This is wierd - funky modem question...

[Greenwald]

What do pro's make of this?

Working on my folks old Packard Bell (yeah I know..). It was a Win 95 machine. I reformatted the drive and installed Win98 SE. Trying to get increase their modem speeds. It has almost always connected @ 28.8K since new and very rarely @ 31.2K (has 56K USR modem). I always figured it was just their connection. I bring it home to my place and bingo it connects at the same slow speed (I always connect between 46.6K - 51K). After updating to Win98SE and new drivers, still the same 28.8 speed. I put in a new non-win modem and still the same. I pull the fairly new PCI modem from my computer that I know is pretty fast (for a modem), stick it in, and still the same 28.8, never more. So, we have at least two other modems that are known to be good (and fast) that are all connecting at the same speed as the original. Is there some other setting besides the ordinary control panel modem speed settings that would be holding the connection speed back? Need bios update? Prefer not to mess with the bios if I don't need to. Everything else works great. What should I do?

Thanks in advance

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by: Greenwald
What do pro's make of this?

Working on my folks old Packard Bell (yeah I know..). It was a Win 95 machine. I reformatted the drive and installed Win98 SE. Trying to get increase their modem speeds. It almost always connects @ 28.8K and very rarely @ 31.2K (has 56K USR modem). I figured it was their connection. I bring it home to my place and it connects at the same slow speed (I always connect between 46.6K - 51K). After updating to Win98SE and new drivers, still the same 28.8 speed. I put in a new non-win modem and still the same. I pull the fairly new PCI modem from my computer, stick it in, and still the same, never more. So, we have at least two other modems that are known to be good (and fast) that are all connecting at the same speed as the original. Is there some other setting besides the ordinary control panel modem speed settings that would be holding the connection speed back? Need bios update? What should I do?

Thanks in advance

Sounds like an ISP/line noise issue. All the modems are negotiating down to a safe speed.. Don'y know what more you can..

 

[Greenwald]

The thing is, I take the modem back out, stick it in my PC and bingo, I'm back on at 46K-51K. Seems wierd that all the modems that work fine in my other PCs don't work well in this machine. It was slow in win 95, and now in win 98se. It's set for 57K at the control panel. What in this machine would hold back the modem speed? Thanks in advance.

 

[Baronz]

My old USR external modem was troublesome, it would never connect above a certain speed (24.6) when other modems would go as fast as my line would allow (38-42). I flashed, tried countless different drivers for it and tweaked every setting yet could not get it to work at higher speeds. So this may be the reason the USR wont connect faster at your place.

Since your parents' line cant go over 28.8 with any modem, i would say its just the limitation of the line, most likely noise or old or faulty lines to the pole. Usually no matter what settings you have, you should get close to as fast as you can go.

edit: I must have mis-interpreted what you said about the USR modem. Nevermind what I said

 

[Greenwald]

Actually what I am basically saying is that on my line here at my house, my PC always gets on fast (for a modem), but my folks computer gets on slow even on my line, even if I install two modems from my PC that in my computer connect fast. So, it's something to do with their PC. Are there any hidden settings beyond the Control Panel that would hold back the connection speed? The bios wouldn't affect it, would it? I shipped with a 56k modem.

Thanks for the help

 

[DannyBoy]

Are you connecting to the same ISP everytime?

Get back to me


dan

 

[Yomicron]

First set the maximum speed to 115200bps.

Are there any IRQ/DMA/COM conflicts?

I don't have access to a 9X machine right now, so I can't check this, but I would suspect it has something to do with the COM port settings.

 

[Greenwald]

Thanks for the tips,

Yep, same ISP, same phone line, even same modem in two cases. I thought by updating to Win98SE might help solve the problem. Different modems didn't make any difference either. Still gets on at 28.8. Not all modems were plugged in the same socket. Two were ISA, one was PCI. I haven't noticed any IRQ conflicts, but what specifically would I look for? No yellow/red marks in Device Mgr. Can someone shed some light on what I might look for in COM Port settings? One thing I notice is that when the connection actually reaches my ISP, it takes quite a bit longer than my other computer to get through. Any help appreciated, this is driving me nuts!

Thanks

 

[dszd0g]

Greenwald, mind posting what your COM and dial-up (other than username, phone number, etc. ) settings are?

As far as one computer taking much longer than the other, does one computer have "log on to network" enabled and the other doesn't? Or are you referring to the negotiation tones?

 

[cobo]

My understanding is that if the modems don't have a hardware controller chip (which could be the case even if they are called "non-win" or "hardware based" or are in ISA slots) then the cpu has to run some software drivers to do some of the modems usual work and this would slow things down on an older, less powerful machine.

All of the controller based internal modems I know of have jumpers on them for setting the COM port and IRQ.

Most of the controller-less modems I've seen specs for require at least a 200 to 266 Mhz CPU (depending on modem model) to function at 56k.

A-Open Controllerless Modem FAQ
Winmodems are not modems
Differences-controller-based & others

 

[dszd0g]

Originally posted by: cobo
My understanding is that if the modems don't have a hardware controller chip (which could be the case even if they are called "non-win" or "hardware based" or are in ISA slots) then the cpu has to run some software drivers to do some of the modems usual work and this would slow things down on an older. less powerful machine.

All of the controller based internal modems I know of have jumpers on them for setting the COM port and IRQ.

You are working with some old controller based modems. Most of the newer ones I've worked with are entirely plug and play. In addition, Greenwald said he tried a non-Winmodem and it still had the issue. I am curious what internal non-Winmodem he was using, as 99% of internal modems these days are controllerless or controller-based. Even the US Robotics (3com) Performance Pro is controller-based.

Back to the original issue and to make sure I am following what is going on. You have tried:

1) Swapping a known good modem of a different brand and chipset into the same computer (Eliminating bad modem possibility and reducing driver compatibility as the issue).

2) Used a different computer hooked up using the same phone cord, wall jack, and one of the same modems: this worked with out issues. (Eliminating phone cord, phone line, and loose connection)

3) Brought the computer to a different location with a known good phone line and cord: the same problem occurred.

If this was just occuring with one modem, I would ask you to make sure it was not a 56KFlex or other non-standard 56K type modem. Otherwise it would fall back to 33.6 or 28.8 when connecting to a modem of a different 56K type.

What type of modems have you tried?