Always check with your local phone company - the one who sends you your local phone bill - before dialing an unknown number to make sure it is a local call for you.

Also, be aware that the a good initial connection speed does not guarantee the actual performance of the connection. A really solid 33.6kb/sec connection will run circles around a bad 53.0kb/sec connection.

The connection speed sets the upper limit on what is possible. You cannot assume that just because an ISP has a higher connection speed for the first 5 seconds after you dial in that the connection performs better than one that connects a little slower.

Things like whether the modems support hardware compression can make a significant difference in the performance. If your ISP (or their network) has added too many modems to their pool without upgrading the equipment, the modems may be just fine, but the upstream "pipes" are congested, and the modem connection speed means nothing.

If you do not find Hyperterminal in your menus, do a File Search for hypertrm.exe. It should be in a subfolder of your \program files folder

If you can't find Hyperterminal anywhere, the company that provides Hypterminal has a free download of the same software (it may even be newer than the version in your Windows). Visit Hilgraeve.com to get their latest version.
(As of 2/2008, this is no longer a free download - sorry!)

Assuming you found Hyperterminal, Start the program.

Since you haven't used the program before, it will force you to create a new connection. (If you have already used the program, create a new connection using File / New from menu bar.

Type in "Test" or a suitable name if you want to save this so you can use it again.

Depending on what network answers the phone, you should generally see some kind of prompt. If you don't, so long as it appears that you're connected, proceed to the next step.

At the prompt, type three plus signs "+++" and wait. The modem should answer with "OK".

Now, the hard part is that what you need to type next depends on the type of modem you have - there is no standard that all modem companies use. "ATI11" (AT Eye Eleven) is a good choice - that's what Lucent Winmodems use, and they are widely used due to their low cost. "ATI6" is another good possibility for modems based on USR technology.

Depending on what type of modem you have - try different values after the I until you get something - eventually, you should see something like:

This tells me that I've connected at 49,333 bits/second on the Download side, and only 21,420 on the upload side.

For v.90 modems, the maximum upload speed is 33,420 bits/sec - 21,420 is indicated a serious impairment on the sending side of my line (which is consistent that people tell me they can't hear me when I'm talking on this specific phone). While I might be able to surf fairly well, attempting to send information into the internet (like FTPing or file sharing) will probably not work very well. Let's try a different phone number, and see if the problem is my phone line or this particular ISP's modems.

If possible, pick a phone number that starts with a different 3 digit prefix. Some problems are related to specific central offices of the phone company.

Once you are disconnected, start HyperTerminal, but instead of selecting something to connect to, just click on Cancel. At the blank screen, type your Modem status query (ATI11) and you may get back the results of your last Dialup Networking Session, in which case you have a lot of useful information:

1. Configure a DUN connectoid for your Test

   Using the instructions provided by the new ISP, configure a new Dialup Networking connection. How this is done varies a little bit based on which version of Windows you are running. Here are some typical setup instructions - you're not configuring a "real" connection, so you can ignore any of the instructions other than configuring the telephone number.

   • Toast.net
   • Copper.net
   • InterGate
   • VIP Powernet

   Put the telephone number you expect to be dialing into the setup. Put something like "v90test" as the userid, and anything as the password. The logon attempt is going to fail, but that's okay.

2. Turn on Modem Logging

   How this is done varies a little bit based on the version of Windows you are running.

   Windows  XP / NT
   Click on Start / Settings / Control Panel / System
   Click on the Hardware Tab, then Device Manager
   Find "Modems", and then the modem that you use to connect to the internet.
   Right click on the modem, select Properties.
   Click on the Diagnostics tab.
   Select the check box that says "Logging" - "Append to Log".
   
   Windows ME/98/95
   Click on Start / Settings / Control Panel / Modems
   Highlight the modem you use to dial the internet
   Click on Properties
   Click on the Connection Tab
   Click on the Advanced Button
   Select the checkbox for Append to Log
   

3. Dial the new ISP's phone number.

   Of course, with a userid of V90test and a bogus password, you should receive a message telling you to check your userid and password, as it is invalid. If you feel really uncomfortable doing this test by trying a bogus userid and password, you might call the ISP up first, tell them what you're doing and ask if they have an objection. They may have a valid userid that they use just for testing, or they might set you up a one-day trial account.

4. Look at the log file

   The log file is kept in the "windows" directory - normally c:\windows or c:\winNT or something similar. The name of the file is modemlog.txt or ModemLog[modem type].txt.  If you're using XP, you don't have to go hunting - there is a button that says "view log".

   Now, you're looking for a line very near the end of the log with the "CONNECT" message. Here is an XP example:

   06-20-2002 22:55:13.466 - TSP Completing Async Operation(0x0001031e) Status 0x00000000
   06-20-2002 22:55:13.466 - TSP(0000): LINEEVENT: LINECALLSTATE_DIALING
   06-20-2002 22:55:13.466 - TSP(0000): LINEEVENT: LINECALLSTATE_PROCEEDING
   06-20-2002 22:55:13.482 - Send: ATDT#######
   06-20-2002 22:55:47.263 - Recv: CONNECT 50666 V42bis
   06-20-2002 22:55:47.263 - Interpreted response: Connect
   06-20-2002 22:55:47.294 - Connection established at 50666bps.
   06-20-2002 22:55:47.294 - Error-control on.
   06-20-2002 22:55:47.294 - Data compression on.
   06-20-2002 22:55:47.294 - TSP(0000): LINEEVENT: LINECALLSTATE_CONNECTED
   

   This tells you that you've connected at 50,666 bps and V42bis (Compression) was successfully negotiated. If it said 33420 or 28800 or some other number, that is the speed you could expect to connect at if you sign up with this ISP. If you get a low speed, you might want to repeat the test one or two times, perhaps at different times of the day, to see if you always get a low connection speed.

   Here is an example of a v.92 connection (V44 is the compression used by v.92)

   06-20-2002 23:10:32.542 - TSP(0000): LINEEVENT: LINECALLSTATE_PROCEEDING
   06-20-2002 23:10:32.558 - Send: ATDT###-####
   06-20-2002 23:11:05.636 - Recv: CONNECT 49333 V44
   06-20-2002 23:11:05.636 - Interpreted response: Connect
   06-20-2002 23:11:05.636 - Receive Connect but CD was low, Waiting for signal to go high
   06-20-2002 23:11:05.667 - CD has been raised
   06-20-2002 23:11:05.667 - Connection established at 49333bps.
   06-20-2002 23:11:05.667 - Error-control on.
   06-20-2002 23:11:05.667 - Data compression on.
   06-20-2002 23:11:05.667 - TSP(0000): LINEEVENT: LINECALLSTATE_CONNECTED
   

5. Turn off logging

   Turn off whatever you did in Step #2, unless you want to realize some day that you have a 50 MB modem log file