ECN Forum Forums Technical Discussion Re: Computers and the Internet Modem Speed?

When DSL and cable modems were very new (and not generally available) some ISPs were offering dual 56K connections via two modems and two regular phone lines for 112 Kb/s. I don't know where this stands today. Diamond refered to this ability as "shotgun technology" (google search for info). If you have two phone lines anyway and can't get DSL this might be an option - make sure your ISP supports it first.

Or you could have a buddy with DSL download the porn for you...

(just kidding, not implying anyone here downloads that filthy stuff...)

Porn on the internet, your kidding.

MAN, Am I having some problems with accessing the Internet today, everything is down to a Snail's pace, I keep getting bumped off with a "cannot find server" message, even though I have been connected three times before to the same server.
Anyone else had this?.

Hey, it's OK now!.
I logged off of the Net and then came back on and then it was back to normal.
Thank God for that!!.

Haven't had any problems the last couple of days.

{VoiceMode = Abe Simpson}
"I remember the days when all we had was a 300bps modem and you spent the first hour dialing and just getting a busy signal...."

Good one, Paul!.
Had a real strange thing happen this morning, went to Dial-up on the Net, to check my e-mails and my Modem would not work.
I figured with the weather being so poor (snow, etc), that there may have been a voltage transient during the night.
In Device Manager, the Modem came up as Inoperative and I was fearing the worst(ie: cooked Modem!)
So I bit the bullet and turned off my computer and took out the Modem and checked it(wearing a Static strap!), it looked OK, so I plugged it back in and put the covers back on, powered the system back up and I was away again, don't know what caused that?.
But the modem hasn't missed a beat since!.
Funny things these computers!.
Have you(or anyone else, for that matter) ever heard of this particular fault before?.
I can tell you, it gave me a half decent fright!.

It might have been dirt or oxidation on the contacts. Just pulling the board and re-installing would wipe the contacts clean. Just a possibility.....

I actually re-formatted my Winchester drive and re-installed everything on this system a couple of days ago. This computer doesn't have a "real" modem -- It's one of those "everything's done by the driver software" jobs.

Well, I had Windows98 on here before, and I could usually connect at around 42 to 44k. I decided to dump 98 and re-install Windows 95, and what do you know? I can now connect at 56k every time!

Trumpy,

If that loss of hardware situation ever happens again, try performing a "Warm Reboot" first, and see if the problem "goes away" once the machine has been rebooted.

If that does work, you may be looking at a failing power supply or DRAM holes.
The machine attempts to display a "blue screen of death", but for some reason it doesn't... only the hard error has still occured! Stumbled across that one maybe 3 times on troubleshoots for clients.

Another thing could be IRQs stepping on each other.

If warm booting does not do any good, try a 10 minute shutdown. Instead of rebooting, bring the machine down in a normal fashion, and leave it off for about 10 minutes.
If that works (hardware is seen again after reboot), then heat is causing a bus connection to lose contact.
If that's the case, move the adapter (card) to another bus slot. Also examine the adapter's contacts to see if there are any lifted segments.
If problem persists, replace the adapter.

If it's not a heat, adapter or IRQ problem (or any kind of PnP conflict / loose jumpers / etc.), or anything caused by a windows application, then you get to dive into core malfunctions! How fun!@!@!@! ( *!@#% ).

Good luck!

Scott35

Paul,Scott,
Thanks heaps for the advice.
I'm just hoping that it is not going to become a recurring thing.
Scott,
How is a Warm Re-boot done (or a Hot or a Cold one,too, for that matter)?.

In Windows, Start -- Shut down -- Restart system should reboot, but of course the system has to actually be running to a certain extent for that to work!

The IBM-PC has always used Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot (i.e. hold both Ctrl & Alt while pressing Del). On A Windows system, the first Ctrll-Alt-Del should bring up a box indicating the different processes running, and you need to do a second Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot.

If it doesn't do anything, the system's well and truly crashed.....

You can also do a hard reset without powering down if you have the appropriate switch wired to the motherboard, but most modern systems don't bother to provide one.