I've recently been getting a chugging feeling with this modem that
came with this computer. I've been using it a few years now and I'm
wondering if it's dying. I've only been connecting at 26.4 k all this
time, but I think that's because of the country "slick boxes" phone
lines. Just lately it's been going down and down like from 24k now
it's at 21.6k. I'm not sure if it's the isp doing it or what but it's
a popular isp and I'm wondering if it's busy isp or something during
the summer. Just I've been reading about failing modems and they say
they might start getting disconnects. I've been like surfing and
it'll disconnect from the isp all of a sudden and me thinking it's the
isp. The modem is a Ambient MD563X-HaM software modem which I think
was old at the time in 2001. The drivers weren't for XP, Win 98 I
think. I downloaded the new drivers for the modem from Intel's site
"Intel took over Ambient". Intel's been still supporting the modem
and has had good updates to V.92 and support with XP and stuff good
drivers just I'm not sure if the modem is working very well anymore.
I must have done 100's of gb's of game demo downloads with the modem
running 48 hrs sometimes, I gave it hell, lol. The ping is increasing
with it now I guess because it's only getting 21.6 k. My previous
computer had a better usr controller modem in it but was the old v.42
compression and I thought I should stick with this newer v.90 one. To
the point.... is it the line..? isp??? or a failing modem??? and if
you guys have any suggestions about some new usr modems or other
brands.

Thanks!!!

"Pete" <nospam@me.nut> wrote in message
newsuhre0dct2iphd3114gkfrth4fmokqkksl@4ax.com...
Hi, oh I take care of this comp I leave about 9 gigs of space for it, I
replaced the video card with a 128 mb one, put the ram to 768 megs so I'm
sure there's more then enough room. I haven't done anything that would have
changed the speed to go from 26.4k to 21.6k. The latency has gotten a bit
worse. It was about 260 ms it's gone up to about 400 ms or so. I'm not one
to make a mess of the system, I always do defrags and I have a surge
protector on the power line and modem. I do anti virus and bot checks, ad
checks, the whole 9 yards. I know software modems are computer ran so I've
checked all that, just it was 26.4k until like last week and I've done
nothing different or downloaded anything major, I leave a good 8 gigs for
the comp.

"Scott" <travel_er81@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:QFlHc.34866$WM5.1732402@news20.bellglobal.com ...
Yeah about 9 or 8 gigs I leave for flexibility room, I'm running a P4 1.4
ghz XP

Oh one last thing, the modem handshake doesn't sound very well. The
speaker sounds funny and it's taking longer to dial-up I looked at the log
once and it said no carrier and then the hardware didn't respond. So um, I
have no idea but I was thinking either I should reinstall the driver or just
replace the modem, which I think it might be but still could be an isp thing
too.

Scott wrote:
EVERYTHING off the line, including any so called phone line surge
protectors. Make a test call. if things improve, start plugging things
back in until the connection degrades again. If you find a defective
device, replace it. If it's still poor when everything is disconnected,
then it's probably a phone line problem. You should be able to hear some
noise on the line, if connections are that poor. For faster connections,
disable all 56k protocols, so the modem doesn't have to waste time
trying to establish a 56k connection, it just starts with V.34. Good luck.


--
Art Jackson W4TOY Owensboro, KY USA
Life is God's open book test. In order to pass,
you must open His book to find the answers.

Thanks for the info, I think it's just the quality of the line, more people
getting on the same lines, must be just background noise possibly so I'll
wait it out. I've listened to it I don't have anything else attached to the
line just the one right in from the damarc box inside and I never bothered
to plug a phone into the modem. I did though listen to the line, sounds
good so, no humming buzzing, hydro line sounding. Now today I just
installed a usr software modem, it went up to 32k, better speeds, just now I
tried gaming on this new one and the gaming ping has gone from like 270ms to
390ms, arghh can't win.

The other modem had awful download speed but better latency, and this one
now has awful latency. The other one was getting worse, speed wise, but
this one argh, going to try to find some v.34 intial strings for it. Better
downloads but gaming, I guess hardware controller is the best huh. I tried
looking for a hardware internal around here, couldn't find even one place
with one available. I see Robotics isn't what it used to be.

Well seeing as though I did get the speeds up, is there anything to help
latency? V.34? Maybe I'll install both, lol!! plug one in for gaming, one
for downloading. Not sure if it would work but I'm thinking about it if I
can't find figure out a string to lower the ping a bit. Well any info would
help if you have it, I got the usr 9660, don't cringe, lol. I was looking
at the performance pro's, like I said couldn't find any....

Thanks!

I mean usr5660a, opps, just very frustrating, solving one thing and the
latency shoots up now. oh well

Hi Pete, I think it's just the phone line quality, oh and my isp says
dial-up connect speeds at 28.8k and download speeds up to 56k so what does
that truly mean then? lol. Well I have 2 modems in the comp now so, lol the
ping was modem based, after seeing the usr's 5660a ping, the ambient's one
looked amazing. Guess I expected too much, and there's net traffic too, I
rushed into things. Just when I saw 21.6k for the ambient from 26.4k I
thought what's going on. I see the usr software modems are even worse so,
I'll stick to gaming with the Ambient HaM one. Now I was reading about from
this site I searched on google, http://www.tcworks.net/inetsupport/problems/
at the bottom it says

FYI: The most common barrier to 56k performance, is the presence of a SLC96
(slick) concentrator in your neighborhood. Telephone companies install a
SLC96 to split up lines in existing phone hubs to add more lines in
high-growth areas. This split nullifies the 56k capability, dropping all
lines down to a maximum V.34 specification. A second barrier occurs when a
phone line is stretched beyond 18,000 feet from a telephone company office,
which is beyond the effective range of the 56k technology. This occurs
primarily in rural areas. Corporate offices that are using PBX systems will
lose 56k capabilities due to line attenuation. Check with the phone company
to see if the above applies in your situation. Another cause could also be
the connectors and wiring in your house.

So I think it's just that thing that's the barrier so, I knew I wouldn't get
more then like 30 k or so, just I was shocked to see it go from 26.4k to 21k
but oh well it might just might have been telephone noise or something. The
usr one does download a bit faster so, I'll just use that one for big
downloads, lol. Too bad my isp doesn't have a multilink or I could be
getting the full 56k. Well thanks for your help, I think I've done what I
can .