Why is the upload speed unacceptable? Most people download 95% of the time. Did your modem come with any software to adjust the download/ upload ratio? With my robotic modem I had to run a separate program to setup the ratio before I got on line. If you mostly download, you want to keep it like it is. IF you upload as much as you download, you want to set the ratio at 33K/33K. If you mostly upload you need to set it for 33K/45K. If Your modem is like mine you have to run that separate software, it has to change settings inside the modem. It may be worth it to check out the company's web site for updated drivers, and additional software, and they may have updated the flash ROM for the modem.
About your phone line, it is costing you some speed! Someone needs to do maintenance on the box where the phone line connects to your house. IF your phone line is like mind, there are two boxes one on the pole and one at the house. I was able to open both of them, the one on the pole was where I found the green corrosion, loosen up the nuts, clean the wires, and bolts and nuts, then put it back together. Yes that is on the phone company's side. But if you want better speed you are going to have to do it. Because the phone company only has to provide 14 hundred connection speed! They do have to provide a clean voice line, that was why I said check to see if you can hear anything on the line, to complain about! Also see if you can check your wiring maybe a rat has been nibbling on it.
Here is a rough idea of how your phone line works. Your phone limits the sound of your voice to a 3500 bandwidth, thats all they need. That goes down the line, there maybe one or more amplifiers between your house and the analog to digital converter. Now it is a digital signal, it is combined with other digital phone connections, sent to the main office, and rerouted to connect to your ISP, your ISP receives a digital signal. He never converts it back to analog. All your problems happen between your modem and that first analog to digital converter, their could be loose connections, old amplifiers, shorted capacitors, aged inductors, wires that are to close so you have other conversations on the line(crosstalk). All of them can produce noise that will disrupt your modem, or narrow the bandwidth so that your modem cannot connect at the speed you want. A good phone line should be connecting at 45K or higher 90% of the time! So I know you have phone line problems! What I don't know is if you can get the phone company to care enough to fix any of it, I doun't it! Thats why I say do what you can do to clean the connections. Clean connections help to keep that 3500 bandwidth, dirty connections help to narrow the bandwidth, and the narrower the bandwidth the slower connection speed!
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