56K Net Troubleshooting
(Dial-Up)

The following info was taken from the NCKCN home page.

Q. When I dial-in, I keep getting disconnected from NCKCN?
    A connection issue is always, without exception, an indication that you have a bad telephone line, or a modem issue. The area’s large corporate telephone companies are notorious for the quality of their telephone lines, especially if you are connecting with a 56K modem. Data connections are intolerant to any line noise and this goes double for 56K! This means there can be no noise generated on the telephone line or from your modem. Almost without exception this is the case. Another real problem in the local lines is that there are not enough to go around. The local telephone company can’t deliver any dial tone. In fact, in some of our areas, the local telephone company has allocated lines so that they actually are redirected to Topeka or Salina and really compound the problem of overloading the telephone facility. Another test for this problem is to dial long distance to either NCKCN or another ISP. You are not using the local lines when you do this, but rather you are using the long distance trunks with are less noisy than local lines. You will probably stay connected. This goes for the so-called "local" ISPs in the area, which are not local in any way, and do not use the local telephone lines to terminate any modem calls. You see, the large corporate telephone companies, allow free access to the areas economic opportunities without a single investment what so ever in any local infrastructure, or local economy. They use the long distance trunks to terminate calls in Topeka, Wichita, KC or some other urban area. Thus doubly drains the areas economy and infrastructure. NCKCN is the only local ISP in the areas we serve our dial-up in without exception!
    Since we are, by order of the large corporate telephone companies, prohibited from using the long distance trunks because we are rural in nature, we have to use the local telephone switches to terminate all of our modem calls locally. We can do nothing what so ever about the local quality of the telephone lines. And they are constantly getting worse and worse as the large corporate telephone companies drain more and more from the rural areas, and abandon more and more services in those areas.
    If the problem persists contact your local telephone company to fix your phone line. Notice, we did not say "check" your phone line. You will in most cases have to tell them to fix it, or nothing will get done. Or they will show up with a laptop, dial into one of their long distance trunks and tell you your line is fine.
One way to over-come the poor quality of the local lines is to dial-into 33.6K modems which can tolerate more noise than 56K lines. You can look at our local access numbers at http://www.nckcn.com/NCKCN/allinfo.htm.
    Another possible reason for disconnection is if we have no input from your side after 15 minutes, the system will automatically disconnect you because it thinks you forgot to disconnect. This is a feature so people who do forget to disconnect are not charged for their mistake. This includes downloading a large file, this in only output from our side, no input from your side. There are utilities to counter this, they are called pongers and you can download them from the Internet. Another way to stay connected after long during a long download is going on, is to simply continue to browse the web, or better still, just set your e-mail software to automatically check for new mail every 5 or 10 minutes. You might not be aware of how the system works. An average Internet session lasts 30 to 45 minutes. We set the absolute session time for one Internet connection at 5 hours in most communities. The system will automatically disconnect after that time is reached. We do this to allow the modems to be shared for everyone. If you anticipate a rather large download lasting over 5 hours, simply start the download as soon as you start your Internet session. We do this because you are part owner in the resources to access the NCKCN system and the Internet. Your neighbor who may also be an NCKCN member is also a part owner. This way the resources get shared evenly.
    Another, make sure that you don’t have your email set to disconnect after you send and receive, unless you want your computer to do so.
    Also, to take the local phone lines out of the loop all together, look into any local Broadband Cable or Wireless access in your area. This kind of connection is always on. No time limits. No restrictions.

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