Another problem, hoping you guys know...

[Guest Insanityman]

I use dail up, and it blows, and I'm thinking it's my computer that's the problem. But the internet always randomly disconnects and I'm not talking every now and then, but nearly four times a day. It's to the point where I'm nearly speaking in different tongues in anger, so any ideas?

[Guest Eagan469]

what internet provider do you use? (AOL, Earthlink, Compuserve, etc.)

[Guest Insanityman]

AT&T Worldnet. It works well for my other friends from what I know.

[Guest Eagan469]

I'd recommend this registry tweak, as it helped my connection greatly before I got a cable modem:

 

FASTER 56K MODEM

 

To enable and use this higher speed, run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000

Note that your modem might be installed under the 0001, 0002 etc keys, not necessarily under 0000. Highlight the appropriate one.

In the right hand pane double-click the "Properties" Binary value. You'll notice that the 7th up to the 10th digits on the 4th row (the one that begins with 0018) show C2 01 (or 84 03), which corresponds to a maximum connection speed of 115200 (or lower) bps. Highlight and replace them with 10 0E to bump it up to 921200.

Geek speak: replace the 24th up to the 27th byte (0x18h) as shown above.

Do NOT change anything else there! Click OK when done.

For convenience you can use the REG file below to do this without having to alter the Binary value. Just make sure the modem key matches the one in your Registry (replace 0000 with 0001 or 0002 etc if necessary):

-----Begin cut & paste here-----

REGEDIT4

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000]

"Properties"=hex:80,01,00,00,ff,00,00,00,ff,00,00,00,07,00,00,00,0f,00,00,00,\

77,07,00,00,00,10,0e,00,00,fa,00,00

 

------End cut & paste here------

Paste these lines into Notepad (the empty line at the end is necessary!) and save the file as 921200.REG. Then (double)-click on it in Explorer or File Manager to merge it into your Registry.

Now if you open Control Panel -> Modems... and follow the same steps above, you can see that 3 new settings are available: 230400, 460800 and 921600.

Reset your modem's "Maximum speed" to one of these new values (some experimenting might be necessary depending on your hardware specs), save your changes, and finally, connect to the Internet as usual. I'm sure you'll notice the speed boost.

CAUTION: If you try this on slower internal 56K modems, your connection may lock up, and/or experience various errors while using any communications apps or the Internet, which may also occur if your external modem doesn't have a fast CPU (25 MHz or above). If that is the case, reset the "Maximum speed" (see above)

[Guest Insanityman]

Thanks so much. If this helps it out... oh man, I can't describe the joy.

[Guest TheGame2705]

It happens to my friend too. You might have shitty phone lines or not enough RAM to make it keep the connection. Press ctrl+alt+del and shut down everything that doesn't say system or network in XP or everything but Explorer in ME.