Modem Drop Outs

Does your modem drop out and hang-up a bit too much?

A Bad Telephone Line

You may also find that a particular phone line just will not support the data speed and frequently drops out. In country areas of Australia with large distances between telephone exchanges this is particularly so. By reducing the communication port speed this problem can often be resolved.

As an example... The port speed for a 56K modem is usually 115200 bps. By reducing this to 57600 bps a stable connection can often be achieved.

See the Windows Dial Up Networking Guides.

A Modem Compression Fault

Some brands of modems suffer from a fault in their compression dictionary code which causes the dictionary buffer space to fill up and overflow, causing compression to bloat and slow down, eventually causing a loss of carrier. In other words, they just hang-up.

Try disabling modem hardware compression. Software compression can be used instead.

In Windows 95, 98 you can do this by ...

Disable Hardware Compression

Double click on "My Computer".
Double click on "My Control Panel".
Double click on "Modems"
Select the General TAB
Highlight your modem selection by clicking on it.
Click on the Properties button.
Select the Connections TAB
Click on the "Advanced" button.
Deselect "Use Compression"
Click OK
Click Ok again. Then click "Close".

Enable Software Compression

Double click on "My Computer".
Double click on "Dial-Up Networking".
Select the icon for your ISP.
Click on the right mouse button.
Select Properties.

If you are using Win 95
In the "Connect using" section...
Click on Server Type button.

If you are using Win 95b or later
Select the Server Type Tab.

Under Advanced
Select - Enable Software compression.
Click OK
Click Ok again. Then close Dial-Up Networking.

In Windows XP you can do this by ...

Disable Hardware Compression

Open the "Control Panel".
Double click on "Network Connections"
Highlight your Dialup Connection by clicking on it.
Right click on it to bring up a menu
Click on the Properties button.
Select the General TAB
In "Connect Using" you will see the Modem being used for this connection.
Click on the "Configure" button.
Deselect "Enable Modem Compression"
Click OK
Click Ok again. Then close the Network Connections Window.

Enable Software Compression

Open the "Control Panel".
Double click on "Network Connections"
Highlight your Dialup Connection by clicking on it.
Right click on it to bring up a menu
Click on the Properties button.
Select the Networking TAB
Under "Type of dial-up server I am calling"...
Click on the "Settings" button.
Select "Enable Software Compression"
Click OK
Click Ok again. Then close the Network Connections Window.

Other compression related problems can be experienced with some of the cheaper 56k modems... they consistently drop-out. The above solution helps with this. In extreme cases both software and hardware compression may need to be turned off.