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Hardware-Based Modems
These modems are able to handle all modem functions by themselves. It
doesn't matter what you are doing on your computer or how fast it is, your
connection is reliable; unless you have:
Bad firmware.
Hardware modems can have bad firmware. The move to 56K was so helter-skelter
that many "56K" modems and even "V.90" modems don't follow the final V.90
56K standard. Many of these faulty 56K modems are (or were) upgradeable and
can be fixed. Upgrading the firmware on your hardware modem can be anywhere
from "push button easy" to "enough to scare a technician". It is usually
best to have someone who has experience flashing modems do it for you. Our
service department has done it many many times.
Noisy phone lines.
At the insane speeds that we now call slow, the slightest audible distortion
of sound on the phone line can be tremendous noise to the modem. If every
time you use the phone you hear echoes, radio stations, crackles, hiss, or
even just that everyone sounds flat; you have a noisy phone line. If the
noise is constant, the modem can usually find its way around the noise by
going slower. If the noise is sporadic, the modem has to stop and find a new
workable speed every time the noise happens. If a sporadic noise is strong
enough and lasts long enough it can cause the modem to disconnect. Since our
modem lines are 100% digital all the way to Verizon, it can only be your
phone line doing it. Calling Verizon is your only option in these cases. Do
realize that the standard phone line is not groomed for maximum modem speed;
it is just designed to handle voice calls.
A bad modem.
The modem can go bad. Usually when this happens you can't even get the modem
to dial. Sometimes we see bad modems that can still dial, but then send
garbage or receive nothing and hang up the phone within about 1 minute.
There are other things that can cause these problems too, so call us if you
are experiencing these.
Hardware modems can overheat. It's not common but common enough to mention.
The symptoms of this are that your modem works fine for a period of time and
then just quits. The time may vary depending on whether you just turned on
your computer, or have been running it for a while, but it is predictable.
You can try improving the cooling of your modem, but usually you have to
replace the modem to fix this problem.
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Software-Based Modems
These modems are the bane of the ISP. Some to nearly all of the things a
modem needs to do in order to be a modem are actually being done by your
computer instead. If your computer is too busy thinking about all the other
things you have it doing, you get disconnected because the computer just
doesn't have time for the modem. The fancier computers get, the more
companies use software modems because they are less expensive. It is to the
point now where market pressures have made the hardware modem all but
extinct.
Bad drivers.
Software based modems are completely at the whim of their drivers. If the
drivers don't install right, get corrupted, or are just bad to begin with
your modem will work poorly to not at all. The first thing to do when a
software based modem is acting badly is to change drivers. If you have
access to the Internet and can figure out who made your modem, download the
latest drivers and the instructions on how to upgrade the drivers. This
often ends up easier said than done. If so, bring your computer in and we
will identify the modem and get the drivers installed for you.
Computer is just not fast enough.
Although the boxes on software modems say they will run with a computer that
is only 200MHz to 300MHz, In reality they need well over 500MHz to run
properly. With good phone lines and having nothing strenuous running other
than the browser, you should be able to get away with 500MHz. If you have
bad phone lines, add 500MHz. If you like to play digital music while you
surf, play heavy duty online games, or have lots of programs running in the
background, add 300MHz. If you are short on RAM, which is relative to what
you do and what version of Windows you run, add 200MHz. You can see that
playing an online game over bad phone lines without plenty of RAM can easily
tax a 1.5GHz computer! Upgrade your computer or get a hardware modem
if this sounds like you - it will keep you from getting disconnected.
Bad modem.
I suppose you could say that one advantage of a soft modem is less stuff to
go bad. I haven't seen as many software-based modems actually go bad as
hardware-based modems, but it does still happen.
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