On Dec 23, 2004, at 12:06 PM, Gary Goldberg wrote:
Every time I visit my mother I have a hell of a time connecting to my ISP from her house (which was built in 1991)...while her 1997-era Compaq laptop has no problem (connecting to AOL). It takes about 10 tries to get a connection. Otherwise it fails at "Starting PPP") using OS 9.1 and Remote Access.
I have no problems anywhere else, even at my brother's in the same town, dialling into the same access numbers.
Is there a known problem with the Wall Street modems? I did the firmware upgrade that became available in late 1998. I've tried other modem scripts but since I have no connection problems elsewhere, I figure it's either the modem or the large number of phones at Mom's (I've unplugged several of them, but that doesn't help and, anyway, why doesn't SHE have problems with her older laptop?)
Might be something simple like a noisy line? Maybe the modems that AOL uses in their local exchange there are a brand that's a little more tolerant of noisy lines? Where her ISP is probably using older modems, like the kind when 56k first came out, they were very picky with this.
It's a cheap thing to try at least. Go to Radio Shack and get an 'in-line filter choke' (I'm assuming they still have them). You will wrap your phone line around these u-shaped (together they make a circle), magnet-looking things, several times. It will improve the speed by cutting down on noise at the very least, but might also solve your problem. Some phone line noise can't be heard by us, but can be heard by the modem. I've seen these things work personally. When i used to use dial-up (used to own an ISP 10 years ago), I'd never use a modem without one. Install it on the end of your phone line where it plugs into the modem, as close as possible to that port.
Back then, those were my only choice, but I just googled and this looks like the thing to get:
http://www.ky-filters.com/filters.htm
Not to expensive to try, it definitely won't HURT anything, can only make it better. I'd get two, one for home, one to travel with.
I didn't look for any others that might be cheaper, just wanted to give you a place to look in the right direction.
HTH.
Rad...
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