Lucent Win Modem Connection Speed Varies Greatly

[izzaguf]

Recently my 56k Lucent winmodem's (Win98se)connect speed has varied greatly. Was consistently 46.6 now anywhere below to 19.2.

My laptop consistently connects at 44 on the same phone line. Just installed the latest winmodem drivers and changed out the phone cable to no avail.

Any ideas?

 

[JennITChick]

Do you happen to have another modem you can swap out in that computer? Can you move the modem to another slot and see if it helps? Jennifer Sigman
Unemployed again

 

[izzaguf]

Jennifer:
Thanks for responding. I do not have another internal modem. Any ideas about what I might buy if I go for it?

I do have an external USR Sportster but have not been able to get it to communicate with the computer!? Do you think it might be because I still have the winmodem installed too?

Ron

 

[JennITChick]

The external one not responding could be about half a dozen things... what operating system are you running? I could never get one of those to respond on a Windows NT machine.

I'd just be leary of buying a new modem if that's not what you need. Can you move the modem to another slot on the motherboard? Jennifer Sigman
Unemployed again

 

[JennITChick]

The external one not responding could be about half a dozen things... what operating system are you running? I could never get one of those to respond on a Windows NT machine.

I'd just be leary of buying a new modem if that's not what you need. Can you move the modem to another slot on the motherboard? Jennifer Sigman
Unemployed again

 

[fluxvoovoo]

Be sure to go to the lucent site and download the very latest drivers for that modem. As far as winmodems go, lately I've installed quiet a few INTEL modems in new machines with very good results. And they are inexpensive.

 

[izzaguf]

I did download the latest winmodem drivers to no avail.

I am using win98se.

I think the next step should be to put the existing modem in another slot and see if that changes anything.

Can you have more than one working modem in a machine at a time and have them work (assumes they are set up correctly)?

Thanks, all.

Ron

 

[jonhiker]

You can have more than one modem, just make sure you get them on different com ports.
Have you tried removing the Lucent, then reinstalling it? I also mean pulling it from the slot, blowing it out, and putting it back in. You can use either the original drivers or the newest you've downloaded

 

[izzaguf]

I took the advice of you-all and took out the modem, blew it and slots off, and reinstalled it in a different slot.

So ........ far, it looks good. Four connects at almost exactly the speed I expect. Not a good sample, however, and I will keep my fingers crossed for some time.

Thanks all. (you may hear back from me if this fix does not work <g>.

Ron

 

[cdogg]

Ron,
Also, Winmodems are cheaper than other standard modems because they use &quot;software&quot; emulation to perform some of their tasks. What does that mean for you? Well, emulation requires more of the CPU and system resources. More expensive modems have hardware on-board to perform these same functions without disturbing your system.

Now, if you have a fairly fast PC (500MHz or higher), then Winmodems usually aren't a problem. However, you also mentioned that you have Win98 which suffers from memory leaks. The longer you leave your system running, the worse it gets. SO it might be that you are seeing this problem after leaving your system on for long periods of time.

You'll want to reboot the system at least once or twice a day to help ensure that's not your problem...


~cdogg

&quot;The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.&quot;
- A. Einstein

 

[izzaguf]

cdogg:

Thanks for the very useful info about win98 and winmodems.
I do have a fast machine, so bleeding off some cycles isn't too much of a problem. However, I notice that after a period of time, I sometimes lose communication with my laser printer. I have been thinking this might have something to do with the machine going to sleep and then not bringing everything back correctly!?

In any case, the modem seems to be working OK again (hope this isn't just a false positive result.)

Thanks to all for their help.

Ron