone line conditions will also affect connections speeds so you might
ask your Telco to test your lines for you. In the US they usually do
that for free. Try substituting your phone cable, too. Sometimes they
get flakey.

I got tired of slow connections and bought an external v.92 modem,
connected fairly consistently at 52K. Then my ISP upgraded their modem
pool to v.92 and now I connect at 115K ! Not to make you jealous or
anything, just ot let you know that dailup technology has gotten better
in the last couple of years.

The 115K is the PORT speed, from modem to CPU, and not the connect speed.
Install the correct .inf file for the modem, and it again may report connect
speed - which is the speed at the time the connection is made.
Renegotiation during the session is common, and it won't report that.

 

[Steve Nielsen]

The 115K is the PORT speed, from modem to CPU, and not the connect
speed. Install the correct .inf file for the modem, and it again may
report connect speed - which is the speed at the time the connection is
made. Renegotiation during the session is common, and it won't report that.

I thought that at first, too, and perhaps you're right, but if that is
the case then explain this:

Before my isp upgraded my dialup speed showed 52K and occaisionally 49K.
I have done nothing to my modem configuration, the correct .inf file is
in place and always has been. I know about serial port speed. Why would
my dialup status suddenly show the port speed instead?

Regardless, my actually transfer rates have effectively doubled, and not
just for web pages and email - ALL data transfers have sped up
signifigantly. I have read up some on v.92 and v.44 PCM upstream
compression. I don't pretend to be an expert of the highest order, but
I'm certainly no novice either. Whatever the reason, it is *much* faster
now.

Steve