Any ways to make dial-up internet faster???

[bullion416]

I am running win xp pro and have a local dial-up internet provider. I am using a 56k V.90 modem. Are there any tweaks I can do to speed up my internet (downloads & web page load time)?

 

[Fatt]

The only option you have is multilink.

If you have an ISP that supports it and you don't mind paying double the price.

 

[Soybomb]

Make sure you have a quality modem like a USR serial or a lucent software modem. From what I've seen the soft modems based on the rockwell chipset aren't quite as good performance wise. Be sure your phone lines are in top quality with no noise. Turn off images in your web browser Its still going to be slow no matter what though, no magic fix.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Soybomb
Make sure you have a quality modem like a USR serial or a lucent software modem.

Yes, quality (aka non-Creative Labs "Modem Blaster") hardware modems are IMHO the best, with Lucent-based software PCI modems coming in somewhere close to next. The Lucent chipsets are also decently supported in Linux (and I believe FreeBSD has preliminary support as well); of course all external hardware modems will work perfectly in Linux, as they do not need any OS-dependent drivers.

From what I've seen the soft modems based on the rockwell chipset aren't quite as good performance wise.

Never dealt with any myself, but from what I've heard from other people, I have no reason to believe you're wrong.

Be sure your phone lines are in top quality with no noise.

The most you can do about that is to make sure that the wiring inside your house is up to par. The rest of it is the phone company's responsibility, and they don't give a **** as long as you can make phone calls (they are not required to make the lines work well for modems, AFAIK).

Turn off images in your web browser Its still going to be slow no matter what though, no magic fix.

Yes. Also, check out an ad filter, like Proxomitron. It will allow you to disable flash animated ads and annoying bandwidth-eating background popups, among other things; these will make the web feel a lot "snappier" for those who are stuck on dialup.

 

[txxxx]

Try reducing MTU size to 576, might help on re-transmissions.