Four Common Misconceptions About Dial-up

The first misconception about dial-up is that dial-up is restricted to the computer on which it was set up. Many people do not realize that they can set up the same dial-up connection on multiple computers, attach to other phone lines, and even use at another house. Providing you have a local access number from your ISP, you can set up a dial-up connection anywhere in the United States! You do not have to contact your ISP or your phone company to use dial-up some where else.

Another common misconception about dial-up is that many people think they must have a software download or a cd just to set up a dial-up connection. This is not true! You can manually set up a dial-up connection on any computer with a connection set up wizard or network settings that are already incorporated in your operating system--this is true for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems. If a company insists you must use their software to connect, you may not be able to get around that. The reason these companies require their propriatary software is because they want to bombard you with advertising and run unnecessary programs on your computer. At times, these software program, although helpful at the time, can install hundreds of problematic files that may become a hassle long after you've discontinued the service.

The third common misconception occurs with dial-up connection speeds. There are very few things that can effect the connection speed--the quality of your modem (or what acceleration technology it has--V.92 is the latest, fastest standard), the quality of your phone line (amount of line noise or distance from the phone company), and the access number you use. Therefore, if you want your actual connection speed (that is, the kbps speed) to increase, you will need to get a new modem, change your access number, rewire your house, have the phone company repair your phone line, or move. You cannot change your connection speed by switching ISP's (unless your current ISP has a very limited and overused set of access numbers for your area--which is often not the case) or installing acceleration/compression software on your computer. The software can help load webpages faster, but will not and cannot effect you connection speed.

The last misconception often has to do with dial-up errors. Many people do not pay attention to the error message they recieve when they cannot connect. There is a very specific procedure a dial-up connection follows. First, the modem dials the number to try to establish a connection. Therefore, if you get a "no dial tone" error, this means your modem could not even establish that there is a phone line available--it has not even dialed the number, so changing the access number will not help! It hasn't even determined if there is an account associated with this dial-up connection, so you don't need to check your user name and password.

Next, once the modem dials, it tries to negotiate a connection with a remote computer. If you get an error saying "there is no answer", or "the remote computer did not respond", this has to do with the actual access number or problems with your modem's communication (for example, you have entered the number in the wrong format or there is too much noise on the phone line). You do not need to check if the line is plugged in right in the back of the computer because it has already established that this was correct.

Lastly, once your modem has established a connection with your ISP's modem, it checks your username and password. This means that you were able to connect. If you get an error "invalid username and password" there is something wrong with your account or something wasn't typed correctly. You don't need to change your modem, phone line, access number (unless directed by your ISP), or connection settings.