Slow Internet speed

Hi!
I have been having a lot of trouble with my dial up connection the last couple of weeks. My connection speed has dropped in half. I had the telephone co come out and they said it was my PC. I have a 56 modem . What can I do to make it faster, my PC was purchased from Gateway in 1999. Maybe it is worn out and needs to be replaced. Is it the modem?

Thanks!

 

Airplane2001--Have you cleaned out your Temporary Internet Files lately? IE Tools|Internet Options|General tab|Delete Files. Even better, you could click on My Computer|right C:\ drive icon|Properties|either General or Tools tab (can't remember, have not used Win98 lately)|DiskCleanUp. See what suggestions are made. You can certainly cleanup Temporary Internet Files and Temporary Files and Compress Old Files. Be sure you want to delete the others before clicking OK.
And have you visited Windows Update recently? You can still get updates to IE/OE.
If all that does not help, you might consider the possibility of spyware, etc. See the procedure here
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=37074
P.S. As you can see from the above, I have assumed you are running Windows 98. Please correct if this this not the case, but many of the suggestions are still pertinent to later versions of Windows.

 

Slow Internet Connection

Thanks Welshjim!
I did that and did not change anything. I live in the country and our phone line are really bad. My bps were 24.600 then all of a sudden it dropped to 14.400. The phone company game out and check the lines and also hooked a laptop up to rule out bad lines. Would a bad modem be my problem? I do have windows 98 still. I am planning on getting a new PC very soon and I dont want to stick to much money into it. Thanks for getting back to me so soon!

Thanks!

 

Airplane2001--Sorry to hear my suggestions did not help. Did you look into scanning for spyware?
We can only hope that the phone company tech did a proper job of eliminating the very real possibility of problems with the phone line. Have you tried hooking up the modem and PC to another phone outlet in the house, especially one not used by a phone?

Do you have any neighbors that you could ask if they have experienced the same problem?


Would the modem be problem? In all honesty, I have no idea. I would think a modem would either work or not, not just slow down. Are you renting that modem? If so, the phone company should change it out for you.

Hope someone else will chime in.

 

Thanks Again!
I even tried running a direct line into the phone Companies Data box outside the house bypassing all the jacks. The phone company came out and put their lap top on my line and they were recieving a better signal than I was. I have had this PC on the same location since 1999 and always got 26.400 bps all the time. Even the phone company could not get that. They said it could be my PC. Im with you on the modem, it either works or it dosnt. I just found out today that their is a broadband wireless tower about 4 miles from me. I might get lucky and be able to get that. My neighbors are getting about the same kind of connection speed Im recieving. But with only two neighbors on the same line the phone company cannot justify putting in new lines even though the lines are bad.Thanks for your help again!

Thanks

 

Based on your location and choices - the broadband wireless would be the
way to go but i'd wait until i had the new PC.

You might want to check out http://www.dslreports.com/ and see what
the speed test (look under "Tools ", left side of page) shows. Also on the tools page, there are utilities to help you like DR TCP, Tweaks. Even if you
have to sign-up, its free and no biggie.

Check all the modem connections making sure they are clean and fit good. Do all the house-keeping things, defrag, clean cache, etc.

While not eliminating the modem all togeather as the problem, it could just have a component (capacitor, resistor) going bad gradually. You could try to re-install your modem driver (for win98, i forgot how to do
this). Or maybe swap it with another modem (if you have the driver of
course) and see if that improves anything.

savagcl

 

To chime in here on whether modems can deteriorate gradually, yes they can.

I had to replace one that came with the system after four years. The most obvious symptom was that the modem had a hard time disconnecting and the line speeds gradually got slower and slower.

When I replaced it with a V92 model, the line rarily fell below 48 kps.

In this particular case, the phone company's line is probably the major problem.

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks for all the help! It is the PC I hooked up another PC to the same line and and it is working fine. Does the modem just plug into a slot like the memory card?

Thanks !
John

 

Hi John,

Yes - where the telephone line hooks in.

Regards - Charles

 

Airplane2001, these $9 v.92 internal modems worked great in two PCs here (Win98 et all).

Here's a quick guide on PCI modem install.

 

I switched over to a V.92 modem and I was able to connect to the web faster than before. Not sure if it helped my bps speed, but I'm glad I made the switch anyway.

 

Slow internet

Thanks guys on the information about my modem. I will go out and purchase a new one.

Thanks!!
John

 

Hi Rexb
I bought a new modem and installed it but my PC does not detect it. They sent a plug &play CD with it but still nothing. I installed it in the same port as the old one, I have two available ports open, I even tried a different slot but that didnt help also. This PC is running with windows 98 yet. Someone at work said I need to uninstall the old modem first, if so how do I do that ?

Thanks Alot!!!!!!!
John

 

Not trying to speak for RexB of course, but when installing a new modem, it's a good idea to power off the pc/ remove the old modem first/ restart the pc and allow it to boot up. Then power off again/ install new modem/ power on again and wait for Windows to find/ install modem. Then you can install the driver from the cd.

Read the documentation that came with your new modem and see if it verifies with what I'm saying....It could be slightly different from what I told you.

Good Luck!

 

Airplane, if you got the same modem as my link then the directions were good, and is pretty much the same for all add-on modems. Welcome to modding your rig a little (in other words, "what can go wrong, probably will ")

From where the rig is sitting now after the new installation attempt, try these steps in order:

-In Device Manager, uninstall the old modem driver.
-In Device Manager, uninstall the new modem driver attempt, if it showed up there yet. The new modem may also have created it's own shortcut; if so, uninstall it from there too.
-Power down, remove the old modem card (you already have).
-Install the new modem card (you already have). Lift it out, then put back in as Windows has already detected it.
-Power Up.
-When Windows says it has detected new hardware, and do you want to install? Cancel that.
-Put in the new modem CD and follow the menus for Windows 98, and it should install.

The trick is to uninstall the old modem drivers first, cancel out of the automatic Windows Plug 'n Play hardware detection, and instead use the new modem install CD first. Happy surfing with your new hopefully faster modem.

Edit: Post back with results :~)

 

Hi James Martin & Rexb!

I did what you told me to do but it still didnt work. My PC says it doesnt detect the modem and it will not read the CD that came with it. I put the old one back in and it just installs it by itself. Is it possible I have a bad NEW modem.It is a 56k PCI modem, it only cost $9.00 that included shipping so Iam not out anything. It is just frustrating that I cant make it work. I installed a bigger hard drive in this PC without any problems and I think I should be able to figure this out. This is a second PC so if I cant get it installed I will just use it for something else. Thanks for all your help, I really like this site, You guys really know your stuff!!!

Thanks!
John