Modem Driver update help Please

[Sharron]

I'm really tired of this slow dialup connection speed. I called my ISP and complained, went throught all the checks only to have them tell me 2 things:

1. my modem drivers are old
2. make sure my phone line is static free.

well, right.

So I clicked on the start/control panel/phones and modems/drivers/update

and it tries and tries but never goes anywhere. So I quit

Then I googled my modem type: Conexant 56K AC-Link Modem Driver for Windows XP (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqnk/us/download/22040.html), my version is 6.2.5.50 and is dated 9/8/2003. XP SP2 is what I've got.

The above link is where I ended up. Thing is I can't tell which of the Drivers is the most recent or the one I need.

Any ideas?

[trackerm]

You have the latest one by the looks
http://www.soft32.com/download_173460.html

I canna believ you can't get a better connection. It Texas! Not Arkansas... ;)

[Sharron]

You have the latest one by the looks
http://www.soft32.com/download_173460.html

I canna believ you can't get a better connection. It Texas! Not Arkansas... ;)

I found that page too! but if you clik the link in my first post it shows two for my modem different dates and version numbers.
For instance:
Type:Driver - ModemVersion:6.1.24.0 B (11 Oct 2004)Operating System(s):Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center, Microsoft Windows XP Professional




Which I just download and tried to install, but it failed for some reason.

You know just fyi, my ISP is none other then AT&T the world wide giant "gobbler". In process of talking the the "techie" a bit ago, he looked up alternative phone numbers for me to use.

Guess What! I live in Central Texas 12 miles from WACO, 87 Miles south of Dallas NOT TIMBUCKTOO

and there is 1 yes 1 number to use. One darn local phone number for AT&T dialp users to use in this area.

For gosh sakes and for this I've paid $21.95 US dollars every month for the last what 5 years.

I bet INDIA gets better service then we do.

[Brisguy52]

Hiya Sharron :grin:

You could try looking here :-

http://www.driverguide.com/

[StevenofNine]

For gosh sakes and for this I've paid $21.95 US dollars every month for the last what 5 years.

I bet INDIA gets better service then we do.

Depending on how attached you are to your email addresses, you really, really, really need to get some broadband in the house.

VerizonFiOS, ATT&T Yahoo! DSL, local Cable... come on Sharrron, Stone Knives and Bearskins... for a coder?

[StevenofNine]

The above link is where I ended up. Thing is I can't tell which of the Drivers is the most recent or the one I need.

Any ideas?


Sharron,

Your modem driver is the most recent for your modem. There are two types of software for your 'modem' based on the card type and the chipset.

If you are using the driver you listed, you have the most recent for your modem, it's card type (PCI) and the chipset.

If you really want to do some homework:

http://conexant.com/support/md_driverdownload.jsp

There's an application which will find, and determine the exact modem, type and chipset you're using. Then you can decide (again) if you have the most recent.

The problem is that you're on a dialup, where 56k actually means absolutely nothing.

[Sharron]

Depending on how attached you are to your email addresses, you really, really, really need to get some broadband in the house.

VerizonFiOS, ATT&T Yahoo! DSL, local Cable... come on Sharrron, Stone Knives and Bearskins... for a coder?

lol, Steven really just last night I spent hours looking for alternatives.

there is no cable , no dsl no anything available for my phone number and address available.

Even went back to Wildblue satellite and typed in my address and phone number as well as my zipcode. Received that even Wildblue is NOT doing any installations in my area at this time.

It is frustrating to say the least.

I did call my current ISP again and complain about the $21.95 a month charge while the logged into my ISP account it clearly states that unlimited access to current AT&T customers who have both ISP and home phone service it is $14.95 a month for the same slow connection.


I called my AT&T phone company and complainded first about it all, they again told me they were two different AT&T companies. I replied, no you represent yourselves as one company since the merger. I said I am billed for ISP by AT&T and my home phone bill clearly has the AT&T logo on it! It does not say SBC on it anywhere. In fact if you log into your AT&T ISP account it has a link to log into your AT&T phone service account, once you clik that link and you start to enter your phone number, well it then pops up a link that says "If you are a former SBC customer log in here".

They are full of it. And that is putting it nicely.

So now I am going to pay 14.95 a month for crappy dial up connection speeds.

Hmmmm since I pay for inline AT&T line repair service, they should get their big arse AT&T butts out here to fix my inadequate phone line.

By the way AT&T ISP tech is who told me the modem driver was out of date.

[FrankV]

What speed do you usually connect with?? Just curious.

[Sharron]

What speed do you usually connect with?? Just curious.

a whopping 26.4kbps

[StevenofNine]

a whopping 26.4kbps

It's always standard procedure to tell someone their driver is out of date.

Most of these online techs are reading from a script, of course (was yours an American, or an outsourced Indian/Hispanic?) The main concept is not to admit that it's anything to do with them.

Here at work, even though it's more expensive, we always buy turnkey systems. So, if we buy a machine that runs off a PC, we buy the PC from the same company as the machine. Even though they'll charge us 3x what Dell will.

Because... the moment we say there's a problem, they say, "It's your PC." And we say, "Well, we bought it from you, so that's your problem, too."

If your connection is 26.4 kbps, then it's not your modem, and it's not your modem driver. The out-of-the-box modem driver for a 56k modem is going to run it at... 56k! Shocker!!

Sorry about the ISP issues. :cry: Buck up there, little cowgirl! ;-)

[Sharron]

It's always standard procedure to tell someone their driver is out of date.

Most of these online techs are reading from a script, of course (was yours an American, or an outsourced Indian/Hispanic?) The main concept is not to admit that it's anything to do with them.

Here at work, even though it's more expensive, we always buy turnkey systems. So, if we buy a machine that runs off a PC, we buy the PC from the same company as the machine. Even though they'll charge us 3x what Dell will.

Because... the moment we say there's a problem, they say, "It's your PC." And we say, "Well, we bought it from you, so that's your problem, too."

If your connection is 26.4 kbps, then it's not your modem, and it's not your modem driver. The out-of-the-box modem driver for a 56k modem is going to run it at... 56k! Shocker!!

Sorry about the ISP issues. :cry: Buck up there, little cowgirl! ;-)

This little cowgirl would like to plant the toe of her pointy boot in their rear end. Thanks for the note.

[webado]

I have had it with large ISP techies.

They'll get you to dismantle everything, the network and all (which otherwise works just fine) because they don't support anything through a network and which doesn't use their own connection manager.

Then they'll get you to unplug every other telephone and device that's plugged into a phone outlet.

Then they'll tell you it's your telephone wiring in outlets. Or maybe in the walls.

In the end maybe they'll admit their DNS servers are not working properly (after much prodding by me), or the datacenter to which you'd normally connect is down or otherwise experiencing problems or *gasp* they closed your account by mistake. If you made it that far without blowing up.

This was the typical scenario with my past ADSL provider. Which is why they are past.

The current one (a much smaller company) will agree that maybe I've already taken into account those other things and that's not it and work with me to find other causes - and he knows what I mean by DNS ;).

[trackerm]

Hi Sarron,

I know you have tried putting your phone number in the little boxes on the ISP, but why dont you email them too?
http://www.everythingdsl.com/isp/texas/waco/
Are these people useful? Or do they just put every city in?

Or could you go into a computer stor in town and ask?

There must be something!

[FrankV]

a whopping 26.4kbps

Ok. This might not be good news and might not be the case. Take with/as you wish.

Some Phone lines can't do more than that speed. The reason is that the lines are limited in the capacity. This happens in rural areas where the phone company needs to get more phone numbers on a line. See:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5206-6230-0.html;jsessionid=wsl7CHyYnq8UNjnqar?forumID=56&threadID=184921&start=0 and look at answer 2.

[arlens]

Sharron, what about satellite broadband? Its available in almost all parts of the U.S.
http://www.wildblue.com/
No experience with it myself but it might be an option for you.

[rotarysteve]

Ok. This might not be good news and might not be the case. Take with/as you wish.

Some Phone lines can't do more than that speed. The reason is that the lines are limited in the capacity. This happens in rural areas where the phone company needs to get more phone numbers on a line. See:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5206-6230-0.html;jsessionid=wsl7CHyYnq8UNjnqar?forumID=56&threadID=184921&start=0 and look at answer 2.

If the phone line is not a problem, maybe a new modem???? That may not be worth the small increase of speed, how long have you had this modem? My 56k logs on at 50.2kps, occaisonally at 52k.

Hope you can get this sorted out.

Steve

[motorwatchercounter]

My latest speed test said 3820kbps. I had half a meg (512) for a while but had to change suppliers as I was too far from an exchange for any better speed down my phone line. Lucky we have cable also. Mind you I am only 25 miles from London in a town with 100,000 people in it so not exactly in the wilderness although I do live around the corner to the fields.

Mind you it also brings up the debate of page load speeds.

[Sharron]

Sharron, what about satellite broadband? Its available in almost all parts of the U.S.
http://www.wildblue.com/
No experience with it myself but it might be an option for you.

Wild Blue is making no new installations in my area! I checked. I've going to move my machine around phone outlets and see what happens. If that doesn't change anything I''m going to call the phone company.

Might have to drive down the road with my digital camera and then make a disgruntaled customer web page.

The page would be full of the telephone access things along the road. Some leaning one direction or more. Some with missing access panel doors. One is covered over with a black trash bag. ;-)

[Sharron]

If the phone line is not a problem, maybe a new modem???? That may not be worth the small increase of speed, how long have you had this modem? My 56k logs on at 50.2kps, occaisonally at 52k.

Hope you can get this sorted out.

Steve

This modem is inside my laptop. I can't just open it up and plug in another.

[Brisguy52]

Hiya Sharron :grin:

I've just been to A T & T's website.
According to everything I read about dial up connection speed problems, it's all your fault, DEFINITELY NOT theirs :razz:

[Sharron]

Hiya Sharron :grin:

I've just been to A T & T's website.
According to everything I read about dial up connection speed problems, it's all your fault, DEFINITELY NOT theirs :razz:

HIYa Ken,

It must be my magnetic force that interferes with the lines.

[Brisguy52]

HIYa Ken,

It must be my magnetic force that interferes with the lines.

Must be, it's unlikely that their 50 year old lines and terminal equipment would be a factor :razz:

[Kevin3824]

Ma bell will only gaurantee a 14.4 connection on a residential telephone line. However there is an old technology out there that most telephone companies will not offer unless you push them to get it. It is called ISDN that will increase your speed over dial up dramatically. The reason the telephone companies will not tell you about it is they are pushing another even faster technology called DSL. However, they are currently able to provide ISDN to over 99% of the residences out there. You probably can get that service if you wanted to but they will not want to sell it to you so they will want more money for it to try to make you not want it. If they get rediculas on the pricing you may want to ask about a partial T-1 line. If a full T-1 line is under 500 dollars a month and it is in most places and a full T-1 can support something like 128 telephone connections a partial might be a solution. I also remember when there was a technology called switched 56 which was a digital service that woudl gaurantee 56k in both directions as well but have not heard about that in a long time. Research is your best wepon prior to talking to them.

[webado]

What Sharron is saying is that there is nothign at all available there.

[StevenofNine]

There are spots in the vastness that is the USA, that are Black Territory, i.e. they don't have the tech, and it's not economic or physically reasonable to put it in.

Verizon just laid Fibre-Optic cable through our entire city, in order to be able to offer FiOS service to customers. Great expense, but potential great payoff.

Laying a line out to Sharron isn't going to make anyone any money. They'll have a demographic outlay that indicates a cost-benefit ratio. If Sharron's under that, no one's going to feed her Internet at anything over dialup.

And chances are, if she's not economically profitable for Internet feeds, she's not viable for telephony upgrades: hence 26k transfer.

[webado]

Thus satellite ought to be OK, since it's not tied in to any particular area. But it can be mighty expensive.

Though my other Texan friend who lives in a little dinky town (village, thin agglomeration, one traffic light place) about an hour out of San Antonio, on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, has managed to get a satellite dish installation and is happy with it. No idea how much she's paying though, I'll ask.

[StevenofNine]

My sister-in-law lives 30 miles East of our town, where Verizon put in the FiOS, and they can get nothing better than dial-up terrestrially.

Her boss wanted her to be able to work from home, so HE paid for them to get Satellite. She gets 512 down, 128 up for $50 per month. The equipment is about $300.

[rotarysteve]

This modem is inside my laptop. I can't just open it up and plug in another.

I was thinking about an external modem, but.....

I found this in our local newspaper today. It is for a satellite......

I don't know anything about them, but it says installation for as little as $199 and a monthly charge for as little as $49.95 per month. They are called wildblue.... 877-953-2583

The ad didn't say anthing about speeds......

[StevenofNine]

I found this in our local newspaper today. It is for a satellite......
They are called wildblue.... 877-953-2583


Quoth Sharron:

Even went back to Wildblue satellite and typed in my address and phone number as well as my zipcode. Received that even Wildblue is NOT doing any installations in my area at this time.


Oops. Not an option.

[rotarysteve]

Ooops myself..... lol

Forgot that Sharon did that......

Sorry..........