Hello i have a dumb ?
if my dumb computer connects at 115,200 bps, what is that in relation to 56k ???
Sorry cant figure it out myself:smack:
i only have a 56k modem so how can it be goin 115,200? ? ? this confuses me
WAG
The speed at which your computer receives and sends data over the Internet depends on how many other computers are accessing the net through your ISP at the same time. For example, if I connect using Earthlink in a rural area (fewer people signing on), the Net traffic will be less than if I connected in a city. The 56K is supposed to be the top speed, although most people send/receive closer to 33K.
The speed that windows reports your connection is not necessarily the same as your actual connection speed. It is probably reporting the speed that the com port is set to.
The max you can connect at is 56k, but you’re more likely to connect at 33k - 48k.
There are two speeds involved - one from the computer to the modem (even if the modem is an internal model) and one between your modem and the one you’re dialing up. The modem-to-modem speed varies considerably based mostly on the quality of the phone lines in your area. It maxes out at 53K, actually, due to FCC rules (assuming you’re in the States). Most people get somewhere between 33K and 53K.
The reason your computer talks to the modem at 115200 (115.2K) is because the modem is also capable, under ideal conditions, of compressing the data that flows across the link by up to 4:1. Pure text is one of the most highly compressible forms of data, and most web pages are mostly pure text (HTML and the like is really just text). So, although your modem’s data rate may only be 53K, it’s possible your actual data rate is up to four times that. That’d be 212K, which is obviously more than 115.2K, but don’t worry about that much. Most of the time your modem’s not getting anywhere near that sweet 4:1 compression - it’s probably closer to 2:1 in practice, which puts it pretty close to 115.2K.
If you’re really concerned that you may not be getting as much out of your connection as you could be, you can either use an external modem with a high-speed serial card, an internal modem that supports computer-to-modem speeds above 115.2K, or a “soft modem” that does its decompression in software, after the data’s already been transferred from the modem to the computer. Oddly enough, most cheap modems are soft modems, which eliminate that 115.2K bottleneck. There are still other reasons why soft modems may be problematic (buggy drivers and incompatibility with non-Microsoft operating systems) but if you know enough to know these problems exist, you know what you need to do to avoid them.
This may be a little more of an answer than you were looking for. The short answer is this - don’t worry about the 56K/115.2K thing. It’s working the way it should be.