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.
From what I experienced with BestWeb when we were still using it, you
*definitely* would never get a connect speed near 50K. Might have been
interesting to try your idea, but I suspect they have many other issues,
though. Under Win2000 the connection was often flakey, it took multiple
tries to get a usable connection, etc. Under Linux, you would get a
connection, an IP number, and the DNS would be set correctly as well.
But apparently a Linux connection would be unable to establish routes
(even entering an IP number rather than a URL would fail to connect).
10 or 11 years ago I was actually able to use BestWeb with Linux, so
something has degraded over the intervening years.
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