I have an old (before 2000) U.S. Robotics External Sportster Faxmodem with x2. It works fine under Ubuntu 4.10.

However, it appears to only connect to my ISP at 14.4 kbps. I'm assuming this because files I download have transfer speeds no greater than 1.2 kb/s.

I know that I most likely cannot reach 49.2 or 50.6 speeds since K56Flex won out over x2, but I should at least be able to connect at 28.8 or 33.6 K, right?

I use GNOME Control Center's Networking to initiate my modem connection through activation.

How can I change my modem to connect at a max of 33.6 or even 56 if possible?

"I have an old (before 2000) U.S. Robotics External Sportster Faxmodem with x2. It works fine under Ubuntu 4.10.

However, it appears to only connect to my ISP at 14.4 kbps. I'm assuming this because files I download have transfer speeds no greater than 1.2 kb/s.

I know that I most likely cannot reach 49.2 or 50.6 speeds since K56Flex won out over x2, but I should at least be able to connect at 28.8 or 33.6 K, right?

I use GNOME Control Center's Networking to initiate my modem connection through activation.

How can I change my modem to connect at a max of 33.6 or even 56 if possible?"

Most likely the modem has a maximum speed of 14.4 kbps. If you want faster speed buy a newer modem.

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Steve Stites

There could be many resons for your slow connect speed... Calculating from your D/L cps rate is not going to be reliable, however, because it depends a lot in the server your connected too...

Most often it is an ISP problem or Phone line quality issue that give slow connect speeds... If your using an old computer as well it may even be that your FIFO buffer for your serial port: UART is not 16550AS... This was an issue back in the day.

Not sure what your connecting with, but I would first try some additional numbers if you can for your ISP and also try some additional INIT strings for your USR to try and enable .v90 and X2 modes.

Also call your phone co... and have them do a line check on your phone system... It's free...

KC

I think the utility you should use is setserial. 56kbit modems came out in 1995, so it should be reaching near 53 kbit. If the modem is capable of upgrading its firmware. You can try to go to 3com and download a fireware update. It should give your modem v.90 or v.92 features, so you are not restricted to only using ISP that have X2.

I was able to fix my problem. Instead of downloading CONSISTENTLY at only ~1.0 k/s, I am now consistently getting ~ 3.5 k/s. With my winmodem under 2000 Pro, I was getting around 4.0 k/s.

I had to rename /dev/ttyS0 to /dev/modem for PON to work.

For some reason, connecting through the GNOME Control Center only allows 14.4kbps. Strange.

But, at least I'm connecting at decent speeds now. Thanks!