On Sun, 2009-06-21 at 18:28 -0400, Adam wrote:
> Hi everybody!  Your opinions wanted here...
> 
> ... for a quality ISP with inexpensive unlimited local dialup access, 
> for my parents.  Do any of you know anyone who's using dialup locally 
> and is either happy or unhappy with their ISP?  This is the kind of 
> thing where it's easy to get a list of ISPs, but I'd really appreciate 
> anybody's first-hand (or second-hand) experience on their quality.
> 

Here's a thought in addition to my original reply.

You reported a problem of frequent disconnects with Bestweb.

Frequent disconnects can sometimes be cured by adjusting modem
parameters.

Certain modems when they originally negotiate a connection are overly
aggressive. They negotiate a speed that is too high for the actual line
conditions. (This was forced on engineering by the marketing
department). The modem has to subsequently retrain to a lower speed. If
there are too many retrains, the modem can be disconnected by the
server.

There are modem parameters that can set an upper limit on the negotiated
speed. When I used AT&T Worldnet, I had to set an upper limit of about
43kbps. Modems make available "postcall diagnostic statistics" that help
analyze the cause of disconnects.

There used to be websites (such as modemsite.com) and a Usenet
newsgroup, comp.dcom.modems, that had lots of detailed info on how to
cure disconnect problems.

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