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Giving your modem a leg-up

There's not much we can do to help increase connection speeds. That is almost completely under the control of your ISP. Nor can we ensure that the telephone department (and the weather gods) won't play spoilsport and either introduce some noise. Or flood the cable tunnels so there's noise of short-circuiting connections anyway. What we will do is try and help you resolve the common glitches, and connect faster. Here are 3 ways to get there.

1. To make your modem dial faster select My Computer|Dial-Up Networking. Right-click the icon for the connection you want to speed up, and select Properties. Click Configure|Connection|Advanced and in the Extra Settings box, enter "S11=40" and click three OKs to save and escape. If the connection fails, change the 40 to a higher number like 44 and so on until the modem connects.

2. You can make for speedier log-ons, especially if all you use your Dial-Up Networking (DUN) connection is to download and send e-mail and for surfing the Web. Right-click My Computer and select Dial-Up Networking. Next right-click the icon for your DUN connection and select Properties. Click the Server Types tab and deselect "Log on to network," IPX/SPX Compatible, and NetBEUI. You're DUN.

3. If all that wailing and screeching which sounds like a very deranged parrot, really sets your teeth on edge, save your ears now. You can reduce the volume to a less irritating level or banish it to muted land. From Dial-Up Networking, right-click the icon for the connection you want to treat and select Properties. Click Configure and drag the volume slider to adjust the modem's volume. (Some modems support only On and Off settings, while others offer three or four volume levels to choose from.) Click two successive OKs to save your new setting. That should do it.

G Menon
[email protected]

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