"I have a 56k modem. Why can't I connect at 56k?"

You see them everywhere. They're in the stores. They're in the paper. "Blaze through the Internet at 56K!" they proclaim. "No more World Wide Wait!" they promise. They fill your head with dreams of having a web page pop up on your screen at the speed of thought, or having that file halfway downloaded before you've even decided where you're going to save  it.

So you fork over your hard-earned dollars for this modem. You spend hours of headaches, sweat and tears getting the thing installed (or--in some cases--more hard-earned dollars to  give someone else the headache). You turn the machine on. Your hand trembles slightly as you reach for your mouse, and ever so gently click on your connection icon. You wait.  You hear your new 56K modem dial out. You hold your breath as you hear the wonderful music of handshaking taking place ("handshaking" is the technical term for the screaming  and screeching your modem makes during connection; write it down, there'll be a quiz next period!). Your pulse races as your username and password is verified by the  authentication server. The connection screen comes up, and you hungrily seek out the speed of your connection. It is.......

26,400 bps.

You used to connect at 28,800 bps.

Not exactly what you expected, is it?

So why is this? How can they sell a 56k modem that will only connect at 28.8K? Was it something you did? Is there a setting you missed? Is it defective? Is it your internet service  provider? The answer lies in the ever-present asterisk that you will almost always find on 56K related products or services. If you hunt around enough then you'll find, in some obscure  location, something similar to the following phrase:

"Not available in all areas."

In order to understand the problem, we've got to understand what your modem is trying to accomplish.

Imagine a two-lane highway.  Both lanes are a bit wider than standard highway lanes, and there's a good deal of shoulder on each side.  This highway may have been paved and painted about 75 years ago (I know, it's a stretch, but bear with me), when lanes this wide were common.  But these days cars are made a bit smaller, and a lot of that space seems wasted.  What's more, you feel that if the highway were re-paved and the lines re-painted, this two-lane highway could easily accommodate four lanes.   This would open the highway up for more traffic, as more cars could get down the road at one time, and your drive to work would be a lot less stressful.

Data communication is the same thing.  Some lines and equipment can handle large amounts of data, and some can't.  The most important factor in the "Can I connect at 56K" issue is your local phone service provider's equipment.  The first three digits of your phone number determines what switching office your phone lines are connected to.  This Central Office switch--or CO Switch--is the first main stop for anything that goes down your phone line from your home or business.

In order to achieve data transmission speeds greater than 33,600 bps (bits per second), your CO Switch needs to be a digital switch, and everything between you and them needs to be digital as well (everything after the CO will almost always be entirely digital. These days most central offices have digital switches, though some rural remote areas may not. Digital switches are quite expensive compared to analog switches, and if your phone company hasn't upgraded yours, it may be some time before they do.  In our example above, an analog switch would be like the two-lane highway, with the cars representing the data that's coming through to your modem.  On a digital switch, the maximum amount of data that can be sent down a line (called bandwidth) is increased, taking your two-lane highway to four lanes, and letting more data come down your phone line at one time.

So what do you do?  Unfortunately, there isn't much.  Phone companies aren't very sympathetic to the needs of data communications customers, unless you have a good deal of money to throw at them.  You can request that your phone be routed through the nearest digital switch, but the charges for this can run anywhere from $200 to $500 per month, depending upon your distance from the nearest switch.  Not very appealing, and not a cost-effective solution, given the marginal performance increase obtained by going to 56K.

The best thing you can do is contact your local phone provider and ask them if there are any plans to upgrade the switch in the near future.  If they get a good deal of customers calling and requesting that the equipment be upgraded, then they're more likely to look into the possibilities than they would be if they had an analog switch that nobody had any problems with.

A good reference for this type of problem can be found at http://www.56k.com/trouble/connect.shtml. It's a little outdated (about 4-5 years old), but the information is--for the most part--still pertinent.

The new problem customers have is with the new V.92 modem standard. V.92 is a lot pickier about the quality of the signal going down the line (it has to be in order to support the advanced V.92 features such as modem-on-hold or PCM Upstream), and as such people who can connect fine at V.90 (greater than 33.6) can't connect reliably or possibly even at all at V.92. Sometimes updating the modem drivers resolves the issue, but not often. Customers having these problems tend to have to dial into our V.90 access numbers.

"So what can I do?"

The first thing is to update your modem drivers. I've seen customers connecting at 24k updated their modem drivers and connect at 41k. Contact your hardware vendor and ask about obtaining the latest drivers and/or firmware for your modem.

Try to eliminate noise/interference. The problem could be caused by interference or noise on the line. Many times line noise is caused by something on the line external to the home, but due to the nature of telephone wiring and its susceptibility to interference there are several things you can do to ensure you are not contributing to line noise inside the home, such as:

• Surge protectors/line splitters/line filters -- These devices can cause interference on your phone line, and can also weaken the signal. Line splitters and filters are designed to be used on voice lines, which need very little signal strength in order to operate. Your modem however uses all the available bandwidth on the line, and it will notice problems before you will experience them on a voice line. Try plugging the phone cable directly into the wall jack. You want to have the phone line go directly from the modem jack in the computer to the jack in the wall.
• Use a shorter phone cable. Long phone cables--particularly cables that are joined together with cable joiners--can cause problems because the longer the signal has to travel the weaker it can get and the more susceptible to interference. This is primarily due to how the wires in a standard phone cable run straight down the cable, not twisted together like network cables (which do so to help funnel the signal down the wire further and help shield from interference). If you are using a long cable, try using a shorter cable to test (you may need to move your computer to do this).
• Unplug other devices from the line. If you only have one phone line--or if you have a second phone line for the computer that also has other devices connected to it (such as a phone or a fax machine), try disconnecting all the other devices on the line. Sometimes phone devices feed back noise onto the line, particularly portable phones and answering machines. If this resolves your problem you may want to disconnect these devices when you're connecting, or look into getting a dedicated line just for the computer.
• Move the phone cable at least 2 feet away from devices that generate interference. Power cables (especially the big black AC power blocks many electronic devices use), speaker wires, air conditioners, and other devices can generate electrical fields, which phone cables are very susceptible to.
• Contact your phone company if you know there are problems with your line. If there is an obvious problem with your line (you hear other conversations on your line, there is audible static or noise of some sort on the line) you will need to contact your local phone provider to resolve the issue. With issues like this, you will NOT be able to establish and maintain reliable internet connectivity until they are resolved. It is important to approach the phone company from the standpoint of voice problems, as phone companies are not obligated to provide reliable data communications over voice lines (besides fax, which only needs up to 9600kbps to function).