im having trouble with my moms computer....when her modem connects at 26.4(stupid rural area!) everything works just peachy, and you can stay online for as long as you want...but when you connect at 28.8, you get to stay connected for about 15 seconds before it drops....so i took the modem out of her computer, put it in mine and everything works fine, regardless of what you connect at...i tried putting my modem in her computer, but i didnt have the drivers, ill get them later and try that....im thinking the phone lines themselves may be corrupting it somehow, any thoughts? i want to try another modem to rule out that the original is bad, which i will do later.

i forgot to add that my computer and my moms use a separate stretch of phone line to get to our outside box which we share.....the outside box has 3 lines running from it...one for the phone in the kitched, one for the phone/computer in my room, one for the computer in my moms office...

Is it a 56k or 28k modem? You may want to make sure the drivers are up to date for the modem [go to device manager, then update driver, and search "Windows Update"].. other than that, try testing the modem in your system, on her phone line. Make sure that is operational.. and other than that, there isn't much else I can think of to troubleshoot.


-justin

Its harder to maintain speed with a poor connection, also ensure your moms settings match your own.

Yes, phone lines can definitely affect speed, including inside wiring. My other advise is to also get a better quality modem. Don't get the $30 special. If you plan on using dial-up for quite awhile, get a good $80-$100 modem.

I've used modems for close to 15 years now, there are distinct differences in quality.

PS Stay away from "Winmodems", modems that use the systems CPU to do a lot of the processing.

Oooooooo.... He said a dirty word!!! Winmodem = CRAP!!

Plus winmodems also don't work on Linux.. or they are tough to get to work .


-justin

In my last house, I replaced all the phone wiring with cat5 all the way back to the phone junction box. Reported modem speeds went from 49333 or something like that to 51200. I dont know exactly what these numbers mean, but as soon as I completed the project, this is what happened. At this house, I can never connect faster than 44000. So line quality makes a difference it seems.

Is there a way to look at the system properties (win9 to make sure I dont have a WinModem?

Hard modems have a BIOS. Also, all external modems are hard modems.


-justin