Guest Posted November 9, 2003 Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 Says carlton68: you use Internet Explorer? I assume so. Go to extras - options - connections. Activate 'Never dial connection'. Afaik, this option will effect every program that needs/ wants to connect to the internet and not only the IE. So, it is definitely worth a check anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adikgede Posted November 9, 2003 Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 New modem? Considering it. Heard someone here once mention that a USB modem is slightly faster than a serial modem (my modem is ~5 years old I think). I would be surprised if the speed capacity difference between the USB bus and the Serial bus would matter very much. A serial bus is 115Kbs which is twice the modems capability, and more than twice what an ISP can deliver on a dialup connection. People might notice some difference between controllerless modem (i.e. softmodems) and hardware modems (modems with thier own controller), but I suspect it is more difference of feel on the desktop as your CPU has some overhead controlling the modem than actual throughput at the phone jack. Noticable or not insuring that you have sufficient RAM usually is money better spent than a new peripheral that replaces an old one which was in good working order. If you already have a hardware modem I wouldn't bother switching. When is the last time you did a clean install of Windows? You said you *really* didn't want to do that which makes me think that you have never done it or haven't done it for awhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted November 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 Hi, "Afaik, this option will effect every program that needs/ wants to connect to the internet and not only the IE. So, it is definitely worth a check anyway." Just did. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted November 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 Hi, "When is the last time you did a clean install of Windows?" I never do. It is way too much of a pain in the ass, and with the exception of this problem my machine has been running fine since I started using it about 2 years back. I do not install / uninstall that much software, and try to keep my OS as light as possible (no unnecessary services running for instance) as well as protected (firewall, winpatrol, spam filters, virusscanner, etc). As for the modem, thanks for the explanation, guess there is no reason to spend money then. Oh, and memory should be fine, I have 256Mb DDR and with my most of the program open that I use daily I am still using less than 40% capacity. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlton68 Posted November 9, 2003 Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 Hi, also suggest not to buy a new modem just to change from serial to USB, not much difference between the USB or serial modems, if at all. Adik is right about softmodems (which almost all cheap PCI card modems are). They are slower. The connection the negotiate with the ISP is about 5 Kbit less than USB or serial. When you are running Win XP or 2000 you might still think about a memory upgrade. Once you start working on video files or big databases you'll need that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted November 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 Hi, "When you are running Win XP or 2000 you might still think about a memory upgrade. Once you start working on video files or big databases you'll need that." Oh, definitely. When (or if ) I buy a video camera I will almost certainly add another 256Mb. One can never have too much memory. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adikgede Posted November 9, 2003 Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 "...about softmodems (which almost all cheap PCI card modems are). They are slower. The connection the negotiate with the ISP is about 5 Kbit less than USB or serial." I assumed that any (external) USB modem was not a softmodem/winmodem, apparently this is not always the case. If you want a hardware modem get an external serial modem or refer to The Winmodems are not modems; Linux information page for a list of modems or controller chips, going by a vendors claim or model number is not enough, you have to verify that there is a controller chip on the modem, the list on the URL will give you a reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adikgede Posted November 9, 2003 Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 One can never have too much memory or fast enough drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hidy Ho Posted November 9, 2003 Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 If you're on W2K, I don't believe you will benefit by having more than your 256M. I think I read this somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adikgede Posted November 9, 2003 Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 mmm I think your leaving out some important information, like to whom 'you' refers too. Where I work the minimum configuration for a w2k machine is 1GB of RAM for a machine that doesnt run a database and 2GB of RAM for a machine that runs databases. I doubt they would be wasting memory on thousands of computers all over the world if there was no benifit. Granted these are servers, but modern games are pretty resource intensive. My brothers business has a little sweatshop of Arc View workstations running W2k and the puck monkeys there seem to apreciate a recent upgrade from 512MB to 1GB of RAM. The point being that the point of deminishing returns depends on what you do with the computer. So if the 'you' you are talking about is the average home user who only uses a text editor, a web browser, email, and plays the occasional film, 256MB will probably be plenty. However use an application that has a data base or does vector graphics and you will certainly see the benefit of more RAM. In terms of price and performance RAM is the most cost effective upgrade you can make on a computer. If Im not mistaken the limit for W2k is 4GB 2GB for the system and 2GB for the user. I think you can modify the allocation for XP and 2003 to 1GB:3GB respectively. The 4GB limit is one imposed by the 32bit system*. 4GB might seem stratospheric, but anyone who uses the internet alot has probably run into a database that ran out of memory. *Ignoring Physical Address Extension (PAE) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.