Slow dial-up internet connection speed

[gramlab]

I know this has probably been asked a lot but i am on dial up at the moment and its as slow as hell. Updated some security pathces the other night at about 3kbps - took a bloody age. (1)How do i check the speed without having to actually download something (2) Thinking of getting b/band but if my connection is this slow will i get the benifet of paying extra(3)Eircom are balming my line saying it must be a problem in the house but i had a sparks friend check it out and he sees nothing wrong.
I'm a bit of a techno dope so forgive if the questions sound stupid

 

[ClubMan]

Re: slow connection speed

You're currently on dial-up, right? What speed was it working at? I presume it's a 56Kbps modem? Do you know what type (internal or external, hardware or soft/WinModem)? Did Windows Update download any new drivers for the modem (the Windows Update online update history log should tell you)? WinModems are notoriously finicky about which drivers work best so you have to be careful with them and maybe even play around with different versions for your specific modem and/or chipset.

3kbps

Is that kilo bits or bytes? The latter (24Kbits/sec) would be slow but not unbelievable in some circumstances.

(1)How do i check the speed without having to actually download something

You can't really. You can probably check the connect speed in the dial-up networking connection properties but this is just the maximum possible speed and may bear little or no relationship to actual throughput. Do a search for "modem speed test" to get a list of sites which allow you to benchmark your net connection. Search for a utility called MyVitalAgent which does something similar locally and helps diagnose network connection problems.

(2) Thinking of getting b/band but if my connection is this slow will i get the benifet of paying extra

Probably - unless your phone line is generally poor quality. eircom will often blame factors outside of their control but there could be a host of other issues that are relevant. Especially if your dial-up was working faster and only recently slowed down to a crawl then it looks like it could be a software/configuration issue.

 

[Satanta]

Re: slow connection speed

Eircom are balming my line saying it must be a problem in the house

Eircom tend to use anything they can to avoid issues which can cause headaches.

We've had problems with a phone line so poor it couldn't connect to dial up, couldn't use caller ID, couldn't receive text messages (even with the base unit to allow it) etc. etc..

Received all sorts of "reasons" from Eircom before one Engineer happened to inform us of the true issue of a remote link (rural area) being used in the area. Frequent complaints ("Paying for a full service yet not receiving one") have still left the issues only partially resolved.... though not sure anyone currently living in the house would appreciate any of the facilities currently being missed out on.

 

[gramlab]

Re: slow connection speed

Cheers clubman but as i said i'm a techy dope and most of it sailed over my head. Rate when d/loading the updates was KBPS and 3 seems a bit on the snails pace side. I know what the keyboard does and not a lot more !!!
Am out in the middle of nowhere so the prob could be the same as yours satanta but eircom aren't saying that. Only really use the net for online poker but

 

[ClubMan]

Re: slow connection speed

Do you have somebody with technical expertise that you can call upon to help?

 

[gramlab]

Re: slow connection speed

Cheers clubman but as i said i'm a techy dope and most of it sailed over my head. Rate when d/loading the updates was KBPS and 3 seems a bit on the snails pace side. I know what the keyboard does and not a lot more !!!
Am out in the middle of nowhere so the prob could be the same as yours satanta but eircom aren't saying that. Only really use the net for online poker but i get p***ed off when the connection goes up and down. B/band would prob help but i don't know is it worth it for the amount it costs and the increase in speed i MIGHT get -- isn't it amazing that eircom rang me to tell me i can now get b/band but cant help me with the existing connection -- could it be money related ?

 

[gramlab]

Re: slow connection speed

Most people i have asked seem dopier than me so afraid not ( not including people on this site of course)

 

[Newsletter]

Re: slow connection speed

Gram

You are not doing so badly if you are able to install patches! If you are spending a lot of time on the internet then dial-up can be more expensive than other options such as isdn or broadband. Cork has had a few exchanges enabled for broadband recently and you can check this on the eircom site so you might be in luck. There is an option there to check if your specifc phoneline is enabled. Otherwise there may be a community broadband scheme in your area -ask at your local post office- or the South West broadband [broken link removed]. This http://www.wugnet.com/myspeed/speedtest.asp (speed test) will test your connection speed -as actual speeds can vary from those advertised!

[broken link removed]

 

[gramlab]

Re: slow connection speed

I can get b/band now as eircom rang about 2 weeks ago and said its available to me now. Just wondering if my line is so bad that i wont get a decent benifit from the b/band for the extra it costs. - can take up to 30seconds to download the google homepage and that is about as basic a page as you can get. Also ahave a monitored alarm and choice of b/band providers is basically limited to the morons at eircom because of this (wife happy with monitored - wont allow me to change it back to a standard alarm)