Keep in mind 99.9% of our customers have absolutely NO problems with our service, but 56K V.92 connections are the bane of all ISPs. 56K V.92 modem connections are absolutely & totally dependent on line conditions.. the quality of your local telephone lines. You get what you get. No ISP in the world can guarantee the reliability, stability or the speed of your connection. We are dependent on what is between your modem and ours... the local telephone lines & network.

Common Problems & Possible Fixes... In English!

1. How's the Weather? Yup. Rain, Lightning, Thunder, Wind & Snow will cause pops and clicks on your phone line, which will knock your modem off-line. If you hear "clicks" and other noise (static) when you use your phone to call someone, then you are in this category. We call this a "dirty" telephone line and there is absolutely nothing we can do to help you, please contact your local teleco provider to fix this problem.

2. Have call waiting on your telephone line? If you have call waiting and do not have the "cancel call waiting" service installed on your local telephone line (*70) and you receive an incoming call while online... you'll get bumped off. Call your local teleco provider to order the "cancel call waiting" service. ***Please note that some teleco providers can now channel that otherwise lost incoming call to a voice mail service for an additional fee. Wilkshire.net is not responsible for services you add or delete from your local teleco service. This includes the monthly charges for extra services. Wilkshire.net is NOT the telephone company and we can NOT "turn on" this service for you, the only thing we can help you with is adding the *70 to your Dial Up Networking connection.

3. Force your modem into NOT going 56K V.92. In your dialup window, put in three commas after the phone number e.g. 330-874-XXXX,,, What this does is to force your 56K modem to wait fifteen seconds (each comma is around 5 seconds) before attempting to connect via modem tones. This way the 56K portion of the handshake is "skipped over" and our modems will begin to negotiate at V.34 speeds (28.8kbps or 33.6kbps). This will NOT work for all modem brands or situations, but we've known it to work. Remember, the faster you connect, the more unstable your connection. Yes, we know this isn't why you bought your new 56K V.92 modem for, but it will help you connect.

4. Make sure you have the latest modem drivers for your modem installed on your PC. For Example: At home, I have an "unnamed", "store-bought" PC that has a junky generic modem in it. Well, initially all I could hookup at was 26K bps (no kidding.) After 1 million years searching and navigating the manufacture's website, I FINALLY found the modem driver upgrade. Now I connect at 46K bps! We recommend that you contact the support department for your brand name PC and have them help you with updating your modem driver. With some modem types there is NO "going back" or "undoing" an update and if it's incorrect. Wilkshire.net will not be responsible for someone "screwing up" or damaging their modem, because they didn't want to ask for help. *** Note: We will not provide hardware support for your PC, but we can try to steer you in the right direction.

5. Check your connections. If you have a 3 foot connection from the back of the modem to your wall teleco outlet/jack... why have a 25 ft phone cord for that connection? Buy a correct length phone cord, shielded if possible. DO NOT USE PLASTIC JACK SPLITTERS THAT TURN ONE PHONE JACK INTO TWO... these cause NOTHING but problems, daisy chain you telephone to your modem instead. Another thing you can do along this line (pun) is to have your local teleco provider "clean up/condition" your phone line. The best way to get them to your house is to mention nothing about the Internet. If you do... they won't help you. Make something up like "noise" on your telephone line and don't tell them you have a cordless phone. Wilkshire.net is NOT responsible for any charges you incur from having the local teleco fix their own telephone line that they charge you for on a monthly basis.

6. Try an alternate modem dial up networking access number for your location or town. We have many different dial up numbers for many different cities. We only assign one at the time of signup to limit the possibility of over crowding our lines and stopping rampant busy signals. Call us for alternative dial up networking numbers at 330.874.9226 option 2 for technical support. We will work with you to find a DUN number that works best for you and then assign you over to it permanently. Depending on where you live... one set of numbers may work better for you than another. One may not work at all... remember, we are dependent on what is between your modem and ours... the local telephone lines & network.

7. Try another telephone jack or outlet in the house. Sometimes one jack in the house will work better than others. Why? We can't answer that question. That question is better left to the telephone company or person that installed that jack for you.

8. Get a better modem. Stay away from "goofy" - "no name" modems. It's hard to find the correct modem drivers and future updates. We recommend US Robotics modems if you're in the market for the new one. The External USR V.Everything "rules" and is a network operations department "personal" favorite. We recommend hardware based modems over software based modems, 10 times out of 10. Stay away from those El' cheapos. They're cheap for a reason.

9. Do you have "Hang up after sending and receiving" check marked or turned on in your email preferences? Microsoft Outlook Express has a really annoying setting that we find many customers sometimes "feel the need" to enable. We highly recommend that you NOT enable this feature, because every time you finish checking your email account it will disconnect your connection. You can correct this by opening Outlook Express, left click on "Tools", left click on "Options". Once in your "Options" screen you will see multiple tabs that you can left click on to select. Left click on "Connections" and then un-check "Hang up after sending and receiving". Left click on "OK" at the bottom and this will save your settings.

10. "Brown Outs" & "Power Fluxes" - IBM and American Power Conversion released a joint study that uncovered a possible culprit for modem disconnections. According to their study, differences in the frequency of AC house current powering your PC may affect your modem connection. Normally, household current flows at a frequency of 60HZ, however, since your house is connected to a power grid that has ever changing current levels, this frequency can change abruptly for a few seconds or a few minutes (Brown Out). Within this time, a modem can disconnect caused by the change in operating voltage. One reason for this occurrence is apparently derived from the ability of a modem to "sense" what it's maximum connect speed can be during a given session. Since the power fluctuation causes a performance lapse in the modem, it cannot correct for the change rapidly enough and a disconnect occurs. APC www.apcc.com recommends adding a UPS battery backup system to your computer that has not only lightning protection, but also can adjust for frequency differences and will regulate a steady stream of power. (Such as the APC Office Pro Series or Smart UPS Series).

We have Cisco (V.92) Modem Racks for all our dial up networking connections. Our modems are located physically at the teleco office and are tied directly to the teleco switch via fiber optic cable. Our lines are "clean and green", meaning they're "noise-free, digital and highly expensive". Until your data reaches our network... it's out of our hands. If you are having problems, we strongly suggest and urge you to contact your local teleco provider. Until they have enough people driving them crazy with complaints, the won't fix their own networks... but they'll keep sending you that monthly bill...

We will do everything that we possibly can to help a Wilkshire.net customer with their problem, but the majority of problems are not caused by us. The average customer automatically assumes, incorrectly, that this is their ISP's problem or the ISP is down. Contrary to popular belief, we try not to "monkey" with equipment and servers that are up and working correctly. Please contact us for more information or questions not covered.

Hang in there... - support@wilkshire.net