The connection speed of your dial-up connection depends on a number of factors. In most cases, a poor or slow dial-up connection speed is caused by two things:
1. The modem in your computer is a Winmodem. Winmodems are inexpensive modems which are notoriously sensitive to phone line noise.
3. Excessive background noise on your phone line or a weak phone signal.
You can have the phone company test your phone lines. Be sure to insist on receiving the results of those tests. Specifically, insist on finding out what the signal to noise (S/N) ratio is on your phone line. In order for your modem to establish a connection around the 56k mark, the S/N ratio must be at least 40db. Anything lower than that will result in a lower speed connection. Anything lower than a 27db S/N ratio will usually result in an unreliable connection.
You can also call the Dell Techies to troubleshoot with you and find out if your connection issues are caused by phone line noise.
You could also purchase a higher quality "controller based" or "hardware" modem for your computer. These may cost as much as $75US. The difference in performance is worth the cost.
BigBrother
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Posted September 28th, 2005 11:00
toolwrnch,
The connection speed of your dial-up connection depends on a number of factors. In most cases, a poor or slow dial-up connection speed is caused by two things:
1. The modem in your computer is a Winmodem. Winmodems are inexpensive modems which are notoriously sensitive to phone line noise.
3. Excessive background noise on your phone line or a weak phone signal.
You can have the phone company test your phone lines. Be sure to insist on receiving the results of those tests. Specifically, insist on finding out what the signal to noise (S/N) ratio is on your phone line. In order for your modem to establish a connection around the 56k mark, the S/N ratio must be at least 40db. Anything lower than that will result in a lower speed connection. Anything lower than a 27db S/N ratio will usually result in an unreliable connection.