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Questions About Dial-Up Connections

My Modem Won't Dial Pennswoods.net

  1. Can you hear the modem dialing? If not:
    1. Make sure the phone cord is plugged into the correct jack on your modem.
    2. Find a known good telephone. Try a connecting the telephone to the telephone jack in your modem to check if there's a dial tone.
      1. If there's no dial tone, disconnect the line going from the wall to your modem at the modem and connect it to your telephone. If you get a dialtone now, either the cord previouly connecting the telephone and the modem or the line currently connecting the telephone to the wall are bad; or possibly the modem is bad. Try swapping in known good cords.
      2. If replacing the cords with known good cords doesn't fix the problem, the modem may be physically damaged.
    3. Make sure the telephone number is correct
    4. Make sure you're typing in your user name and password properly. Password are case-sensitive and include no spaces or other punctuation
    5. Make sure your modem is installed properly. A mis-configured modem often has problems dialing.
    6. Make sure your modem is working properly. See the section about upgrading your modem drivers.
I'm Constantly Losing My Connection, Unable to Connect, etc.
This is a fairly common problem.
  1. Disconnects are usually caused by noise in your telephone line - whether someone in your house picking another extension, random noise in the telephone system, a call waiting signal, another device connected to your telephone line, or noise from some other source. In other instances, disconnects are caused by your computer: If your computer cannot supply enough resources to operate a winmodem, your dialup software malfunctions, the modem itself malfunctions, etc. Usually a simple reboot does wonders for these sorts of internal problems.
  2. Try updating your modem software. Updating your modem drivers might also be of benefit. Newer drivers often have new ways of compensating for all of the odd things that can happen to a dial-up connection. Check out the Updating Your Modem section.
  3. Try modifying your modem's settings. In Windows, on the Modem Control Panel:
    1. Click on your modem to select it then click on the Properties button
    2. Try setting down your port speed to 57600 or even 38400. Windows often attempts to communicate with the modem more quickly than the modem can handle. DO NOT check "Only connect only at this speed"
    3. Click on the Connection tab.
    4. Click on the Port Settings button
    5. Set down your buffers a notch or two. Setting the buffers down requires the modem to communicate more often, thus maintaining a connection.
    6. Click OK on the Port Settings window
    7. Click on the Advanced Settings button
    8. Check the Required to Connect box. This will cause the modem to achieve a more stable connection, since it will have to slow enough achieve good error control over your lines.
    9. Try an init string. Initialisation strings are settings for modems which cause them to behave in a certain way: attempt a certain modulation, set a particular timeout setting, en- or dis-able certain protocols, etc. Init stings go into the Extra Settings area on this same screen. For more on init strings, check out the links at the end of this document.
A word on troubleshooting this problem:

If there are problems with the line, that would also cause the problems you're experiencing initially getting connected. Can You hear any crackle, buzz, snap, hum, or fizz on your line? If so, there's your problem. Other problems are not audible, so this isn't the most reliable test, but it's a good indicator.

Try eliminating the possibility of problems within the house first. Are there any other devices on the line, like cable boxes or non- powered telephones, that might be interfereing with the voltage level, etc? If so, try eliminating them and then trying to connect. If there's a difference you've found the culprit. If not, try jumping directly from the modem to the bypass jack in the demarc (telephone box) on the side of your house. Try connecting. Is there a difference? If so, it's your house wiring. If not, suspect either the modem or the integrity of the telephone company's lines to your house. Try substituting another modem and see if that makes a difference. Complain loudly to the telephone company. Good luck.

What Are Some Common Connections and What Speeds Can they Achieve?
A normal dialup connection ranges from 26.4Kbps for a rural  through-ten-miles-of-telco-lines connection to near 53 Kbps for a subscriber who lives very near to his CO and has ideal telephone lines.

Multilink dial-up connections are established when a single computer is dialing up through two separate analog telephone lines using two separate modems. The speed is approximately twice the speed of the slowest modem. If you discover ISDN service is not available in your area, you might consider multilink as an alternative to achieve a faster connection.

ISDN is a constant digital connection to the Internet. To access ISDN service you'll need a specially-installed line from the telephone company and an ISDN account with Pennswoods.net. ISDN speed doesn't depend on phone line quality in the sense that you may not get the speed you paid for -each channel is 64Kbps- but its availability does depend on the telephone lines in your area. You'll have to contact your local telephone company about the availability and prices of ISDN in your area. More on ISDN: ISDN Basics

Concerning charges for these connections, Pennswoods.net charges per connection. A dialup is a single connection, a multilink connection is two. 128K ISDN is two connections, and so on. Also, Pennswoods doesn't have any setup charges for ISDN connections. Your telephone company will also have charges for an ISDN connection - you'll need to contact them to discover these.

What The Speed of Pennswoods.net's Lines?
Our dial-up modems are all 64K ISDN connections. Your modem will connect at whatever speed it's capable of, as limited by your telephone lines and the limitations of your modem. Once your call is past your CO (Central Office), it's very likely a full digital connection taken care of by the telephone company. The digital connection continues on to our modems, then from our modems out to the Internet. 

Our connection to the Internet features multi-homed connections. This means if one of our suppliers fails in any way, the traffic can be diverted down another path. For you, this means uninterrupted smooth surfing.

I've Had Many Problems With Busy Signals Before....
We're constantly monitoring our modem and bandwidth consumption, to keep ahead of the demands of our customers. We do our best to make sure their bandwidth needs are more than accomodated; and not only that - anticipated.
What About DSL?
Pennswoods.net do not currently support DSL, nor is it available in most areas. We currently have no plans to support DSL connections.
We do, however, support other high-speed internet connections, including dial-up ISDN, dedicated Centrex connections, and Frame Relay. 
Can I Connect Faster Than nnKbps?
Have you updated your modem drivers and the telephone lines in your house are just fine, etc, etc? If so, unfortunately, probably not. Concerning the nature of this, note that the FCC regulations limit the maximum raw speed to 53.3 Kbps, so it doesn't matter what kind of measures you take to squeeze more speed out of your dialup.

Pennswoods.net has a full digital connection to your local telco central office, but between you and your CO the signal is an analog or mixed analog/digital signal and is susceptable to any problems, noise, electrical limitations, etc. it may encounter.

Educational reading: I believe that the method described in http://808hi.com/56k/x2-adconversion.htm, coupled with what is already known about the required bandwidth for common speeds, it's possible to gauge what sort of performance a user can expect from his phone line. I have not been able to test it as of yet.

Updating Your Modem Drivers

How Do I Install a New Modem?

Additional Educational Reading