Dial Up

[davisbaumung]

Hello all:

I am just wondering you people still on dial up (hum now that i type that i dont think that there are too many still stuck with dial up) OOk here is the problem (well not really a prob... But whatever) How many of you run your phone coard throught the surge protector? I am right now. I have just moved like 300 feet from my old house to this new one. I used to get 40 Kbps and now i only get 16Kbps so that sucks.. Have any of yous herad of a surge over a phone line I have not.

Davis

[Bubba Bob]

Have any of yous herad of a surge over a phone line I have not.

Yes. In fact, just last year I had a friend's 56K modem get fried. He's lucky it didn't do more damage.

[deaf_girl]

Probably due to the longer cable. The signal loses strength over distance

[bobbynichols]

Yes... absolutely.

The same lightning that can kill a person on a corded phone can certainly fry a 'puter... not that a surge protecter would help.

The strike need not even be close to your locality.

My wife and I are still on dial-up because we live in the sticks (and I believe Satellite broadband to be too expensive and problematic.). We scurry around like fiends to disconnect our modems whenever we fear lightning to be about.

Edited July 11, 2006 by bobbynichols

[Pierce]

Yeah, when telephones are above land they collect static.

A surge protector will help on a phoneline, absorbing 13,000 amps does help. Maybe the modem goes, but at least your computers safe.

Pierce

[shanenin]

modems seem to be one of the most fried, do to surges, components of a computer, but, If the surge protecter is cuasing nearly 2/3s loss of speed, I would not use it.

Edited July 11, 2006 by shanenin

[JDoors]

Have to agree the loss of speed is not worth the insurance against surges. Considering the vast number of modems out there the number that get "hit" are few and far between.

In my experience the worst offender that slows things down is line noise. Pick up a phone (when you're offline), dial a 1 and listen. If there is ANY sound it should be almost inaudible. A subtle hiss might be OK, but if you hear crackling and popping, you're gonna lose a ton of data (which has to be sent and resent and resent and resent ... until it finally gets assembled correctly). Let us know if your line's noisy.