Unusually slow dial-up connection.

[Dymitry]

Since yesterday, ( first time I have installed Linux in years ) my internet connection, despite usually reporting under Kppp as "connected at 49333", and showing a "( max 6.0 ) kb/s", never downloads at more than 2.9 kb/s, slightly over half what it was under Windows ( 5.1-5.3 kb/s, consistently ). Not a severe issue but fairly strange.

Are there any common configuration problems that could be responsible for this? I am using Slamd 64 10.1 with KDE 3.3, and a Multitech V.92 hardware modem with an IRQ of 209, I/O ports at a000/a4000/a800 and set to ttyS2, if this explains anything.

[Nerderello]

first make sure that kppp is reporting the true connection speed by including W2 in the dial string (ie. ATW2DT). Next , after a session, use minicom (or even the kppp log window) to send at&v1 which should give you something like this :-

at&v1
TERMINATION REASON.......... RETRAIN FAILURE
LAST TX rate................ 28800 BPS
HIGHEST TX rate............. 28800 BPS
LAST RX rate................ 37333 BPS
HIGHEST RX rate............. 37333 BPS
PROTOCOL.................... LAPM
COMPRESSION................. V44
Line QUALITY................ 127
Rx LEVEL.................... 016
Highest Rx State............ 67
Highest TX State............ 85
EQM Sum..................... 014E
RBS Pattern................. 00
Rate Drop................... 00
Digital Loss................ 2000
Local Rtrn Count............ 01
Remote Rtrn Count........... 00
V90

which may help you. I'm affraid that I don't know what half of these mean, but the first one - TERMINATION REASON.......... RETRAIN FAILURE - is about a failure I was having (hangup after two or three minutes) when the modem does a "I wonder if I'm still at the best connection speed, I'll do a quiet re-train and see".

Nerderello

[Dymitry]

I changed the dial string; basically the same speeds are reported.

Using at&v1 in minicom afterwards only results in "ERROR".

[Nerderello]

ah, that means that your modem doesn't support that command.

Sorry, but that was all I had to give.

Nerderello

[Dymitry]

Interestingly enough, while my previous modem used Com3 in Windows, this one turned out to use Com4. Reinstalling Slamd64 and setting the modem to ttyS3 instead of ttyS2 solved the problem.

Thank you anyway.