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Mexico is Nearer Than You Think

A query from Mexico about line quality elicits worldwide sympathy from the ISP-Tech list because low-quality phone lines are a global problem, and customers' cheap modems are a headache for ISPs everywhere.

[March 13, 2001]

On the ISP-Tech list in February, JP inquired,

"I run a small ISP in a small town in Mexico. In some parts of town the phone lines are not so good, and it's very common to get disconnected from the Internet.

I thought the problem was with my customers' modems, but one customer told me that sometimes he connects to the Internet through an ISP in another city by long distance, and then he can be online for hours without being disconnected.

I am using common modems that you can buy anywhere, not professional modems for an ISP. If I change my modems, will this solve the problem?"

A couple of respondents suggested upgrading modem quality at least to some degree:

[RS noted] "We are an ISP in a small mountain community, and we have many telephone line quality problems as well. First of all, yes, you should make sure all modems are hardware based. No Winmodems, Softmodems, etc. Most PCI slot internal modems are in that group as well. You might want to suggest external modems for the customers with severe problems."

[PH added] "If you can find some old Telebit modems (Worldblazer, Trailblazer), they can be configured to use a proprietary spread spectrum protocol called PEP that is incredibly robust. A large quantity were sold into Mexico and South America largely due to the quality of the telco lines. The downside is that they're old and not as fast as the current standards."

Others agreed, adding other advice to the mix:

[SS explained] "The higher-end modems do much better with marginal phone lines than the cheap modems do. All modems generally do well with good phone lines, but the difference between cheap modems and good modems is how they handle less-than-wonderful line conditions. There is also the issue of call routing. In the USA, at least, since long distance calls are usually handled by different companies than the ones that handle local calls, a long distance call may take a completely different path than a local call might, which might lead to the situation you describe. But I think you might do well to at least upgrade to better consumer modems, if not 'professional grade' modems."

[JL observed] "Your problem is one that many other ISPs face. The fact that you live in Mexico does not affect the issue one way or the other: there are old phone lines everywhere. Most of us use 'professional' rack mounted modems not because they're necessarily able to connect with a greater number of other modems, but because they're easier to install and maintain, more reliable, fewer wires all over the place, less physical space used, less heat generated, etc. But generally speaking, yes, if you can afford it, go for professional rack-mounted modular modems. You can't lose: unless your subscribers are using really unusual modems at their end of the wire, you'll gain all the advantages I mentioned above. Here's a list of online sources offering information on these issues which you may find helpful:

www.56K.com

www.modemhelp.org

www.modemhelp.net

www.driversguide.com

www.808hi.com/56k

www.808news.com/forum56

www.jenera.com/modems

Still, remember that you may be located in a neighborhood yourself which has such poor telephone service that the only way to improve things is to move your ISP equipment to a different location. But of course that's often not a very practical solution."

— End