Home
Sign Up
Prices
Coverage
Support
News
About Us
 

 

What Sort of Performance Should I Expect From My Modem?

Modem and line performance is one of the biggest issues affecting your connection to the internet. Given that Pennswoods.net's modems allow for a full digital 64Kbps connection, the factors that affect the speed of your connection to the internet are:

  • Any noise in the telephone lines. Any hum, snap, crackle or fuzz in your telephone line affects your modem connection. This noise may be introduced anywhere between your local CO (central office, the local 'hub' into which local telephone calls are routed) and the back of your computer. To make an analogy, electrical signals are much like sound; in a very noisy room you will have trouble speaking with another person in the same room.
  • The distance between you and your CO. Electrical signals lose strength over distance. My experience/rule-of-thumb dictates that connections within a town usually achieve above 40K, and connections more than four or five miles from the CO are usually 31.2K or below.
  • Your modem software may be outdated. Updating modem software for winmodems can do wonders. Manufacturers are constantly updating their modem drivers to reflect new ways to compensate for line conditions, include new protocols, or allow the modem to other modems.


Educational Reading