V.90 vs. V.92 - some possibly dumb questions

[flatrich]

Hi there, modem experts. I have a minor mystery for yuh.

I bought a nice Gateway in January running XP Pro with a GTW V.92 Voicemodem. I dial in through EarthLink, and from day one I was getting a connection speed of 52.0 Kbps, which is pretty good for a dial-up here in Lost Angeles. My older, V.90 modem never got in above 49 Kbps.

About a month ago, the dial-up number I was using became a busy signal and I went to alternate numbers and my speed dropped to 50.6 Kbps. I haven't been able to get back in at the higher speed since. Here are my possibly dumb questions:

Does this sound like a phone company thing or is this something EarthLink is doing wrong?

Are the speeds we dial-up users get ultimately at the mercy of the phone company or the settings on the incoming provider's modems?

If this is an EarthLink thing, I'd like to bust them for it )

Thanks!

 

[jimbopalmer]

Whining about 50K on a modem, I am sure glad I never have you as a customer.

Every modem connection depends on 3 things: your modem, the modem you call, and the wire you use to connect them.

When you call a phone number at an ISP it serves a bank of modems, so you may not get the same modem you got last call, nor will you get the same wires at their end. BTW any item you may have attached at your end; answering machine, extension, fax machine; can slow your modem. I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[ANFPS26]

I wish I could connect at 50.6. That's amazing for a dialup.
That other telephone number could be working out of another
telephone exchange. This changes the distance and possibly the quality of your telephone cables. I'm having a battle with my telephone company over my computer line. I can't even use it with my computer. When they come out to check it, it has dialtone. That's all they care about. It's so noisey I connect at "4.5" or less. If they don't fix it this time I'm having it disconnected. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

By the way, throughput is more important than connection speed. Here is a link that will test it for you:

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

I have a USR modem that will connect at 40,000 but the throughput is never more than 28,800. So it sucks. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[flatrich]

OK, OK! I promise to stop complaining.

I tried the speed tests.

The first one said I was around 52,000 bps and the second said 46,000 bps. (Does average out to 49,000 - so as I suspected, my real 52.0 is probably gone forever.)

I thought I was the only person in the world without DSL or cable. I guess I should be happy that I'm still not using that old Commodore modem I had in the 80s )

 

[jimbopalmer]

No, LOTS of us are still on modems, some of us are over 50 miles from the CO, so 26.4k connect is exciting, usual is 21.6k I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[ANFPS26]

Im 3 miles from the CO and can't connect faster than 44,000 on the "good" line. The cable between here and there is 75 years old. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[Guest_imported]

I have a 56k Lucent Vin Modem which does not detect sound when running a Fax software. It transfers Data and voice over the internet but does not record sound over the net.

can someone help me
regards
sunny