Trouble connecting to Earthlink dialup

[LittleGhoti]

Have a friend with windows 2000 who is connecting to Earthlink dialup with a US Robotics external modem. He claims not to have made any changes, but now takes 3 or more minutes at the "verify username and password" stage, then connects. Any ideas what he might have done?

[mbossman2]

any speed degradation when you finally do connect? or just does it take a long time?

if there is a speed loss then i would look to the phone lines.

if it is taking a long time to authenticate (with no other performance issues) it is probably earthlink's issue with their AAA servers and i'd give them a call.

[LittleGhoti]

His connection speeds were never good, but they are still about the same. He has had no satisfaction from Earthlink's support. Maybe it's time to change to a different IP. Thanks

[glc]

Try a different local access number.

[LittleGhoti]

He lives in the country in southen Missouri and this is the only access number. It used to be a privately owned IP, but was bought out by Earthlink. The problems just started this month. After a fresh install, I tested it with a local access number here in Illinois and had no problems. When he got back home; he complained to me. Thanks anyway.

[bailey]

generaly speaking, the phone lines in missouri are in very poor shape and the phone company refuses to correct the problems if the phones work ok.
but this is just from my own personal experience there.
if your able to connect with anything better than 28k, then your doing great.

[digitalfreedom64]

If the phones in missouri are like in country here in mississippi they never work right. The phone company comes out and looks everything over on our road says they have it fixed.....a week later then phones are out again. I have resorted to a $69.99 for direcway through Earthlink (the only way I can get broadband out here) and a cell phone. I've never had any problems with earthlink tech support though. Well other than half the time they don't know any better what to do than I do and i end up fixing the problem myself. Like was said before I posted if your friend is getting 28k then things are great, I was lucky to get 20k when i was on dialup.