[RedHerring]

I may be the only person on the planet left using dial-up, but....

I've noticed that my iBook never connects to my ISP at 56k. In fact, it's not even close. It usually connects at 31k . My sister uses the same ISP with her Windows machine, and connects right at 56k a lot of the time.

Anyone else noticed something similar? Or is there a way to find out if its my modem or my ISP? Are some ISPs more Mac-friendly than others?

Thanks in advance!

[JonoG4]

The problem could very well be your phone lines. They may not be in the best shape compared to your sisters. When I do use dial up on my Dreamcast, I usually connect at around 42666 baud. My lines aren't the best of quality anymore since I have ADSL installed and their is a litle bit of interference even with the filters. Government restrictions limit users from connecting at 56k as far as I know.

Hmm now I seem to remember something about an update to the protocol that allows 56k connections. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

[anna katzner]

this may be because the apple-modems (and IP-software) are rather hysterical about phone-line-quality.

if the apple-modem decides that the line isn't 100% perfect it will drop the initial connect-speed to 44.6...40...36... etc.

now, it may seem that your Mac is slower than your sister's PC, however the truth (in most cases) is that your Mac is just more honest than your sister's PC.

the PC will try to connect at Max speed, but (if the line is bad) it will also fall back to 44.6...40...36... etc. but it just won't tell you. the IP-control-panel (or whatever it's called on windows) will still claim that yr sis has an 56k-connection, even when the actual speed may be way below 36k.

so don't worry, you and your sister will eventually have about the same (actual) DL-speed.

hth, anna

[Applefreak01]

I used to use dial-up until I got cable this month. Anyway, you will "never" connect to your ISP at exactly 56k. On my Windows PC I used to connect at around 48k. It's a well known fact that 56k modems will never connect more than 53k (do to the FCC).

Your sisters computer shows that she connects right at 56k? Yeah right, my iBook used to show the same. But in reality, I was getting around 42k. You can go to http://webservices.cnet.com/Bandwidth/ and http://promos.mcafee.com/speedometer/ to check your bandwidth.

Also if you connect at or below 31k everytime you dial into your ISP, you could have a bad phone line. I know when we first got dial-up our main phone line was old and got really bad connection speeds (like 10-20k), then we got a second line installed to free up the main line and speeds when to 42-48k.

You might also want to check if your iBook is set to use the 56k modem script or the 33k (or whatever speed it is) modem script.

[RedHerring]

Hmm....

So basically what all of ya'll are saying is that 1) My sister's PC is lying to her (hahaha...wait till I get to tell her that) and 2) It could be my phone line.

But also...how would I check to see what script the modem is using?

Thanks for all the help ya'll!! It's greatly appreciated!

[Applefreak01]

If you are using Mac OS 9.x you can open the modem control panel. There you should see which modem script you are using. If you are using Mac OS X you can open the Network pane in the System Preferences (I think, I haven't used Mac OS X for awhile now).