Bill gave you the facts on the connection speed, no prob. However,
regarding your phone line....there are a myriad of possibilities. How far
are you from the Central Office that provides your dial tone?? If a number
of miles, you may be behind a Subscriber Loop Carrier (SLC), in which case,
28.8 is about as good as you are going to get, unless, you can talk the
phone company into cutting your line over to solid copper and conditioning
the line for data (that will probably cost you more than it is worth). If
you are fairly close to the Central Office and having slow connects, it
could be anything from faulty wiring or equipment in your home, to a problem
on the cable pair. If you have a Network Interface (the gray box for the
phone line outside your house), you can use a long phone cord and plug
directly into the phone line through this interface (all the phones in your
house will be dead while doing this)......if your connection speed jumps up,
you should try unplugging everything that is connected to the phone line
inside the house, including cable tv boxes, surge protectors, answering
machines, bells, etc. and try again,directly to the connection inside. If
it remains good, then one or more of the items you removed is faulty or
interfering.....if bad again, the trouble is in your wiring or jacks (it
could be a jack, RJ-11, that is not being used, especially one outside or in
a humid area). Look at the contacts, the little gold wires.....if any are
green or black, replace the jack and the associated cord.
If your connection was not any better at the Interface, have the phone
company check your line.....even a small cross, short, ground or 'high' open
can kill your data speed.
Or.....you could get a cable modem, DSL, etc. and do away with dial up!!!
Heirloom, old and love my 5Meg connection
