Re: slow dial up solutions
- From: mhagen <mhagen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:07:36 -0700
Kevin Childers wrote:
"mhagen" <mhagen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:O7-dnYOptt2H-jXVnZ2dnUVZ_jidnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxMy 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.
Cool! I remember a few of those but this is a great list. Way back when, when 28.8 kpbs was adequate for your Compuserve email account! I get 24kbps now on that line and thats on good days. This can be a challenge.
Mike
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