Slow Modem

There are many things which can affect the speed of your modem. Network traffic can cause variance in connection speeds. Your telephone line may also be limiting your connection. 3Com has a phone number you can call to test your line. Check out the directions at http://www.3com.com/56k/need4_56k/linetest.html

I would follow Lynn's advice above and also check to see if there is a flash upgrade for the modem....check with the manuf web site.

Another real quick check is to go to the control panel/modems/properties in the general make sure the maximum speed is set to 115200 and in the connection tab click port settings and make sure the "use fifo buffers" is selected and the "receive" and"transmit" buffers are maxed out.

I have seen a lot of problems with these modems especially if its an Acer brand. The majority of the problems I have come across with these modems is a compatibility issue between your modem and the equipment at your ISP. If you call your ISP or go back to the maker of your modem they should be able to give you some extra setting (initialization strings) to turn on and shutoff different features on the modem. Its worth a try. Good luck its a tough one to diagnose.....

One thing to note with regards to the 3Com diagnostic phone# is that getting an "ok" result from it does not guarantee that you will see near 56K speeds elsewhere. I've run into the situation where calling the diagnostic number (which is a long distance call for me) gave me a result that said my telephone line was "clean", but anytime I dialed out locally I could not get better than 26000 baud. What I eventually found out was that the long distance lines used by my LDC were cleaner than thoseused by my local phone co. Strange but true.
-Shawn

Besides bumping the DTE speed to 115+K, be sure that what's being reported is the line speed, not the DTE speed!

I seem to recall this is the W4 command (check your manual to ensure it's not &W4, %W4, etc.)

Interference in your phone line can cause a modem speed and also check with your ISP to see at what rate your modem speed is supported by,because both ends needs to connect at 56K.
Check the serial port is set for 38.4 or higher.

Most of these answers are right on the money...but if they don't help try checking the polarity of your phone lines...Radio Shack will sell you a little checker that you plug into your phone jack at the wall and it'll tell you if you're ok or not...I couldn't get any better than 12k or 14.4k until I did this. Turns out two wires were switched where my line enters my house...still good enough for voice transmission but not for data. I changed those 2 wires and 50k right away.

Answer 5 indicates that his ISP had bad lines, which is a possibility. Another problem may be the local telco is analog (dirty electro-mechanical contacts). Distance from the Central Office is another factor.
You did not say what you upgraded from, and connection speed you used to get. If you were previously at over 28K then it is a modem/driver/configuration problem, Otherwise I would be looking more at a possible line/ISP modem problem.

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