# What Affects Connect Speed?



## modineg44 (Jun 25, 2002)

I have dial-up unfortunately. Right now it is connected at 16.8. Sometimes it might be as high as 30, but this is rare. I'm using a small local ISP, part of the local phone company. Of course they say it's all my fault. I have two different computers - laptop and desktop in another room. Both have connect speed problems. 

Nancy


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

Dial up speed is affected by every wire from your house to the phone company and every wire from the phone company to your ISP. In rural environment, you most likley on old crappy poorly maintained wires. If your never getting over 30kb then your most likely multiplexed were several people the same wire. Either way there is little you can do.


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## modineg44 (Jun 25, 2002)

Gary in ohio said:


> Dial up speed is affected by every wire from your house to the phone company and every wire from the phone company to your ISP. In rural environment, you most likley on old crappy poorly maintained wires. If your never getting over 30kb then your most likely multiplexed were several people the same wire. Either way there is little you can do.


I used to get much better speed - high 40s. My house is 7 years old. I guess switching ISPs would not help since the wiring will be the same. I was thinking the current ISP may be doing this on purpose in order to get people to switch to their very high priced DSL.  They are the only DSL available in my area & charge $42 a month for the very slowest DSL. Also, they won't guarantee DSL will work in any given area. You have to first buy the equipment, pay the installation fee, & pay the first month. If it doesn't work you are out of luck, except they will let you go back to dial-up. 

Nancy


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## freeinalaska (Jan 21, 2005)

Gary in Ohio is absolutely correct. Every wire in your home and the telco's outside plant effects connect speeds. If the line count for an area grows the telco may very well have used a carrier system and multiplexed your lines. This could explain the drop in speeds from over 40K to under 30K.

One thing to check is to take your laptop out to the NID, the gray connection box on the side of your house, disconnect all inside house wiring, and see what speed you connect. If it's good then your house wiring is the problem. If not the it's the telco problem.


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2007)

I have the same problem with old wiring etc. But since I started using an accelerator, my speed is the equivilent of +100K (I have a 56K modem). Before the accelerator, my speed was less than 20K.

I use this one, $4.95/mo http://www.propel.com/propel_direct/propel_direct.html


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

modineg44 said:


> I used to get much better speed - high 40s. My house is 7 years old.
> 
> Nancy


Your lines may not have been multiplexed before and now they are.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

ladycat said:


> I have the same problem with old wiring etc. But since I started using an accelerator, my speed is the equivilent of +100K (I have a 56K modem). Before the accelerator, my speed was less than 20K.


Accelerators only work in specific cases, video,music,file downloads they dont work, you cant compress a compressed file. They are ok on web pages and email.


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2007)

Gary in ohio said:


> Accelerators only work in specific cases, video,music,file downloads they dont work, you cant compress a compressed file. They are ok on web pages and email.


 I like a page loading in 1 minute instead of 10 minutes. I'm happy with it.


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## Stann (Jan 2, 2005)

You want to get a modem that uses the lastest v.92 protocol (use this for dialups only, of course). There is an associated data compression specification, but I don't remember which is the best. This will definitely give you better connect speed than ~40 baud.

There is a speed (actually protocol) negotiation between modems during the initial connect. To find out what is going on, set the modem "Sound" to ON. Then you can hear it negotiate. In general, if the negotiation sequence is rather extensive, then the modems are "down" selecting to slower modem speeds. As other posters mentioned, it is usually due to older modems on the user end or else it is "noise" on the phone line.

I suggest that you take your laptop, or desktop to another person's house to see if the connect speed at that location is any better (then when fixed, buy a v.92 modem  ).


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

musastan said:


> You want to get a modem that uses the lastest v.92 protocol


It's the v.44 data compression, not the v.92 connect protocol, that gets you the faster speed. Some v.92 modems use the older v.42 data compression, so you have to be careful to get one that has v.44 or you won't get any speed improvement. v.44 is around 5%-10% faster than v.42 -- not a lot, but on dialup, everything helps.


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## jefferson (Nov 11, 2004)

Dust in the air, phases of the moon, everything does something to slow you down. I am on the end of a 30 mile wire and connect at around 20k. But I never see more than 3k as a transfer rate.


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## morrowsmowers (Jun 14, 2004)

Even though your wiring is only about 7 years old at your house, check it over carefully. I have seen wires connected to the outside demarc where water got into the box and corroded the connections. They were repaired and it happened again in less than a years time. Also, look for loose wiring or wires that could be rubbing against metal creating a short to ground.

Ken in Glassboro, NJ


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