POTS modems can be very finicky creatures. But long before there were DSL and cable modems, that was the only way to go. People nowadays simply would not believe the hype that surrounded the release of a faster protocol back in the day. At one point, I paid over $200 for a 14.4 kbps modem. Then I had to carry it home in a an old lunch pail, uphill, in the rain, with no shoes, blah blah blah...
I have also worked for a nationwide ISP that supported dialup, 1-way cable, 2-way cable, and ADSL access, that operated <i>only</i> in rural areas (that was their target demographic, go figure), so I think I qualify to answer your question. Not suprisingly, that ISP, High Speed Access Corp, is no longer in business.
Anyway, I'll give you a short answer and a long answer. The short answer: Give up now. Most likely your rural phone lines are simply too poor to support 56k. And the long answer, that I would give you if you were a customer calling my ISP:
First lets start with the obvious stuff, which I am sure you have probably already covered. This <A HREF="http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/winxp_modem/index.shtml" target="_new">article at Techspot</A> covers all the basics. If you know you have the basics covered, just skip it.
Once you have that done, you can do some testing to find out where the problem is. The very first thing you should do is connect your modem to the telco's box outside your house, and see if you get any improvements. This will let you know whether or not the problem lies within your home's wiring or not. If you get higher speeds connected directly to the telco box, then your house is the problem. However, being in a rural area, I doubt you will see any improvements. Nevertheless, there is no point in troubleshooting any further if your modem is trying to cope with faulty wiring. If the problem is the indoor wiring, <A HREF="http://modemsite.com/56k/cat5.asp" target="_new">fix it</A>.
Once that is out of the way, we can move on to the fun stuff. Since you have a USR modem, you can test your line to see if it is 56k compatible. However this only works with non-softmodem USR models. If your modem has a chip on it that says "Conexant", you have a softmodem, a.k.a. winmodem, and the line testing feature will not be available. Assuming it is not a softmodem, <A HREF="http://modemsite.com/56k/x2-adconversion.asp" target="_new">read this</A> to learn how to test your line for 56k compatibility. If it isn't compatible, then you may as well give up, or try another ISP. A different signal path (telephone number) may yield better results. Then again, the problem could be the wiring between you and the CO, in which case, it wouldn't.
If your line is 56k compatible, and assuming your ISP is using up-to-date 56k modems on the other end of the line, there is still really nothing you can do to improve your speed to this particular ISP. Not the answer you were looking for, eh? Most likely there is some sort of signal degradation (which can be noticibly audible, or not) that is preventing your modem from connecting at the faster protocol speeds. But don't even bother complaining to your telco about lousy data throughput. Their policy is, if they can hear your voice on the other end of the line, then your service is working just fine. They will tell you that your phone line was not designed for data transmission, and they would be right.
Really your only recourse at this point is to try different ISP's. You may find a better signal path with another ISP, or perhaps they will be using better modems. Sometimes modems simply do not like each other, regardless of standardized protocols, and refuse to connect at the speeds they are capable of. But, even if you do find an ISP that allows you to connect at 34666 bps or higher, you may then run into problems keeping the connection alive, given your lousy phone lines. A v.92 connection is simply not as robust as a slower connection. It does not handle errors as well as one of the slower protocols. Sure, its supposed to automatically fallback to a slower speed, but when working for HSA, by far, our most common fix to dialup connectivity issues was to <A HREF="http://modemsite.com/56k/ms.asp" target="_new">disable 56k</A> entirely. What is worse, connecting at slow speeds, or not staying connected at all?
<font color=white><b>_________________________________________________</font color=white></b>
Armadillo<font color=orange>[</font color=orange><font color=green>TcC</font color=green><font color=orange>]</font color=orange> at Lanwar and MML
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram