There are a number of factors which could be preventing
you from getting higher connection speeds. We will try and cover the most frequently
encountered problems and what you may be able to do to help.
Let's just go over a few of the more obvious reasons why
56K wouldn't be working.
1. Your modem doesn't support either the X2 or V90
protocols. Instead it only supports KFlex. In this situation, you would need to obtain a
V90 upgrade from your manufacturer. If you are not sure your modem supports V90, this is
the first thing to check.
2. If your office is on a PBX, you may have problems
getting speeds higher than 28.8 . Many offices use PBX telephone systems, a sort of
electronic receptionist and switchboard. If your office telephone has its own extension,
or if you must dial a 9 to get an outside line, you are probably on a PBX. PBXs are also
common in hotels. It's likely that most PBX systems will prevent 56K modems from working
by introducing extra analog-digital conversions.
NOTE: Large apartment complexes will usually fall into
the same category as the above locations.
3. The connection from the phone line to the modem may be
too poor or degraded for 56 to work. This is referring to anything else which may be in
the line between the modem and the wall jack. Examples of items you should remove while
troubleshooting: a splitter at the wall jack, a surge protector that the line goes
through, or a fax machine. The modem should be supplied a signal by a phone cord no
greater than 8-10' long, running straight from the modem directly into the wall jack with
nothing else coming between. It is ok to plug in other devices (a telephone, fax) into the
"Phone" jack on the modem.
4. Drivers/Firmware. Having made sure none of the above
is the problem, the next thing to cover would be the modem driver & firmware issues.
EOS Inc. uses 3Com Total Control modem racks which use the USR chipset, supporting both X2
and V90. Naturally you should have the least difficulty connecting to EOS with V90 if you
have a 3Com/USR modem. Other vendors rely on modems that use other chipsets. The other
most common chipset manufacturers are Rockwell, Lucent Technology, Cirrus Logic, and
PCTel. While V90 is the standard for 56K connections, all vendors have not made the same
effort to put out quality drivers and firmware for their modems to make V90 a real working
standard. So as a general rule, if your modem already supports V90 and it is still not
connecting at 56K speeds, it is a good idea to check for upgraded drivers and firmware.
With V90 being such a new technology, some of the most recent firmware updates have made
great improvements. While EOS cannot help you install modem software, we can direct you to
where you can obtain these updates. Here's a few pages on which you will find links to
most all modem vendors firmware and drivers.
5. Line Quality. Ok, so you've covered all the obvious
reasons, your modem is V90 ready and has the latest and greatest modem software from the
manufacturer and you STILL are not getting 56K. What to check next? Now we at the point
where we you will need to look into the quality of the phone line supplying the signal to
the modem. Does your line support 56K connection speeds. There a few ways to check this,
none of which are 100% accurate. USR has setup a web page with instructions on how to run
a line test. You can find it here.
This test has one major limitation. It is using a long
distance telephone call to test line quality for what will be a local call when you are
dialing EOS with your modem.
Depending on what kind of modem chipset you have, there
are a couple of web pages you can go to that have information on how to judge noise on the
local telephone circuits.
6. Multiple A/D Conversions. A/D stands for analog to
digital conversion. This refers to the action taken on the phone signal by the local
telephone company switch that routes your call to EOS. When you place a call from your
modem to EOS, it is sent to the local telephone company which uses a series of network
switches to eventually get your call routed to our modems. Some of these switches use
older equipment which do not allow for a digital to digital conversion of the phone signal
through a particular switch. In these situations an analog to digital conversion is the
result. There's one requirement that will prevent some people from using 56K. For 56K to
work, you can have at most one analog-to-digital conversion between your home or office
and the Internet service provider (ISP). If there's more than one, you can't use 56K, and
your connection will be limited to V.34 speeds (a maximum of 33.6K). If you have a
3Com/USR 56k modem, there is a fairly reliable method to determine if you have more than 1
A/D conversion, or other serious impairment on your line. To find out how to do so go
here:
7. How to find out for sure if your phone lines support
56K. This is the only reliable way I know of to test your phone lines: borrow a known good
56K modem and try it with your phone lines. By "known good 56K modem," I mean a
modem that has connected at speeds higher than 33.6 .
If it's an internal modem, have your friend bring the
whole computer to your house. In fact, it's easier that way, because their computer will
already be configured for the modem. Use your monitor, keyboard, and mouse so they won't
have to cart them over to your house.
If you can only borrow the modem, be sure to get the
disks that came with it so you can install the drivers for that modem. You'll have to
install the modem and drivers. Be sure to select the modem in your dialing software (such
as Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking or Apple's PPP for Open Transport).
Once their modem is at your house, call their ISP. How
fast is the connection? You can also try calling your ISP, if your ISP and your friend's
modem use the same 56K protocol (x2, K56flex, or V.90).
8. Resolutions. It may be your modem manufacturer just
has not released drivers or firmware that will allow a 56k connection. We have seen a
number of cases where customers dialing from the same location, same line get 56K speeds
when using 3Com/USR modems but not Rockwell or Lucent modems. As mentioned above, some of
the more recent updates from these vendors have made great improvements but not all modem
manufacturers have been quick to release drivers based on the latest updates.
Other situations may exist where Dial-Up Networking
connections to one provider can be made at 56K but not to another. This is entirely
possible and in some case may have no resolution. The phone company routes calls through
different switches when you are calling different numbers. It may be that when calling EOS
your call is routed through an additional A/D conversion as described above as opposed to
when you call your other ISP.
Another factor may be the hardware that the other ISP is
using. Just as there are different chipsets for end-users, ISP's use different hardware as
well. Ascend is a widely used modem rack which uses the Rockwell chipset. If your modem is
based on the Rockwell or Lucent chipsets, you may be able to connect to an ISP using the
Ascend modem racks at 56K, but yet not connect to EOS at 56K speeds using the same
computer and phone lines. This gets back to the driver issues we went over above.
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