problems with dial up connection

[swatoke]

I live in California and I recently built a computer for a friend in a small town in Wisconsin. After I finished his build I ran several test before I shipped it, Mem86, Prime95 and several bench mark tests. All tests looked good, I kept the computer running for a week using it to surf the Internet, burn CD's/DVD's, made sure there were no problems. I had it hooked up to cable broadband, did not use the 56k modem except to test it to make sure it would dial out and receive data. My freind is having problems with his dialup connection, he has no problems connecting but 26k is about the highest he can connect. He has had several problems with some web sites loading. He has a Gmail account, he can get to his the Gmail login page but it will not except his password. He gave me his login name and password and I have no problem logging in. He can not login to his Windows messenger account. He contacted his ISP and was told that all the telephone equipment in that town is very old and may not be able to connect at anything near 50k. I understand his slow connection may not improve but would a bad line (static or whatever) cause the problems he is having with some web sites and login? He thinks there may be a problem with the computer, I think its the connection since everything was fine here when connected to broadband. Is there any settings I could suggest for him to change on the computer?

His rig

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 3000+
Kingston Hyperx DDR 1gb
Western Digital 120gb hard drive
NEC 16X DVDRW ND-3520a
USRobotics 56k modem
Windows XP Home oem

 

[jadinolf]

I'll just take on the connect speed. The 26K is probably related to the condition of his phone lines, either inside the houes, outside or both. One usually has to live with it.

However, it would not hurt to try another modem, perhaps one of better quality.