I'm thinking this might be a provider issue as opposed to a hardware issue, but I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do as far as my modem. I imagine the modem in my laptop is 56K...it has both an ethernet outlet and a dial-up outlet. Yet when I connect to my home dial-up connection, it often is only running at 26 or 28 kbps. I'm not sure why this is. I don't expect dial-up to be super-fast, but it's running at half the speed it should be operating on. Is there a reason for this? I don't know if this is a hardware problem or something going on with my ISP, or the fact I live out in the country and the phone line that the modem is connected to had to be specially installed (all the other phone lines in the house got fried when lightning hit one of said lines a few years ago). Can I make my modem operate any faster? Become one with your computer.

The issue probably lies w/ your phone lines - the more noisey they are, the more interference is picked up & the modem will slow itself down to compensate. This happens a lot w/ rural phone lines. This sites gives a good explanation, scroll down to the bottom ('Slow Transfer Speeds'): http://www.high-speed-internet-acce... So check/replace your phone lines, but if this is on the phone company's lines, there's not much you can do. They can run line tests but I think 28kbps would be 'acceptable'...might look into a satellite connection or something...