Internet speed, download managers, etc. questions.

[ember3579]

Hello. Currently, I am stuck on a 24 Kbps dialup connection. In normal downloads, it has an effective speed of 1.5-3 Kbps. Do you know of any means of speeding this up without changing the connection type that has a maximum download size of 4 MB? A download manager would also be very helpful. You know, for general use. Any assistance is appreciated. And for the love of God, PLEASE don't flame me or act like a jerk. I'm not the best person ever at this sort of thing. Thank you.

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

While your personal bandwidth is a major factor when downloading things, the server's available bandwidth also factors in, too. 1-4Kbps means that the server can only support you for that much, when you have a faster connection than that (24 times faster, but still faster).

 

 

 

I haven't tried any download managers, but I've heard alright things about DownThemAll!, which is a Firefox extension. Give that a whirl and see what you think.

 

 

 

Oh, and about the dial-up: My sincerest condolences. I remember my early days, living off of that stuff...never again. :ohnoes:

[pryomancer]

1-4Kbps means that the server can only support you for that much, when you have a faster connection than that (24 times faster, but still faster).

 

 

 

There won't be many servers left that can only provide a download speed of 1-4KB/s, it's clearly his connection that's affecting the speed.

 

 

 

Broadband really isn't expensive at all now, you should probably check it out. Most tariffs offer the first 3-6 months free with a years contract. Monthly costs can be under £10 for a simple connection.

[compfreak847]

There really isn't. Your limited by what you can pull through that phone line; a download manager can't do much besides resume broken downloads. I recommend FDM (Free Download Manager) http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/.

[ember3579]

1-4Kbps means that the server can only support you for that much, when you have a faster connection than that (24 times faster, but still faster).

 

 

 

There won't be many servers left that can only provide a download speed of 1-4KB/s, it's clearly his connection that's affecting the speed.

 

 

 

Broadband really isn't expensive at all now, you should probably check it out. Most tariffs offer the first 3-6 months free with a years contract. Monthly costs can be under £10 for a simple connection.

 

 

 

 

 

There's the problem. NOBODY in my area provides anything better than dialup. It's not a matter of price, it's a matter of availability.

 

 

 

Still, my question stands. Is there any way to force the connection to give me more of the bandwidth, effectively increasing my speed? If I got the full 24 Kbps, I might be alright for a little while, but I don't. Thanks for the help so far.

[lordkafei]

Hello. Currently, I am stuck on a 24 Kbps dialup connection. In normal downloads, it has an effective speed of 1.5-3 Kbps. Do you know of any means of speeding this up without changing the connection type that has a maximum download size of 4 MB? A download manager would also be very helpful. You know, for general use. Any assistance is appreciated. And for the love of God, PLEASE don't flame me or act like a jerk. I'm not the best person ever at this sort of thing. Thank you.

 

 

 

I use Free Download Manager and can heartily recommend it. You can set the speed you want to give it or let it have all your bandwidth. I will often set some long download to a 2500 B/s limit and then go surf the web or play RS while it runs.

 

 

 

=D>

 

 

 

That is quite a slow connection, even by dial-up standards. Is it that you don't have a 56K modem or that your ISP doesn't have one? It's very unusual in this day and age for an ISP to not offer 56K dialup.

[compfreak847]

 

There's the problem. NOBODY in my area provides anything better than dialup. It's not a matter of price, it's a matter of availability.

 

 

 

Still, my question stands. Is there any way to force the connection to give me more of the bandwidth, effectively increasing my speed? If I got the full 24 Kbps, I might be alright for a little while, but I don't. Thanks for the help so far.

 

You do realize that 24 / 8 = 3 KB\s, exactly what your getting right now? You will NEVER be able to pull more then 3 KB\s through a 24 kbs line.

[ember3579]

 

There's the problem. NOBODY in my area provides anything better than dialup. It's not a matter of price, it's a matter of availability.

 

 

 

Still, my question stands. Is there any way to force the connection to give me more of the bandwidth, effectively increasing my speed? If I got the full 24 Kbps, I might be alright for a little while, but I don't. Thanks for the help so far.

 

You do realize that 24 / 8 = 3 KB\s, exactly what your getting right now? You will NEVER be able to pull more then 3 KB\s through a 24 kbs line.

 

 

 

 

 

So the maximum speed for a 24 Kbps connection is 3 KBps? Alright. At least it would help if I could somehow force it to stay at that level. Meh.

 

 

 

And I think that I DO have a 56K modem, it just shows up on my desktop as having a maximum of 24-21.6 Kbps. Perhaps there's a way to get more out of it in that way?

 

 

 

I'm downloading the FDM right now. It is roughly about 40 minutes of downloading. Stupefying, isn't it? Over half an hour for 6.4MB. You see my dilemma? I'd also get into trouble if my dad found out that I was putting stuff on the computer, which is why I'm liking the ability to pause and continue downloads over a period of time. I'll also be able to do normal things while also putting something huge on the system, like a game.

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

 

So the maximum speed for a 24 Kbps connection is 3 KBps? Alright. At least it would help if I could somehow force it to stay at that level. Meh.

 

 

 

That's Kilobits, not kilobytes. Kilobytes are the quotient of a Kilobit rate and 8. I guess that's where there was a misunderstanding, make sure you know which is which.

 

 

 

Anyway, there's not much you can do, because even a 56K line is effectively 7KB a second, which isn't much of an improvement. Where do you live, if you don't mind me asking? Because no man should ever be subject to that kind of torture in Internet.

[ember3579]

Dead center of West Virginia, no pun intended. And I'd take any improvement I can get. That's more than twice as fast as I get right now.

[lordkafei]

And I think that I DO have a 56K modem, it just shows up on my desktop as having a maximum of 24-21.6 Kbps. Perhaps there's a way to get more out of it in that way?

 

 

 

 

So right now, what's your speed?

 

 

 

When I hover the mouse pointer over my taskbar icon, it pops up:

 

 

 

 

US Netizen

 

Speed: 44.0 Kbps

 

Sent: 8,678,894 bytes

 

Received: 21,336,463 bytes

 

[ember3579]

And I think that I DO have a 56K modem, it just shows up on my desktop as having a maximum of 24-21.6 Kbps. Perhaps there's a way to get more out of it in that way?

 

 

 

 

So right now, what's your speed?

 

 

 

When I hover the mouse pointer over my taskbar icon, it pops up:

 

 

 

 

US Netizen

 

Speed: 44.0 Kbps

 

Sent: 8,678,894 bytes

 

Received: 21,336,463 bytes

 

 

 

 

21.6 Kbps. I can go to a different line and get 24, but that one doesn't let me see if there's any traffic in or out as easy. Why?

[lordkafei]

And I think that I DO have a 56K modem, it just shows up on my desktop as having a maximum of 24-21.6 Kbps. Perhaps there's a way to get more out of it in that way?

 

 

 

 

So right now, what's your speed?

 

 

 

When I hover the mouse pointer over my taskbar icon, it pops up:

 

 

 

 

US Netizen

 

Speed: 44.0 Kbps

 

Sent: 8,678,894 bytes

 

Received: 21,336,463 bytes

 

 

 

 

21.6 Kbps. I can go to a different line and get 24, but that one doesn't let me see if there's any traffic in or out as easy. Why?

 

 

 

What's the make and model of your modem?

[ember3579]

And I think that I DO have a 56K modem, it just shows up on my desktop as having a maximum of 24-21.6 Kbps. Perhaps there's a way to get more out of it in that way?

 

 

 

 

So right now, what's your speed?

 

 

 

When I hover the mouse pointer over my taskbar icon, it pops up:

 

 

 

 

US Netizen

 

Speed: 44.0 Kbps

 

Sent: 8,678,894 bytes

 

Received: 21,336,463 bytes

 

 

 

 

21.6 Kbps. I can go to a different line and get 24, but that one doesn't let me see if there's any traffic in or out as easy. Why?

 

 

 

What's the make and model of your modem?

 

 

 

 

 

No idea. How do I check without physically looking at the thing? And it might be a good idea to try and not post one-liners, to keep the mods happy. ^_^;;

[lordkafei]

No idea. How do I check without physically looking at the thing? And it might be a good idea to try and not post one-liners, to keep the mods happy. ^_^;;

 

 

 

The mods don't count words in posts, nor lines.

 

 

 

Control Panel ---> System ---> Hardware ---> Device Manager

[compfreak847]

And I think that I DO have a 56K modem, it just shows up on my desktop as having a maximum of 24-21.6 Kbps. Perhaps there's a way to get more out of it in that way?

 

 

 

 

So right now, what's your speed?

 

 

 

When I hover the mouse pointer over my taskbar icon, it pops up:

 

 

 

 

US Netizen

 

Speed: 44.0 Kbps

 

Sent: 8,678,894 bytes

 

Received: 21,336,463 bytes

 

 

 

 

21.6 Kbps. I can go to a different line and get 24, but that one doesn't let me see if there's any traffic in or out as easy. Why?

 

 

 

What's the make and model of your modem?

 

 

 

 

 

No idea. How do I check without physically looking at the thing? And it might be a good idea to try and not post one-liners, to keep the mods happy. ^_^;;

 

If you live out in the country, or any area with bad phone lines, you'll never get over 30 kbs. Most dial up people I know are in the country or underdeveloped areas that don't have any other service, and they never get over 30. Get satellite?

[ember3579]

No idea. How do I check without physically looking at the thing? And it might be a good idea to try and not post one-liners, to keep the mods happy. ^_^;;

 

 

 

The mods don't count words in posts, nor lines.

 

 

 

Control Panel ---> System ---> Hardware ---> Device Manager

 

 

 

 

 

Meh, I'm thinking more along the lines of them worrying about what might seem to be spam. I might be overreacting, I'm used to dealing with sensitive mods from other sites.

 

 

 

It's an Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem. Does that answer the question? If not, tell me where to find more of the answer. Where are you going with this?

 

 

 

To Compfreak: Yeah, I live out in the country. That still doesn't mitigate the fact that I really should be able to SOMEHOW get the full 56K out of the modem, unless if it's something with the provider. Either way, it should be possible to "direct" the connection to give me more speed by optimization, it's just that I don't know which of these programs are trustworthy and which aren't, or even if any of them work. Care to help in that department? Oh, and nobody provides satellite, and I live in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. Kind of rough for a signal to get out regardless. I don't live in the city, as you rightly guessed.

[compfreak847]

Your in the country, you probably don't have the clearest phone lines. There's no way you can pull data faster through a skinny pipe. A download manager will get you ~10% more performance out of a connection, which will mean basically nothing for you. I still recommend FDM, if only for bandwidth allocation\resuming support.

[Sbrideau]

Well, I have a friend that only gets dial-up, but by making changes in the registry he managed to get the full capacity. The only problem though, is I don't think it would be a good idea to go with the registry changes :?

[lordkafei]

It's an Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem. Does that answer the question? If not, tell me where to find more of the answer. Where are you going with this?

 

 

 

It answers my question. I was making sure you actually had a 56K modem, as opposed to something lesser like an old Hayes Optima or such.

 

 

 

Who's your ISP? Homepage for them would be nice if you have it. If you are comfortable posting it, I would like the actual number you dial into to connect.

[ember3579]

It's an Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem. Does that answer the question? If not, tell me where to find more of the answer. Where are you going with this?

 

 

 

It answers my question. I was making sure you actually had a 56K modem, as opposed to something lesser like an old Hayes Optima or such.

 

 

 

Who's your ISP? Homepage for them would be nice if you have it. If you are comfortable posting it, I would like the actual number you dial into to connect.

 

 

 

 

 

The company's now called Shentel, I think. It was called Rapid Cable before, if that helps any. This is their website.

 

 

 

I'm also not giving you the number I dial into. I will answer any pertinent questions about it. Don't want that info floating around, paints a huge bullseye on my forehead.

[lordkafei]

The company's now called Shentel, I think. It was called Rapid Cable before, if that helps any. This is their website.

 

 

 

I'm also not giving you the number I dial into. I will answer any pertinent questions about it. Don't want that info floating around, paints a huge bullseye on my forehead.

 

 

 

That's OK - I found their page of access numbers, and they seem to all be 56K.

 

 

 

Their prices are a rip-off, though. You could get more dial-up for less money (ref: http://www.totalusa.net/cgi-bin/search. ... method=all). Their $7.99 plan is good for 300 hours a month - 10 hours a day. But I digress.

 

 

 

You could try researching some of the things here if you want to dig further. One easy thing to do is dial "1" and listen to see how quiet/noisy the line is without a dial tone. If you can hear pops, the other phone line, crackles, anything else, then you have wiring issues.

 

 

 

If you have a lot of things plugged into your phone line, you could try disconnecting them all except your modem and see if your connection improves.

 

 

 

It now becomes really a trial-and-error process on your part. Sorry I couldn't really solve your problem.

[Furah]

No idea. How do I check without physically looking at the thing? And it might be a good idea to try and not post one-liners, to keep the mods happy. ^_^;;

 

 

 

The mods don't count words in posts, nor lines.

 

 

 

Control Panel ---> System ---> Hardware ---> Device Manager

 

 

 

 

 

Meh, I'm thinking more along the lines of them worrying about what might seem to be spam. I might be overreacting, I'm used to dealing with sensitive mods from other sites.

 

 

 

It's an Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem. Does that answer the question? If not, tell me where to find more of the answer. Where are you going with this?

 

 

 

To Compfreak: Yeah, I live out in the country. That still doesn't mitigate the fact that I really should be able to SOMEHOW get the full 56K out of the modem, unless if it's something with the provider. Either way, it should be possible to "direct" the connection to give me more speed by optimization, it's just that I don't know which of these programs are trustworthy and which aren't, or even if any of them work. Care to help in that department? Oh, and nobody provides satellite, and I live in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. Kind of rough for a signal to get out regardless. I don't live in the city, as you rightly guessed.

 

 

 

Satellite will work aslong as you can see the sky, so does wireless I believe, so see if you can get it. We had to as it was either wireless or satellite (which was too much, even with the Government rebate)

[ember3579]

No idea. How do I check without physically looking at the thing? And it might be a good idea to try and not post one-liners, to keep the mods happy. ^_^;;

 

 

 

The mods don't count words in posts, nor lines.

 

 

 

Control Panel ---> System ---> Hardware ---> Device Manager

 

 

 

 

 

Meh, I'm thinking more along the lines of them worrying about what might seem to be spam. I might be overreacting, I'm used to dealing with sensitive mods from other sites.

 

 

 

It's an Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem. Does that answer the question? If not, tell me where to find more of the answer. Where are you going with this?

 

 

 

To Compfreak: Yeah, I live out in the country. That still doesn't mitigate the fact that I really should be able to SOMEHOW get the full 56K out of the modem, unless if it's something with the provider. Either way, it should be possible to "direct" the connection to give me more speed by optimization, it's just that I don't know which of these programs are trustworthy and which aren't, or even if any of them work. Care to help in that department? Oh, and nobody provides satellite, and I live in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. Kind of rough for a signal to get out regardless. I don't live in the city, as you rightly guessed.

 

 

 

Satellite will work aslong as you can see the sky, so does wireless I believe, so see if you can get it. We had to as it was either wireless or satellite (which was too much, even with the Government rebate)

 

 

 

 

 

From what I hear, Satellite has severe latency issues: as much as 5 seconds for one packet to be sent. No thanks. Besides, who in my area would provide it?

[blade995]

No idea. How do I check without physically looking at the thing? And it might be a good idea to try and not post one-liners, to keep the mods happy. ^_^;;

 

 

 

The mods don't count words in posts, nor lines.

 

 

 

Control Panel ---> System ---> Hardware ---> Device Manager

 

 

 

 

 

Meh, I'm thinking more along the lines of them worrying about what might seem to be spam. I might be overreacting, I'm used to dealing with sensitive mods from other sites.

 

 

 

It's an Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem. Does that answer the question? If not, tell me where to find more of the answer. Where are you going with this?

 

 

 

To Compfreak: Yeah, I live out in the country. That still doesn't mitigate the fact that I really should be able to SOMEHOW get the full 56K out of the modem, unless if it's something with the provider. Either way, it should be possible to "direct" the connection to give me more speed by optimization, it's just that I don't know which of these programs are trustworthy and which aren't, or even if any of them work. Care to help in that department? Oh, and nobody provides satellite, and I live in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. Kind of rough for a signal to get out regardless. I don't live in the city, as you rightly guessed.

 

 

 

Satellite will work aslong as you can see the sky, so does wireless I believe, so see if you can get it. We had to as it was either wireless or satellite (which was too much, even with the Government rebate)

 

 

 

 

 

From what I hear, Satellite has severe latency issues: as much as 5 seconds for one packet to be sent. No thanks. Besides, who in my area would provide it?

 

 

 

It's no where near 5 seconds. 1 second at the most, usually about 500ms (half a second), it's not good for gaming but neither is dialup. Satellite would have way better download speed than your dialup connection. Satellite would be at least 1mb/s (1000kb/s) compared to your less than 56kb/s.

 

 

 

Just google satellite internet providers and I'm sure somebody would serve you satellite. As long as you can see the sky you would be able to get satellite internet.