Poor Dial-Up Speed

[sesnet]

Hello!

I am increasingly getting frustrated with my dial-up speed for NTL (£12/month package).
Speeds seem to never reach above 25.5Kbps.

I've run through Spy ware programs about a million times - without any luck.

This only adds to my frustration as not only is there no NTL broadband service in my area but my line quality is too poor to have any other ADSL service!

Is there another isp (apart from AOL) I can try quickly to see if this is an NTL problem?

Thanks

[Nemesis]

Welcome to Cable Forum sesnet, hope you enjoy it.

Can I ask what type of modem you have, and what is the typical connection speed ?

[sesnet]

Thanks Nemesis!

I have an Intel(R)536EP V.92 Modem.Typical connection speeds are about 45.0Kbps.

[Matth]

You could try practically any 0845 dialup ISP as a cross-check.

You already have the modem I'd recommend (I have the older Intel "HaM" chipset version, and always got good speeds)

I generally got 45-48-49 connects - and could usually do around 5kbyte/sec transfer rate - I think I settled on using LARGE packet, and tweaked RWIN to 4 or 6x MSS - you CAN use large packet on dialup, and it can give a small boost in throughput if the links you're using are large packet all the way - which is very common now!

As a "controllerless", semi-hardware, semi-software modem, it is moderately sensitive to driver issues, as the driver effectively serves as firmware as well.

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scri...?ProductID=977
Latest XP driver is 4.60.2

[carlingman]

Originally Posted by sesnet

Hello!

I am increasingly getting frustrated with my dial-up speed for NTL (£12/month package).
Speeds seem to never reach above 25.5Kbps.

I've run through Spy ware programs about a million times - without any luck.

This only adds to my frustration as not only is there no NTL broadband service in my area but my line quality is too poor to have any other ADSL service!

Is there another isp (apart from AOL) I can try quickly to see if this is an NTL problem?

Thanks

Hello sesnet,

Might be worth you taking a look here

And failing that take a look here

[sesnet]

One trait of this connection, which may provide a clue, is that data can sometimes stop completely transferring.
To give a couple of examples, when downloading an HTML page, parts of the page may load, then the connection will drop for about 10-15 seconds and then start again, downloading the rest of the page.
Or when downloading a MP3 file, say at 2.5Kbps, the connection will drop to 0.0Kbps, start again and slowly rise to 2.5Kbps again.

?

My experience is perhaps a little out of date, but I used ntl dial-up in the days when it was free, before I got cable broadband. Your description of how your connection can grind to a complete halt before slowly picking up again matches exactly what I used to get. TBH, I just put it down to an overall poor quality service, which I didn't complain about at the time as I wasn't paying for it! If I were you I'd do as Matth suggests and pick any old 0845 dial-up ISP, and try them for a couple of weeks to see if there's a difference. Make sure you find one with no minimum contract though. There's a pretty comprehesive list of ISPs at http://www.ispreview.co.uk/

[nate]

You could try quickly creating a connection to ukdial (doesn't require registration) and see what speeds you get from that...

http://adial.co.uk/

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by sesnet

Hello!

I am increasingly getting frustrated with my dial-up speed for NTL (£12/month package).
Speeds seem to never reach above 25.5Kbps.

I've run through Spy ware programs about a million times - without any luck.

This only adds to my frustration as not only is there no NTL broadband service in my area but my line quality is too poor to have any other ADSL service!

Is there another isp (apart from AOL) I can try quickly to see if this is an NTL problem?

Thanks

sorry for asking , but is there a bit of confusion creeping in here , i assume you have an ntl phone line , if you do then you cannot get adsl , is that the case here or not ?????????

[nate]

Yea, you're right Paul..someone is getting confused somewhere.

Plus, after reading the rest of the thread....

Fluctuating speeds can be put down to either.........
Poor line quality. Get NTL to test the line, though its likely they wont find anything, they never do, and, unfortunately aren't obligated to give you any minimum speed of connection. (BT are obligated to give you at least 28.8, but as far as I'm aware this only applies to BT lines, not NTL or any other provider)

Intel modems are software based, therefor rely on your processor and RAM quite a lot.
Make sure you have sufficient resources free (My computer > Help > About Windows), over 70% is an idea figure and a nice wod of RAM too (128> ideally).

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by nate

Yea, you're right Paul..someone is getting confused somewhere.

Plus, after reading the rest of the thread....

Fluctuating speeds can be put down to either.........
Poor line quality. Get NTL to test the line, though its likely they wont find anything, they never do, and, unfortunately aren't obligated to give you any minimum speed of connection. (BT are obligated to give you at least 28.8, but as far as I'm aware this only applies to BT lines, not NTL or any other provider)

Intel modems are software based, therefor rely on your processor and RAM quite a lot.
Make sure you have sufficient resources free (My computer > Help > About Windows), over 70% is an idea figure and a nice wod of RAM too (128> ideally).

glad i am not alone

good post btw

[sesnet]

I've got a feeling it's got something to do with my modem.
Connection speeds are about 31.2kbps but when I put an init string in commands (put it down to V34 eg.) the speed goes to about 33.6kbps.
I've updated the latest drivers and tried another isp.

[sesnet]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

sorry for asking , but is there a bit of confusion creeping in here , i assume you have an ntl phone line , if you do then you cannot get adsl , is that the case here or not ?????????

I've got both BT and NTL phone line. The NTL line is free.

[poolking]

Originally Posted by sesnet

I've got both BT and NTL phone line. The NTL line is free.

The NTL line isn't free it is included in the cost of your TV package.

[th'engineer]

Originally Posted by sesnet

I've got both BT and NTL phone line. The NTL line is free.

The best modem i have found on ntl is the following Conexant HCF V90-56 PCI Modem. The other thing is to ask if you are on data at the local nokia card in the local cabinet when the setting was moved to data in my case it improved.

Software modems do not work very well with NTL you need a decent hardware PCI