any fast and easy for a moron diagnostic/fix suggestions for my connection?

[Kali]

Very slow dial up but this afternoon it has just been constantly hanging up pages on me - doesn't disconnect from the phone, the pages just don't load. Sometimes they just hang there other times I get that "check your connections" error message. I don't know WHAT to check it seems to be connected - the little icon says no errors and that it is connected and gives numbers for sent and recieved. It's driving me nuts.

Seems to get better if I disconnect and reconnect but that is kind of a PITA.

Tried restarting the whole machine but that didn't help. Firefox, btw.

What else can I look at or do I have some kind of bug? My expired AVG did it's normal scan this morning, but there does seem to be some kind of java and Microsoft updates available, but I didn't do anything with them yet.

[Occulus]

1. I have a vague notion that your modem is going kaput

How old is it? Is it a Winmodem?

You should also try sending commands to the modem manually. You'll need a program that can do that. I haven't used a dialup modem in ages, but there are programs out there (you likely already have something that can do this and don't even know it) with which you can send AT commands (such as ATDT5551212 or AT&S=0) to your modem. Some of these commands are diagnostic, and you may be able to find out what the problem is using them.

A full set of Hayes-compatible dialup modem AT commands can be found here. Amazingly, that link lives at Tripod, of all places. I thought Tripod was looong dead and gone...

[Kali]

2. thanks!

I'm going to bookmark this for future reference. Everything seemed fine last night and this morning. I heard on the radio that their streaming went goofy yesterday around the same time. I think the local tubes might have just been clogged or something.:rofl:

[blogslut]

3. This is a handy page

http://www.sector101.fsnet.co.uk/keepalive/index.html

You keep the page open in a tab and it auto-refreshes at the intervals that you set. It fools your connection into thinking you're not idle.

[CK_John]

4. Dial up problems starts with the quality of the line coming to your property and

may or maybe not correctable. Packets of data are received and checked at your PC for correctness, if incorrect the modem request a retransmission. Your ISP will start to lower the rate of data transmission to prevent retransmission. So it is important to have your phone line as clear as possible. Things like "life alert" equipment, charging battery phone, anything connected to your phone line in addition to your phone modem can cause interference.

So eliminate interference by putting filters on the phone line between where it comes into the house and equipment.

Make sure your modem is up to date rated 56KB v90 or v92. An external series port modem seems to handle line quality issues best. USB can induce other problems in older systems. Also an updated PCI card is usually good for XP systems (updated).

Here are some eBay sample link
internal

<http://cgi.ebay.com/US-Robotics-USR5670-Analog-56K-V-92-Internal-PCI-Modem_W0QQitemZ290403493766QQihZ019QQcategoryZ44940QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8245388189484914398>

external
<http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-56K-V-90-PC-External-Dial-Up-Voice-Fax-Data-Modem_W0QQitemZ150376461191QQcategoryZ14920QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m8QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DMW%26its%3DC%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D20%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8246038392239300207>

[Kali]

5. heh

you don't want to know. 2 miles of line that probably belongs in a museum. At LEAST 50 or 60 years old. I get speeds just a hair faster than delivery by pony express. - 24Kbps is my current "normal."

The problem seemed to be some intermittent "thing" that cleared up on it's own. It has been fine since.