My computer has a 56K modem. So does my ISP. So why is it that the best I ever see is 48K.
Is this the average speed that everyone else gets with the same setup?
I’m really in no big hurry, just curious.
Peace,
mangeorge
Wow, 00, I made it!
My computer has a 56K modem. So does my ISP. So why is it that the best I ever see is 48K.
Is this the average speed that everyone else gets with the same setup?
I’m really in no big hurry, just curious.
Peace,
mangeorge
Wow, 00, I made it!
I believe that 53k is the upper limit allowed by the FCC. 56k is technically possible but illegal. go figure.
– Karl Butcher
Y2K compliant since 1836
I think you are right about the 53K limit. The highest I’ve seen my machine go was 53,333… but I think for my ISP, 49,333 is about average. Although during peak times, it might jump down to 28.8k. Now THAT pisses me off! = )
the limit is 54k. although i don’t know how they could tell. i’ve gotten to 56k on a direct (modem to modem) conection to the house next door, and no armed guards showed up…
eggo
Be glad you can access greater than me. I can only access the internet at 26.4 and it drives me nuts! Stupid Phone Co.
Anyhow, kb is right. The government only allows a top speed of 53K. Why? I don’t know, I find it stupid if you can access the internet with DSL and ISDN at higher speeds, makes no sense to me what-so-ever.
(call US West for me and tell them I need DSL…as a web designer it really sucks!)
I thought it was that the quality of the phone lines aren’t good enough to support 56k. To even get to 48k they had to do some strange things. I think the modems that go up to about 33.6k work differently from 56k modems because back when people were using 9600 baud modems there were predictions of a limit of 33.6k for modem speeds.
The FCC does not limit modem speeds per se. Instead, it limits the amount of power that can be sent through the phone line in order to prevent interference with other electrical devices. The 53K limitation is not built into the modems you buy. Instead, it is enforced in the server equipment at the online service or Internet service provider you’re dialing into. The FCC recently proposed raising the ceiling to allow true 56k connections, but it would be a while.
Part of the problem may be your home phone line. When we moved to our current house I couldn’t connect any faster than about 22k. The line signal was degraded quite a bit due to far too many outlets and shabby installation. I pared down the outlets and replaced some of the equipment to bring it up to 46-48k.
You should all be lucky that you aren’t in my position. I am too far away from the phone company’s central office so the fastest I connect with a 56k modem in 28.8 and sometimes it is as low as 26.4(like right now), and once even 14.4!
How could I charge full price to the man whose lust for filthy magazines kept me in business through that first shaky year. Oh, by the way, here’s your new issue of “Gigantic Asses.”
-Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
KButcher:
Not really illegal, as not allowed. Sort of like matress tag ripping… you can take them off without being gunned down by the FBI, it’s just fraud to sell them without the tag.
The 56k modems are based on a presumption of higher signal strength, which you technically aren’t allowed to use on US/Canadian (and others, I’m fairly sure) phone lines because of theoretical equipment damage.
There is lobbying to change this limit, it’s fairly arbitrary and not really required, most phone equipment (telco end) can withstand medium-distance lightning strikes (well, the fuses protect it) so a tiny bit more power on the phone line wouldn’t kill anything. But, the push is on for fiber optic, and digital at the customer end, and modems (digital->analog->digital) are on the way out anyway…
Konrad:
I read a paper a while back, in the 80s, written in the mid 70s, proving that 2400 was the fastest we’d get a modem to.
Needless to say…
And yes, this is without considering that baud is not bps, but they did seem pretty sure that 300bytes/second was very close to the fastest we’d ever send data… over regular copper wires, with an analog stage in the middle. And this is on old equipment with lower s/n rations. Funny though to see 56k now.
There are a couple of things that affect the speed of your modem. Distance from the Telephone Company’s Central Office, the Telephone company’s Switching equipment, and some other stuff that I can’t think of off the top of my head.
A T-1 line is 1.544 Megabits (not BYTES) a second and carries 24 circuits of 64 kbps a piece. 8 kbps is stripped from that, which is called overhead (which contains information on the connection) which leaves 56 kbps per second remaining. But there is a FCC regulation stating that there is a limit to data that can be transmitted, which is around 53kbps (for reasons unknown to me, but the power distributed across the line sounds good to me, more power means more interference to the other lines).
Another thing (I will remind you again, this is past acquired info I am scraping form my brain) is that the 56K on the T-1 circuit ios digital information, and that you have an analog phone line going into your home at, I believe, 2400 baud, which is not the same as bits per second (at one time, it was). Due to compression algorithms, it’s now possible to insert several bits per baud, giving a higher BPS than baud. Phew.
It’s my understanding, based on long and beer-sodden discussions with numerous cousins and brothers-in-law who work for GTE, that those teeny-weeny copper wires that make your telephony world happen can’t take 56K traffic. These guys tell me that anything over about 28K is a miracle.
The wires can’t stand the traffic. Period!
You and I use 'em to tap into the Internet, and we’re regularly rewarded with reported connect speeds of 36,000 to 48,000 bps, sometimes even faster! We are being lied to!
First of all, most modems working through Windows 95/98 report false connect speeds. Second, modems are limited necessarily to the maximum connect speed of the medium, i.e. the phone line, which is about 28,000 bps. Faster reported speeds reflect either (1) software-and/or firmware-enhanced compression, or (2) completely false reporting by the modem. Examples of software/firmware-enhanced data transmission include ‘56K-Flex,’ ‘V.90’ and others.
In any case, your maximum modem speed, indicated or otherwise, likely reflects your downloads ONLY. Uploads are mostly done at fax speeds – 9600 or 14,400 baud.
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
T
This is a bit off the 56k thread, but if copper wires cannot sustain the higher modem speeds, then how does DSL work? I don’t have it, so I may just be talking out of my ass. I was under the assumption that speeds of up to 1.5Mbs could be achieved… all over conventional copper wires. I know that the connection (currently) must be within 3 miles of the telephone company’s switching equipment.
56k to 56k direct modem connects are only at 33.6, since that is the maximum upstream connection rate of a 56k modem.
o¿o
\0/
i recommend going for DSL
it only costs about 40$/month
and we’re paying about 15 more/month than having a 2nd line
Chief’s Domain - http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi
Well, there are several different kinds of DSL, but for the most part, DSLs work so quickly because they eliminate the digital/analog conversions which are major speedbumps.
-David
Last time a phone guy was inside here he told me my lines are only guaranteed to 1200 baud.
One time it dropped about half & I simply put in a new phone jack [$2] cause the old one got crud on it [couldn’t even see it] cause Im near the pacific ocean.
Telephone companies only have to support a maximum of 28k baud.
A 56k modem is limited to 53k baud over the phone line, because greater speeds require high amounts of power when sent through the phone lines.
The limit is set at 53k baud to protect the telephone equipment.
You can recieve more data than the speed allows for though, because of hardware data compression.
Modems work by converting the bits into sound waves that the telephone system is designed to carry. I understand that we’ve pretty much reached the limit at 56Kb, unless we want to install new hi-fi phones throughout the entire system.
DSL works only if you’ve got a solid copper wire between you and the Internet drop (which means in practice that your Internet company has to rent space at your local phone company office). The DSL signal is put onto the wire directly, completely outside the sound signal, just as more than one station can be carried on your TV cable. But as soon as the wire hits a switchboard or a phone repeater, only the sound goes through; the DSL signal gets hit like the coyote standing on the top of a railroad car going through a tunnel.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
TBone:
The modem is actually connecting at those speeds, or, mostly. It’s not 53k BAUD, but if it says 53K, it’s most likely the true speed. The misreporting of speed is more common with external modems where the software incorrectly reports the speed the serial port is running at.
And I think 56k sends at 33.6k… I know it’s at least 28.8k.
Squee:
DSL is 1) digital and 2) uses a wider range.
The problem for modems is that there’s only a certain frequency range guaranteed to be picked up.
DSL only works on direct lines, where the same piece of copper touches your house and the central office. Then, because it can count on not being filtered out on the way, it has a ton of bandwidth available because it can use everything except the bits right around where the voice data is being carried.
You do have to remember that at speeds above 14.4 are reached by data compression. This data compression can be serously degraded by “line noise” that is present. A modem uses a much larger band width than what the human ear can hear, so what sounds like a crystal clear connection to you may infact be very noisy to the modem. Also the phone company is only required to get you a 14.4 connection, again because the rest is done by data compression. Also the # of switching staions the data passes through can effect the speed of your modem. More than 1 station and speed begins to fall rapidly
C3-24/7 “I’ve got the goods if you’ve got the cash; what you want fool?”