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Author Topic: ADSL USB Modems  (Read 5284 times)

Offline Sal-5000

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Re:ADSL USB Modems
« Reply #15 on: March 29, 2003, 01:02 »
Greetings again.

I was away from my PC for a couple of weeks, and came back to find my Pipex account active and ready for use! Had to pick up the modem at the sorting office (Alcatel Speedtouch).... like a big, purple mouse!

What a difference to dialup - I'm still getting used to it.

Only one slight problem (!) - despite the fact that I don't have the dreaded VIA chipset on-board, I'm experiencing what I think *may* be power-related quirks.

After surfing the net for half-an-hour or so, the PC starts to 'freeze' a bit. That is, the connection seems to temporarily pause, accompanied by the mouse-pointer freezing in its tracks. After a few seconds, normality returns. As time goes on, these symptoms become more pronounced.

The 'WinMX' filesharing program suffers the worst......... after half-an-hour, these problems get quite bad, with LONG periods of 'freezing'. Even the system-clock seems to be affected, as it tends to stop during these freezes, eventually lagging many minutes behind real-time. When I quit WinMX, time goes back to normal.

'Mustapha Phagg' mentioned the following :-
"I use a ... usb modem with a powered 4 port hub (get them from your local computer fair for about £15.00) this takes the load of of your machines USB port."

Am I right in thinking that this hub is a device which (a) plugs into the mains, and (b) the modem plugs into THAT, as opposed to the PC's USB port?

And, if so, would that alleviate my problem, if it is indeed the cause of my woes?!

Or, can anyone comment on what the problem *could* be? Thanks for any help!

Offline Sandra

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Re:ADSL USB Modems
« Reply #16 on: March 29, 2003, 02:06 »
A powered hub has a mains plug to supply the power to each of the usb ports it has.A lead connects from your pcs usb port to the hub.Your modem then plugs into the hub,you must remember to switch the power to the hub on before it will work.
Funny you should mention the clock running slow,mine did that and I installed that atomic clock thing to keep it correct.I never noticed it slowing down in the way you describe though.Mines never been too happy whether on dial up or adsl with too many things running at once especially on winmx.
Make sure in your power settings that its not set for the pc to control it as it may just be the power management thats cutting in after a preset time  :-*

Adept

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Re:ADSL USB Modems
« Reply #17 on: March 29, 2003, 08:17 »
I've also seen mentioned somewhere (ADSLGuide?) that the drivers for the Speedtouch are regularly updated. Perhaps you have older drivers Sal?

I'll see if I can find a link for you and post back :)

Adept

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Re:ADSL USB Modems
« Reply #18 on: March 29, 2003, 08:23 »
You should find a new driver here Sal.

I hope it works :)

Offline Simon

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Re:ADSL USB Modems
« Reply #19 on: March 29, 2003, 09:22 »
Hi Sal,

If you're still having trouble with WinMX after doing what Adept suggested, it could be that you need to re-configure WinMX to ADSL, if you've not already done so.  

An easy way to do this is to go into Settings and click the Set Up Wizard button.  Make sure you configure it for ADSL.

Just another thought - which Firewall are you using?  I seem to remember having trouble with one of them while using WinMX with Pipex.  Think it might have been Zone Alarm, but can't be sure now.  What was happening was that while using WinMX, eveything else got slower and slower, then eventually ground to a halt.  Changing the firewall solved this.  I'm now using Sygate, which I can confirm does work with WinMX, and is available free HERE.

Of course, try what Adept said first - he has an annoying habit of being right.   ;) :)
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Offline Sal-5000

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Re:ADSL USB Modems
« Reply #20 on: March 30, 2003, 04:10 »
Thanks!

Adept - According to the Diagnostics panel, the drivers that came with the CD are version 201.2.0.0, and the latest update as featured on the SpeedTouch site is at version 'R2.0.1.2' ...... so I assume it's the same. If anyone disagrees with that, let me know!

Simon - I configured WinMX to ADSL as soon as I got it. In fact, it's not just WinMX that does this...... I've also tried SoulSeek (just as bad), Direct Connect (quite bad), Shareaza (haven't used it enough yet to make a determination), and Kazaa Lite (not as bad as the others, but still does it).

Sandra - Power-management is set-up OK.

I use the Agitnum Outpost firewall, which I'd always heard was particularly good at ensuring this sort of thing doesn't happen! Though I don't like doing it, I'm going to try filesharing with the firewall OFF over the next couple of days, just to see if I can definitely blame it. If it's firewall-related, I'll try Sygate.

LATER ------ I composed this a few hours ago, but couldn't access the site (temporary downage?). Over the last 2 or 3 hours, I've tried peer-to-peering with Outlook switched OFF - and I can only conclude that *it* was responsible for the 'freezing', as it never happened once!

Well I never! I wonder what was causing it...... Outlook features quite a few plug-in modules; maybe they were taking up a lot of resources. Anyway, I'll install Sygate and see what happens.

Ta again!

Offline Clive

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Re:ADSL USB Modems
« Reply #21 on: March 30, 2003, 07:39 »
That's great news Sal.  I hope it stays solved for you.  Sorry about the outage last night.  :'(

Offline Simon

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Re:ADSL USB Modems
« Reply #22 on: March 30, 2003, 09:44 »
Hi Sal,

It must have been Outpost that I had the same trouble with (apologies to Zone Alarm!). I've tried most of the free ones, which is why I wasn't sure which one was problematic with WinMX.  I'll remember that now, in case anyone else has the same trouble.   ;)

Anyway, you shouldn't have any further problems once you got Sygate up and running.   :)
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