First of all, do not confuse BITS per second (modem speed) with BYTES per
second (FTP speed).
33.6KiloBITS per second is approximately 3.5KiloBYTES per second.
31.2KiloBITS per second is approximately 3.3KiloBYTES per second.
and 2.64KiloBYTES per second is approximately 25.?KiloBITS per second.

The problem may not be with your PC or modem.  When a modem first makes a
connection, you hear a high pitched squeal.  That sound is the two modems
"talking" to each other trying to find and setup the highest speed that both
modems can use.  A major outside factor in finding this highest speed is
line noise on the telephone circuit.  This can be caused by problems with
the wiring anywhere from the wall jack all the way to the other modem.  A
second problem is the internet itself.  Even if you can connect to your ISP
at 31200BITS per second, the web page you are trying to access may be coming
through connection that is only capable of delivering 24000BITS per second.

It is like driving a car on the highway.  Today, you may be able to drive
from home to your work at the highest speed all the way and the trip takes
xx minutes.  Tomorrow you drive the same roads but there is heavy traffic at
one intersection so you must drive slower for part of the trip, now it takes
xx minutes plus more time to make the same trip.

First - make sure you are dialing the same telephone number that those other
users are dialing.
Second - take your modem to the home of one of the other users and see if it
works at highest speed from that house.

Jim Meagher
=====
Micro Solutions Consulting     Member of The HTML Writers Guild
http://www.ezy.net/~microsol   International Webmasters Association
=====

> -----Original Message-----
> From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jun Qian
> Sent: Friday, August 07, 1998 7:37 AM
>
> Hi all,
>
> I have to repost this because I think there is some misunderstand.
>
> My modem: 56Kflex KTX external modem. (56kflex is popular here and My
> ISP is going to digital use 56kflex)
>
> 1) I know the max speed I can get is 33.6 currently, but I can only get
> 2.64kb/s (CuteFTP test from local server).  Many users (from my ISP) use
> old phone line (live in old sububer) and get at least 31200bps, while I
> live in a place which suppose to have the fastest telecommunication/data
> communication in town.
>