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The LMi.net Modem FAQ

1. Why does it take me 3 or 4 times to establish a dial-up connection?
2. Why do I get suddenly disconnected?
3. What can I do to improve my modem reliability?
4. What kind of modems does LMI use?
5. Do you support V.92?
6. What kind of modems do you recommend?
7. Links

This is a difficult question, as there are many possible answers. In the simplest terms, the explanation is that your modem was unable to establish a reliable connection with our modem. The reason for this is usually related to the quality of the telephone connection at the time you placed the call. If you had been getting reliable connection before, and suddenly have stopped, then the reason is probably that something had changed, possibly temporarily, with the way the phone company is routing your call to our modem. Since the telephone network is constantly changing, simply calling back in after a few minutes may result in a different phone route, and a better connection.

Another thing we have noticed is that many customers are using a telephone line that is wired to multiple locations in your house. For example, if you have a phone in 3 different rooms, all with the same phone number, then the phone signal is "split" 3 ways. This will degrade the line quality, sometime significantly.

This is similar to the question above. Once a connection has been established, there may be other calls being placed through the same phone company switch that will effect the line noise present of you already established connection. Modern 56k modems have the ability to "retrain" without dropping the connection- so if the line quality started to degrade, the modem can retrain at a lower connect speed, where line noise is more tolerated by the modems. However, during this retraining period, no data is being transmitted. This can cause your computer to drop the connection.

Another possible explanation for dropped connection is an idle timer going off. Our modems will disconnect any connection that remains idle for 20 minutes. By idle, we mean no traffic coming or going through your modem. For example, some people will reply to an email message while still on-line. If it takes 20 minutes to write that email, the connection will be dropped, since no network traffic is actually being generated while you are composing the email. You may have an idle time setting on you own computer that is less than 20 minutes. If this is the case, make sure you have the threshold set to more than 20 minutes.

Unfortunately, the phone company is not going to do anything about your bad modem connections. The telephone network was designed to carry voice calls. Modern 56k modems are already pushing the telephone network far beyond it's intended use. If you can use you phone line to place a call to someone else, and that person can understand what you are saying (assuming they speak you same language), then there is nothing wrong with your phone line, in the eyes of the telephone company.

However, many modem connections can be improved by making sure you are running the latest version of the modem's firmware. The firmware is essentially the operating system for the modem. Modem manufacturer are always tweaking the code for their modems to better handle noisy phone lines. We (LMI) are keeping up with these changes, and are installing the latest version of the modem firmware on our modems. These upgrades are only useful if our end users are also keeping their modems up-to-date. If your modem is over 2 years old, and has not been upgraded since them, then it probably could use an update. Fortunately, these upgrades are almost always free downloads from the modem vendors' web sites, and also available here.

We use Livingston Portmasters (model PM3). Each PM3 contains 48 digital modems using Lucent modem chips.

No. V.92 is a technology that allows for faster upload speeds (but not faster download speeds). It is unlikely we will support V.92 in the future.

In general we recommend any hardware-based modem using the Lucent modem chipset. By hardware-based, we mean a modem that uses a real DSP modem chipset made by Lucent, Rockwell or USR. Many PCs use internal modems called "Winmodems" These are very low-cost software modems that use the main Pentium processor to emulate a modem. These modems tend to be more problematic than the hardware based modems. If you have an external modem, then it is definitely not a Winmodem.

You should also consider getting an ISDN modem. These do require an ISDN line from Pac Bell, but they will give you much faster and more reliable connections, and almost instantaneous connect times. The only real drawback to ISDN is that Pac Bell charges for ISDN access time per minute during daytime hours, even if you are calling a local access number.

The following web sites offer useful advise and technical reference for dial-up users:

56k Troubleshooting Guide
Tips on improving connection speed