Modem teaming?

Has anyone had hands on experience with this?Iam stuck with a very poor rural dial-up and looking for a work around.

 

This may briefly explain it:
http://text.dslreports.com/faq/1661
Possible, but expensive.

Basic (speed) information:
http://member.melbpc.org.au/~amfowler/hsmodem.htm

Have you tested? Are you very far below 52000bps (pretty much the maximum for a 56K connection)? Check what speed your neighbours are getting in case there may be a problem in your system or your connection.

I found the drivers that came with my modem were "not great ". I looked up versions of "generic" drivers (the basic chipset drivers) and I can get better connection speeds with some of those.

Matt

 

Moodem teaming

I would kill for a 56k connection The best I can squeeze out is about 24.6K.As long as Iam located here dial-up is it.Ive tried some of the so called modem tweak programs but they dont seem to do anything...in some cases its actually made it worse.I understand that there might be some registry changes that might help but I dont feel comfortable trying that process.
It might be completly coincidental but i noticed that awile back when I enabled ICS between my two Win2000 boxs I would sometime get a 36K connection speed.

 

PassMark ModemTest

56K Modem Troubleshooting Guide

Dial-Up Basics

 

Multi-link for 98,Multiple Devices for 2000

Mattman.I followed your first link that led to a thread about setting up two modems on one box.Apparently Windows allows this set up through DUN called multi-link for Win 98.It is also available in Win2000.You can access installing Multiple Devices by right clicking the connection you use for internet access,clicking Properties then clicking the Option tab.At the bottom you,ll see a box for Multiple Devices.Unfortunetly mine is greyed out and now Iam trying to figure out how to activate it.Maybe the two modems must be installed and configured first?

 

You need software to enable teaming which could be expensive. Most of the software referred to in the following links is no longer available. Some of it was a real pain to install and get operational. Your ISP must also allow this.

One PC, two modems & abundant speed

Overclocking 56k Internet Connections

Title: combine sevral pci modems in one pc

 

If you did get 33.6 at some stage, then I would expect that something close should be achievable at least part of the time. 33.6K is also one of the "limits ", so if I see this or one of the other limits (eg 28K) then I wonder if PC's modem cannot communicate to the ISP's modem that it is a "higher standard" modem. My friend found a 33.6K modem to run on his little old machine. He lives in the heart of the city. I could not find drivers for his actual model, so the best I could do was install generic drivers...it always connects at 28K, although it still seems quite quick to me...I would say, not because of the 28K, but because he is close to the telephone exchange. He uses it quite happily even though I have offered to try finding and reinstalling better drivers.
Don't forget to check with other people in vicinity, if they get a reasonable connection, you should be able to achieve something similar as well, unless they are much closer to the telephone exchange.

When the two modems first connect they do the "handshake ". If they cannot agree on a reasonable connection speed then they "retrain ". Listen for this retraining when you connect, it will be the first series of tones repeated several times. I have found retraining to be connected with a bad set of drivers.
Drivers. The Win 2000 setup you mention got 33.6 (sometimes), maybe it was luck, but I would expect that Win 98 would have better driver availability and at least get 33.6K as well, sometimes. Are your drivers installed from a manufacturer's CD, an internet download or maybe from the Windows CD? I won't blame the drivers, I know you are in a regional area, but you may be able to "optimize" them (33.6 would be better for me than 24.6). With poor drivers I get 33.6K, with good drivers 50.6K. Let me know if you think reinstalling/upgrading drivers may help.

I take it you cannot get ADSL or cable, have you investigated satellite? The cost may be reasonable compared to two phone lines and ISP connections.

Matt

 

Driver upgrade

Mattman........I have tried to up date the drivers by contacting the manufactor but they replied that my modem doesnt exist.............strange,US Robotics must have made a million of their external Sportster 33.6 Fax modems US Robotic does make a good modem but they are infamous for their lack of support.I also at one time installed a ZOOM internal with supplied drivers and actually got worse connection speeds.Making me revert back to the Sportsters.
Connection speed up here can very from section to section which of course reflects the distance from the main trunk line but what Ive seen of those close to me I get the best connection speeds.In part I think because I will refuse an initial hook up at 21.6 or lower.
I will probably try once again to see if I cant get an up dated drive for the modems but it doesnt look promising if US Robotics hasnt made any
improvements in their support team over the years.Oh,and yes I did provide them ALL the information about the modems.
Please correct me if Iam wrong but from my extensive research on using multilinking for Win2000Pro or Multi-Linking in Win98SE it appears that you dont need two seperate phone services only that two phone lines ,one for each modem and that your ISP supports PPP.

 

Doesn't your ISP support 56K? Have you tried a newer 56K modem?

 

Rural America and crummy connection speeds

Nothing personal but I dont think alot of people understand the problems rural america suffers from poor phone line conditions.Yes.My ISP does provide 56K service but since Iam not along the main trunk line the signal degenerates down to my currently lousy connection speed even though Iam only about 15 miles (by the crow flys) from the server.Since our local phone company is the only ISP in the area there are no alternatives.Broadband wireless is not practical because of the moutainess topography(you need an unobstructed line of sight for the signal) and DSL is limited by distance.The vast majority of companies in this country are strictly profit motivated and phone companies are no exception.As long as our phone company controls the market in our area there is no incentive to improve services,upgrade lines or add additional servers.Doing so would cut into their profits.
My motive in trying to learn about duel modems and or multilinking was not about trying to get broadband speeds but to try and wring out as much as I can out of the lines.
A 56K modem in and by its self will not give me its full potential because the line it self cant handle a single transmission of that speed.
There might be a silver lining to this cloud though.I just learned that a volunteer group is trying to provide wireless broadband to rural areas in West Virginia>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5053488<
And I hopefully will be working with them in the future.

 

I had a quick look at the satellite services for Springfield. Looks like Dish Network has most of the business there, although another I saw was Buytelco, it did not say Springfield, but if you live in the outskirts you may be close to another center. The other thing is that the broadband suppliers will only cover an area if they think there is enough of a market. If you can get your neighbours to start enquiring about it, they may come across (put a transmitting station in your area???)

Try contacting the Wireless people and ask about your area and if there is anything you can do to bring it to your to your locality.

If you can push for a good non-phone service, the telco may rethink it's non-support for your area (and you may want to let them know this).

If no-one in your area gets better connections than you, then changing drivers may not help, but if you are changing I suggest removing the old drivers (and software) in Safe Mode. With Win 98, there are modem settings under Control Panel > Modem, but these are not the same as Device Manger > Modems > (model) > Properties. I set both to my desired settings, just in case. [Check both have a "Maxium speed" setting of 115200].

Go to the Diagnostics tab in Modems > Properties and click "More info ". The third readout (A3 I think) should tell you the chipset name and maybe the model (it may just say US Robotics), do a Google search and you should at least find the generic chipset drivers. Generic chipset drivers run better on my modem than the original CD drivers, although I have tried several versions. If you find a good set, make a note of them (I could not find my best set in my files for a while after doing a reinstall of Windows ). Join www.driveguide.com (free) and check what they say/rate about any versions of your drivers that may be there.

If any of your friends have a modem that you could borrow, try that, even if unsuccessful, it may tell you more about your current modem (completely remove drivers before and after).

Specifically for the later 56k modems there are two types, one is Flex, the other is V.92, check with the ISP that the modem you are "testing" is the correct type.

I would keep emailing the telco asking if a better connection will be available soon [and maybe "Could you recommend a satellite or wireless network service in our area please?" ]

I can't help much further on the multiple PPP, although as some of the info was saying, you need to find out if the ISP supports it and I would think that they would charge you more for the extra bandwidth.

Matt