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Why do I get frequent disconnects and low connect rates??

If things seem to be going wrong form day one, the quickest and best way to fix it is to look inside your house first. Here's a checklist of little-known conditions that can affect your modem's connection speed and reliability.

1. Faulty Phone Wiring Many houses built before 1975 conform to older phone wiring practices, which may mean your in-house phone lines are substandard for 56K. The easiest way to test this is to dial someone locally, ask them to turn on a radio or CD, and place the phone in front of it. your job is to listen. If you hear any hissing, crackles, hums or dropouts (quieter for a few seconds) it is possible you may be experiencing a poor phone connection. If this problem is in your house, and you do not have a telephone company service agreement, they will charge you to fix your wiring. if the problem is in their equipment (from the box outside your house on) they will fix it for free. When calling the phone company to check your lines, be sure to mention that you are having trouble placing voice calls. Telephone companies will not troubleshoot wiring problems to improve your modem connect speed. Additionally, your telephone company does not guarantee you any connection speed higher than 9600 baud and may refuse to perform a service call if you mention "modem". Phone companies provide verified data lines, which they will guarantee a speed, but these are at a significant cost, because they know that people who demand data speed and integrity will pay the high prices for them.
2. Appliances, Phone Cords and Jacks Sometimes, things such as speakers, fluorescent lights, cellular phones, battery chargers and computer monitors can interfere with the signal traveling through a phone cord - even up to a few feet away. Try to keep the phone cord coming from your computer as far away from anything electrical as possible.
   Major appliances such as TV sets, stereos and Microwaves on the same circuit may cause your computer not to receive enough ready power, which can cause modems to behave erratically.
   - Perhaps the biggest problems come from phone jack adapters that allow you to plug two or more devices into one jack. Even if you are only using one at a time, these devices may split electricity flowing through the line, may be improperly wired, and can seriously affect your connection.
   Avoid any phone cord that is smashed, frayed or bent. it's also a good idea to replace any cords that have been in use for longer than 5 years in high traffic areas.
   Check inside the phone plug sockets on your modem and phone jack for any dust, debris or damage.
   In many modems, Call Waiting or three-way calling tones will not disconnect you, but they will cause your modem to lower its speed for that connection's duration. Pulaski Networks support will be happy to show you how you can disable Call Waiting when you are online.