Modem difficulties

[110Decibels]

Hi Everyone

I'm fishing for some ideas! I've got a customer who's modem went from connecting at 48kb to 7kb (when it connected at all). It's a Lucent Win Modem on WinXP SP1.

First I ran an Antivirus program (just SOP). I thought it might be a problem with line, so I hooked it to another, separate line. No change.

I then uninstalled the modem drivers and reinstalled them (from driverguide). In the shop, it worked fine. Connected at 46KB. Took it back and hooked it up with the customer. Connected at 48KB.
I thought it was a done deal.

I just got word (3 hours later) that it's back to 7KB!:roll:

Usually when I've had a modem go , it just drops dead. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Harvey]

You ran a virus check, but did you check for spyware? If you've ruled that out, call his ISP's tech support to see if they're having a case of the slows.

 

[110Decibels]

Harvey,

I ran scans for both viruses and malware before starting to work on the modem - more than half the people I do work for don't have any protection and haven't updated to SP2.

I thought it might be an ISP problem, but another computer in the office uses the same dial up number to connect - and its at full speed. I hooked up the problem computer to that line as a test, but it still ran at 7KB.

I guess I'm not completely convinced its a modem problem.

Is there a chance its the surge protector? The phone line runs into and out an old strip.

I think I'll install an old V90 modem I've got here and see if the drop still happens. Can you think of anything else?

Thanks

 

[shot]

It could be the surge protecor. Try doing away with it and see what happens. In my experiences with surge protectors, running a modem through them always screwed up the connection.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: 110Decibels

Is there a chance its the surge protector? The phone line runs into and out an old strip.

I'm betting 99% that it's the surge protector.

If you're getting fluctuation in speeds like that, it won't be due to viruses or malware... they won't affect your actual connection speed, though once you're connected, they could affect your bandwidth itself by using up some of it.

A fluctuation in speed will either be because it's a phoneline issue, or modem drivers (and usually if it's modem drivers, it jumps to increments like 14.4, 33.6, 28.8 etc). Remove the surge protector, and any splitters if there are any. Also shorten the cord if it's like 20' or so.

 

[110Decibels]

Thanks All

This one was too weird. I remove the surge protector and the splitter, and it DROPPED the speed from 30kbps to 7 again (after reinstalling the drivers). Go figure!

Tried the Lucent drivers off of the Compaq site and they bombed (the driverguide drivers were much better)

Well, I dropped a new modem in and it connected at 49.2kbps. It's time for a :beer: and I hope it doesn't drop again. Really thought it'd be the surge or in the line.

Thanks again for the input!