Connecting to the Internet

I have a 56k modem but don't get connected at 56. Why?

Here are some things that you can check for to possibly improve connection speed, although ultimately the connection speed is greatly dependent on the quality of phone service to your home. How many phone jacks are on this line? Just like electricity, each jack that is installed in this line will cause a loss of signal. Make sure that if there is more that one jack, the computer is the first jack that the phone line goes to after it gets in the house. One thing that you can check if you have the gray box on the outside of your home is to open this up and run the computer phone line directly to this. It has a test port in it. Make sure that you use no more than 10 feet of line from the computer to this port. The longer the distance the worse the signal. Good quality cords are a must. Outside the home is the responsibility of the Phone Company. Call them and have them check for line noise. They will only guarantee you a speed of 9,600 baud so don't get to upset if they tell you everything is okay, yet you still have low speeds. If you have another phone line in the house, try it.