Modem, ISP or telephone line

[illflem]

I've been getting a lot of disconnects lately, what happens is pages start loading slowly before it happens. Right before it actually disconnects I hear a lot of activity on the hard drive. ISP says everything on their end is fine, but of course they'd say that. This is getting frustrating,help. DSL isn't availible is my area and never will be.

 

[Don M]

When I am in Idaho I do not have a DSL or Cable choice either. The fastest I could ever connect was 28. 8kbps. It is agonizing to say the least.

When in Dallas I can get faster than T1 speeds on the cable modem and almost that speed with the DSL.



Your right the smaller communities will never see DSL or cable. Cable has actually been halted for a time anyway. No new subscribers for awile.



Could you give me some more info on your problem?



System type, modem type, operating system, distance from ISP,

normal connection speeds, is your voice grade line you connect with generally static free when you talk on it? What type of modem does the ISP use to serve you with? There are many settings that can help in that area as well.



Don~

 

[BigMike]

I think you have a problem with your hard disk. I'd get some help before it's too late or just go ahead and replace it now. They aren't too expensive.



I had the exact same problem last year. Went back and forth with Dell and my ISP. Each accused the other as the source of the problem. Guess what. ISP was right. Eventually my hard disk crashed and I lost everything. Dell replace hard disk under warranty and that solved my problem. Word to the wise: Back up your data. It's very painful to have to rebuild everything.

 

[Ram4Sam]

Dishnetwork/starband

Check this out. It seems a little pricey but might be a good way to go if you are out in the boonies.



http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/promotions/starband/index.shtml



Sam

 

[NETim]

HD utilities

illflem,

I assume that you are burdened with some variant of MS OS on your PC. If this is so, do you regularly run "scandisk" and "disk defrag" on your system. (As in weekly?) With Win98 or ME it is possible to have the system scheduler run these disk utilities at preset times. That way it gets done at opportune times, i. e. , during the middle of the night, so that you aren't inconvenienced by their execution.



Also, it may be worth your while to pick up another modem and install it. They are relatively inexpensive and this should help point you in the right direction.



Also, I've found that you just have to shut these WinOS's down once in awhile. They sort of "clog up" after awhile. Sorta symptomatic of poorly written code IMHO.



Good luck,



Tim

 

[socal_rattler]

First off I agree with NETim... before you buy a new disk, make sure the one you have has plenty of available space and is defrag'ed.



Before you defrag, also check that your browser disk cache is empty. For simplicity's sake, this means every time you pull up a web page, a copy of it and the images is stored on your hard disk... needless to say, this can get rather large over time. There are buttons in Netscapeand IE that allow you to clear it out.



On Netscape, go to Edit, Preferences, then click the + next to Advanced. Click on Cache, and then push the buttons that say Clear Disk Cache (and Clear Memory Cache if you want).



On IE, go to Tools, Internet Options. Click the button that says Delete Files. Check the box that says Delete All Offline Content and then click OK.



After this, Defrag the disk. You probably will have to Defrag move than one time... . the program that comes with Windows does not do a very good job unless you do it multiple times back-to-back.



Lastly, buy more RAM. It's very cheap right now, and it will make an improvement in most anything you do. You cannot have too much RAM with Windows.



Good Luck... .

 

[lschultz]

We live in the country. The fastest ours has ever connected is 16800 kbps and the slowest 12000 kbps. Several months ago it got where it would not connect. They had to replace the modem. We still get disconnected sometimes. It seems like every month I'm calling the phone company complaining about static. They check it and find something crossed somewhere and it clears up till the next time. My daughter tells me that the kids in town that have computers theres connect lots faster than ours. I guess for now thats what you get when you live in the country. I use to have Maint. Wizard run once a week but one of those computer geeks with Best Buy said once a month was find for our house. We have it set up to run like that now.

 

[NETim]

modems

Second thoughts:



Personally, I think that you have a modem going bad or a noisy phone line although it certainly never hurts to "defrag" the disk. This is only good practice, but I don't think that your problems are really caused by the HD.



Replacing the modem would be a good check to split the system in half. You'd know right quick if your present modem is flaky or if you have phone line problems.



At one time Rockwell (or was it 3Com?) had a number to dial up that would run a SNR check on your phone line. Don't know if it's still in operation though or what the number was.



I had a modem go bad that way on me once and it was all that I could do to convince my "buddies" at Gateway that it was bad. Finally the local phone co/ISP loaned me a modem to prove that the modem was indeed the trouble.



One Gateway customer support "technician" once had the audacity to tell me that my phone line was the problem. He could "hear" it. Yeah, the phone connection may have been noisy, but how he could tell that the noise was originating at my end is/was beyond me.



Support like that is the reason I build my own PC's now!



Tim

 

[illflem]

Thanks everyone. Problem (I think) was with the phone line. Phone company said they found a problem with the switching. At least my phone sounds much clearer and I haven't been disconnected for half an hour, before it was happening sometimes every 15 seconds! I do run the Maintenance Wizard automatically once a week, history is kept for only 2 days. Thanks again, not only is this a great site for CTD info, but any computer question I've had has been answered just as fast and expertly.

 

[Benson]

NETim,



Do you find that you save much by building your own PC? I was considering doing that for my next one. (Hopefully soon). Thought it might be a little fun (challenge) as well as save a buck or two.



Benson

 

[Morphious]

I have built many pc over the years, yes, it is cheaper, but can be a nightmare for the unknowing. Driver problems for hardware, etc. I have two PC's, one is a Dual Processor with 500mhz celerons overclocked to 550's, 20gig hard drive, CDR, Zip, 32meg Voodoo vid card and 768 megs of ram. I have around 1000. 00 in it. The other is a single processor with a 650mhz AMD with 128 megs of ram, 30gig hard drive, CD, and 64meg Vid Card. I have about 600. 00 in it. If you are going to build your own, the best source for the cheapest prices are a website called pricewatch.com.



Morph.

 

[QRTRHRS]

We can't get caller ID or many other phone enhancements where I live but they did update the cable with fiber optic not long ago. We were getting pretty tired of getting dumped off the phone lines or not being able to dial in at all due to traffic. About that time the cable company offered the modem. No complaints but not cheap either. I think it runs 40 bucks a month including modem rental. Lightning took out the modem this summer so the rental worked for us. It's not as fast as the T1 connection I have at work but sure beats 56k.

 

[merryman]

And all along I thought this site was for english speaking people!!



Vaughn

 

[Papa Joe]

Vaughn, I know what you mean.

These goofballs are talking about more Ram in the computer. That's stupid. They mean put the computer in the Ram, right?

 

[NETim]

Building PC's

The main reason that I build my own PC is to get EXACTLY what I want in my PC, i. e. , the hardware.

For most users though, it's pretty hard to beat just buying a system from Sam's or whatever.



I sometimes end up with "leftovers" from a system upgrade or whatever on a CT and somehow this hardware, destined for the trash heap, ends up in a PC in my basement. Got some screaming ultra-fast ultra wide LVD 9GB SCSI disk drives this way.



Also I have been so disappointed in the tech support offered by the PC manufacturers. They just don't impress me, so why buy it?



And finally, there's the satisfaction of "doing it yourself". (What else it new?)



Tim

 

[Newf Limo]

illflem

I can't find your actual e-mail address. If you are using AOL, I can assure you that getting "kicked off" is a way of life. You would be wise to subscribe to someone that uses "outlook express" (for e-mail) and microsofts "internet explorer" for your internet access. AOL uses there own software that operates on top of windows that rides on top of an underlying operating system. MAC's language is there operating system, thus MAC is an all around more stable system, something I wish I knew before I got involved with PC'S. AOL and similar companies cause alot of errors which inturn cause lock-ups and getting kicked off. Also, your modem settings may be set too high for your phone lines capability causing a bottleneck resulting in getting kicked off. I used to have Media One Road Runner at 170K+ and man was it fast! Now I live in Rim Forest (pop. 400 Woo Hoo!) and am back to a 56k modem connecting at an average of 53. 3k. I did have to take my computer in to my local computer man and luckily they are also my internet provider. They set my modem to match their service and I seldom get kicked off now. If you are on a long down-load make sure your screen-saver and power-saving features are turned off. Do you get cable TV in your area? If so, push them to upgrade to fiber optic lines. Cable is fast and stable and always on. Satellite isn't all that fast and it is expensive. As much as my Dish Network t. v. signal hunts for satellite signals and pixelates digital signals, I wouldn't waste my money on it. If I can't get dependable T. V. reception I probably won't trust my computer to them. Maybe in a couple years. Hope there is something here you can use I may have been rambling, Sorry

 

[Doc Tinker]

Good! I'm glad something is slowing down illfem's posting. Now maybe I'll have a chance to catch him in the post counts.







Doc

 

[klenger]

I like the upgradeability (is that a word?) with the generic or do-it-yourself computers. They are not necessarily any cheaper to buy the first time, but you don't need to replace them as often because you can upgrade them. Plus, you can fix them because you know how they were built. You also can install only the software you want, and not get all the other crap the computer companys want to install, line AOL, ...

 

[Doc Tinker]

illfem. . Back before I got cable internet, I soldered my house phone lines to the line from the pole, to reduce line noise, which slows down transfers. I also ran a single line from the modem to the line off the pole, no plugs on the wall, etc. I never acheived 56k but I was in the high 30s. Another slowdown is the distance you are from the switching station. In the boonies, you'll probably be lucky to get 28. 8



Another issue is poor modem performance. US Robotics seems to be the Cadillac of modems, but unless your ISP is using compatible modems, your speed transfer will suffer.



You can get updated modem drivers and strings from the manufacturer of your modem on their web site. Sometimes the new drivers or modem strings will help squeeze a little more speed from your ISP.



Doc

 

[illflem]

Doc, I replaced the line from the box to my computer before I called the phone company, know they would try to blame it on my wiring, didn't help. My work provided home was an office before I moved in, has a phone box about 2 ft square with hookups for forty lines, many of them still live. This allowed me to try another line, which worked fine. Telephone company is just like everyone else trying to pass the buck, unless you trouble shoot it yourself they blow you off. No AOL for me, I had to get rid of my first computer just to get them out of it, now using Earthlink.