Re: slow dial up solutions


"mhagen" <mhagen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O7-dnYOptt2H-jXVnZ2dnUVZ_jidnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My business has a remote location where dial up is slow and there's no
other options. We got a Dell xps410 with Vista Home Premium and it is
constantly trying to download updates. Between Windows updates and AV-
theres always something tying up the line. This can literally take days,
each month, while everything else slows to a crawl and we can't use the
phone. It's a nice computer but seems too much for our needs - basic
office stuff but some database and GIS.

We're in a mountainous area with no line of sight for satellite and DSL
will never come here.

I'm wondering what my options may be:
I could just leave it unconnected with updates turned off, except it seems
everything on it wants to call home. (and we do get email, slowly)

or load updates onto another machine in town and transfer using a cd. (I'm
sure I wouldn't the right updates with that)

or switch to another OS thats not so dependent on updates? I can't think
of one.. Can you even go back to XP on that model?

Any ideas?

Ok, time machine time. Way back in the days before 56K and broadband
connections this was not an all together unusual issue. Back then there
were a couple of solutions though that the spread of DSL and Cable
connections have made pretty much obsolete. There are a number of solutions
that come to mind. Most use multiple telephone lines to connect.

FYI you will never see 56K on any US connection, the infrastructure just
can't support it. 56K is what the potential is, not counting network
overhead that exist on any and all network connections. YMMV Also every
telephone connection is different everytime you connect. This is due to the
factors in the line and switching equipment between the telephone wall jack
and main Telco switching site where your connection is passed over onto
fiber.

1. Use and external modem with some of it's own memory and buffering. Not
a big speed increase, but they deal with poor line connections and such
better than most built-in's.

2. ISDN single or dual channel, could get you sub-broadband speeds, but 3
to 5 times what you will see on most modems. Requires an ISDN modem,
internal or external, not a big deal really if the switch is not to far from
your locations.

3. Shotgun Modem (as in double barreled). This is a dual modem that use
two phone lines and in theory can get you close to 100 K using both
connections on really good phone lines.

4. Get an old PC On-Ramp. Ramps use a bank of modems, usually built to
hold 4 modems. Each modem has it's own phone line and supports what ever
the line will allow. You could see up to 200k on a good day.

5. Get an old commercial multi-modem card. I was once given an old 486
that had two cards in it supporting 4 phone lines each. As I understand it
the machine was used as a gateway so that the companies satellite offices
could connect in the wee hours of the morning and turn in the days activity
reports and download new information from the main office.

6. Get an old portmaster (Model #s I forget and hope some other old guy can
remember for me) the older version used by small ISPs where you had
individual modems lined up taking the incoming calls and connecting out over
the internet or he one with the built-in modem line cards (4 or more to the
card). All of these I saw supported at least 12 phone lines. Like the
gateway mentions these can be used to connect a network outward as well as
inward. This would require a bit of port mapping and programming to do. It
is possible, I worked with a few truly great hardware guys who did it once
to just see if they could do it. they then got paid to turn the same
hardware into a fax messaging gateway. cool stuff if you got the knowledge.
Internal cards would be best so you would have lower power consumption and
less of a wiring tangle.

You would need to decide how much connectivity you really need. Speed wise
I think the options from slowest to fastest would be 1, 3, 4, 2(single
channel follows by dual channel), 5, & 6. Cost wise 1 & 2 are the cheapest.
One limitation of course is how many telephone lines you have available. An
option to think about is scheduling. Schedule the downloads on downtime for
the computer (wee hours of the morning) and such. For the multiple
telephone line options you can also set the system to load balance and drop
lines if they are needed for voice & fax communications. For option 5 I am
told they just switched over all of the phones at the end of the day, other
wise they only had one or two tied to the gateway.

If your lucky at least a couple of the pack rats posting here have the
hardware tucked away some where waiting to be powered up and back online
again.


.

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