56K Modem connection speeds

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Gurney
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Richard Gurney

We have both a sony laptop and an HP desktop running XP
Home SR1 over the same phone line. even to the length of
cable yet the laptop constantly achieves a greater
connection speed
The drivers to both appear to be very much the same
though the modem description for the laptop is different.
Is this just something I have to accept is part of the
buld of the desktop?
 
Hey Richard.

When you say a greater connection speed, do you mean the speed of the
connection reported when the connection is first established, or have you
done a speed test.

How did you arrive at this conclusion ?

The numbers displayed when connections are established are not always
accurate. I have a 1Mb connection which reports 2.8Mbs when I connect.

Try testing the true connection speed here

http://homepage.eircom.net/~leslie/testpage.htm

..

Also do both laptop and desktop connect to the same provider and run the
same protocol, is one perhaps running SLIP and one running PPP. Is one modem
still using V.90 and one using V.92.
Is hardware/software compression set on one but not the other.

Is hardware/software error correction set on one not the other ?

Transmission errors caused by a faulty cable will cause retransmissions and
eventually the modem will negotiate to a lower speed. If they are
compatible, try swapping the cables over.

Paul
 
Paul
Many thanks for all the other avenues to try as regards
all the differences in software.
The difference I noted was just with the reported
connection speed.
yes both are connecting to the same provided and even the
same account
As regards compression / error correction is it better
that they are on or off?

Richard
 
Better on than off, hardware better than software,
You dont want to have both, as this gives to much overhead, and you'll be
compresing twice.

Before changing anything, as you've said its whats getting reported at
connect time, run the speed test on the large file on the test page.
I'm a great believer in "If its not broke, don't fix it"

For a good connection you should get around 50Kbit/sec, don't expect
56Kbits/sec, I seem to remember theres some physical limitation mentioned on
Leslies page. I stopped using dial up 18Months ago when pipex in the uk
started doing 512K for £24. I just upgraded this weeked to 1Mb and thats
only £28, some providers are still charging £15 for 56K dialup.

Paul
 
Sorry, missed error correcion. You definitely want error correction. That
should be on by default in the modem firmware as should flow control.
CTS/RTS is better than XON XOFF flow control, but is less forgiving unless
you have harware error correction on.
But as I said, check the speed first, you may not need to change anything,

There also used to be info on leslies page about perfomance tunings tcpip
packets, you may want to have a read, if your connections is a lot below
50K. Remember that it will also depend on how many people are hitting your
provider so since its sunday morning it may be slower than normal. Its best
to run the test at a quiet time, so you know you're getting the true
uncontended speed.
But theres nothing to stop you running a direct comparision between the 2
systems, since they will be operating in the same ball park.

Paul
 
Paul
The test page gave a result of around 40K on the large
page saying it could be greater and around 42K on the
smaller image again saying it could be larger.
Our exchange at present doesn't support the 1M or 2M
broadband so i'll wait for this
Many thanks for all the advice

Richard
 
Its not great, but its not bad, particularly as its a weekend. Did you get
roughly the same result for both the desktop and the laptop?

Paul


Paul
The test page gave a result of around 40K on the large
page saying it could be greater and around 42K on the
smaller image again saying it could be larger.
Our exchange at present doesn't support the 1M or 2M
broadband so i'll wait for this
Many thanks for all the advice

Richard
 
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