You have tried connecting to two separate ISPs and have the same connect
speeds. I will assume your modem is working OK and that you are not
experiencing other difficulties such as disconnects or a lot of trouble
connecting. There are quite a few utilities that will tweak your registry
settings in order to improve your download rates regardless of your connect
speeds however I don't believe they will help you with this particular problem.

What you are experiencing is pretty common. You connection speed has a lot
to do with your line conditions and your distance from the telephone
switching station. With analog or DSL connections which use telephone lines
you can not exceed a distance of 2.5 miles from the phone companies
switching station in order to obtain 52K or DSL speeds. The closer you are
to the switching station the better. There has been some new technology
that can increase this distance a little but as a general rule two and a
half miles is the maximum distance.

There are other factors such as poor line conditions of which you may be
able to get your phone company to look into. They usually will not pay
attention to data speed problems unless you complain about voice phone
problems...like intermittent poor sound quality. Do your immediate
neighbors get faster connect speeds ? If so you probably have a line
problem. On the other hand if they get the same connect speeds you do then
I would ask the phone company how far away you are from the switching
station and go from there.

The type of modem you have may make a difference but this is rarely the
case. If you have a name brand modem like 3COM USR , Zoom, Supra or Action
Tech I doubt it has anything to do with your modem.

I started out with a 1200 bps modem and worked my way up from there. I live
in a area of Southern California called Silicon Beach and am surrounded by
high tech companies but I am four and a half miles from the GTE switching
station and I have never been able to get a better analog connection then
26,400. Over the years I have had the phone company out here checking the
lines on a couple of occasions. I have had half a dozen or more ISPs and
usually had accounts with two separate companies at a time.  I have tried
all sorts of high end modems from USR, Connor, Zoom, Supra ..you name it. I
finally learned to live with it.

  When GTE started offering DSL I was too far away from the digital
switching station to even subscribe. The same rule applies to DSL as 56K
connections. Fortunately COX@home spent eight years setting this area up
with a showpiece fiber optic cable system employing HUGE nodes and a year
ago I got a cable modem and now my online speed approaches T3 speeds!

Check with your ISP to see if they are experiencing any problems in your
area or with your particular type of modem. Ask your neighbors what their
connect speeds are. If they have the same problem as you then suspect a
distance problem. If they have fast connects then have the phone company
check your lines. If available consider a DSL or Cable connection.

Mark Rode
The NoSpin Group




>I have a 56K modem and only seem to hook up to the internet at 28.8K.  I
>use free Juno and paid AT&T.  How can I hook up faster or is there a free
>internet service that would hook me up faster?
>
>Diane Kroeckel
>________________________________________________________________

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