'Beefing up' that dial-up connection...

Discussion relating to Socket 7 hardware.
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How do you connect to the internet?

56K Dial-up
1
13%
ADSL/DSL
4
50%
ISDN
0
No votes
Cable
3
38%
Satellite
0
No votes
University LAN etc.
0
No votes
Other...
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 8

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tazwegion
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'Beefing up' that dial-up connection...

Post by tazwegion »

Living in the country has it's advantages, but internet access definitely is NOT one of them as I'm 15Kms from the nearest telephone exchange, ADSL is not an option for me neither is cable for that matter (20Kms from town).

I purchased a Rockwell/Lucent based 56K modem 3 years ago, since then I've tolerated poor throughput & access times thinking that I'd done all that was physically possible @ my end...

Recently our ISP tested our line & modem (from their end) informing us that the line was perfectly free from noise and hence should support 56K speeds, the same test also noted that out modem was stuggling to maintain 31,200 bps and was contiunally 're-negotiating' with the host server for higher speeds :(

Using the on-line internet speed tests available @

http://homepage.eircom.net/~leslie/testpage.htm

http://www.zdnet.com.au/broadband/speedtest.htm

it was determined our throughput was in the vacinity of 500 -> 1100cps even less than a 14,400bps connection which I had read was considered good (by the Telco's) 15Kms plus from an exchange... I figured it was time to act!

Climbing under the house in the (2-3 foot high) crawl space (spider central :P) I traced the modems source line back to the original access point, to my suprise it also had 3 other lines, 2 of which I traced to nothing and so were promptly disconnected, next the junction box (see below) was re-routed to allow for minimal cable runs.

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Next we down-graded our modem to a spare Rockwell 33600 bps unit after noting a slight increase in speed, but that the 56K modem was still struggling @ 32100bps... to our surprise @ 24,600bps our thoughput jumped by 100% to 2400cps+ speeds (remember 15k from exchange) life is so much easier now, downloads, on-line gaming etc. :D

Kinda' leaves you wondering what speeds would be possible with a non-suspect 56K modem? however I guess sometimes less IS more :?
Last edited by tazwegion on Thu Dec 15, 2005 9:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jim
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RE: Beefing up that dialup com

Post by Jim »

Man, I owe you an apology on those picture sizes. What size do you prefer? File size (###Kb) Pixels (###x###).
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tazwegion
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RE: Beefing up that dialup com

Post by tazwegion »

Huh? what'd'ya mean apology? :P

Ummm... the size above is 400 x 300 pixels (120Kb) seems to be a browser friendly size :lol:

Did I mention there's a lot of spiders under the house? man I can't abide spiders in close proximity! :busy

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tazwegion
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RE: Beefing up that dialup com

Post by tazwegion »

Just a quick update... having recently changed ISP's to the physical owner of the lines we were using before (leased), a strange improvement has been noted in access/dial-up speeds and are now enjoying 28,800Bps 'actual throughput' speeds...

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I guess all that's left to do now is experiment with a different 56K modem, but being as far as we are from an exchange, I suppose I shouldn't get too greedy... after all the ISP's promised to roll out cable this way in the next 2-6 months :twisted:
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Super_Relay
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Post by Super_Relay »

thats still pretty nasty speeds.

have you considered isdn, Telstra installed the equipment in nearly every exchange back in the day and should be better in the speed department

also, you want to be carefull messing with those phone lines under your house. Telstra will throw a $10,000 fine your way for even looking at them funny, let alone touching them if you dont have a licence
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tazwegion
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Post by tazwegion »

Ah it's all good... my friend has a cabling (& telecommunications) licence ;)

Hmmmm... ISDN was enabled some time ago true, but AFAIK Telecom never leased that facility to any other carriers/service providers, I have only recently swapped over to BigPond (ISP) as a stop gap between having iPrimus (dial-up) and BigPond's broadband service, but thanks for reminding me, I'll nick over to their site and check out the ISDN options :D

As for the 'cruddy' speeds, they don't look too shabby when you've been forced to make do with 14,400 performance over a 30 y.o. copper line (that itself could do with an overhaul) and as for that $10,000 fine... whomever installed the previous telecommunications cabling system under the house should be the ones liable, talk about a dog's breakfast :roll: I've never before seen bare telephone lines laying in the soil (under a house) and no doubt they were the cause of line degredation & noise experienced previously (especially during the damp weather) ;)
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DonPedro
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Post by DonPedro »

taz,

how long is the cabling from the modem to the access point?

a friend of mine has the same low speed with an 56k-modem. the reason is simple: the cable from the modem to the plug in the wall is about 20m long (crossing 2 rooms). I asked him to check what happens if he (for testing purpose) moves his pc-equipment to the room where he connects to the telephone line and there he should use a cable as short as possible. he did, used a 2m cable and immediately got 48000bbs ....
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tazwegion
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Post by tazwegion »

The (direct) connection line from the main access point is approximately 22ft (5-6 metres) and doesn't run through any other junction point(box), while the modem-to-phoneline cable is approximately 1 metre (3ft) ;)
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super_relay

Post by super_relay »

Ah it's all good... my friend has a cabling (& telecommunications) licence
Haha cool

i dont think i know anybody who hasnt dicked with their phone line at some point, it would just have been remiss of me to not mention it. :)

i think there are some other isps offering isdn services theres probably a good comparison of the options at http://www.whirlpool.net.au
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tazwegion
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Post by tazwegion »

LMAO :lol: yeah... he got it when they were begining to 'roll out' the cable lines for TV etc. back in the day, looking back I shoulda' done it too ;)
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