Mouse Trouble or Modem Trouble

[Nemo]

When I am on the internet my mouse sometimes freezes while the modem is recieving, and when it is finished I can then again move it, does this have to do with the amount of disk space the I storage cached pages on or is it the mouse or modem?

I have a PS-2 mouse
FIC 503+ 1m cache
USR 56K modem

would it be faster with an external modem?
is there a bus speed difference between the two?

Thanks

[Dominus]

Welcome to the horrible world of Winmodems! By the sound of it, I'm 99% sure that modem is a Winmodem. Winmodems use the systems RAM and CPU cycles to do it's compression instead of using on-board hardware compression. Therefore, when it is performing some intensive task (like connecting) it'll hog enough resources to slow down the system. It'll be especially aparrent on systems without much RAM, or little free RAM.

An external Non-USB modem will be a hard modem (meaning having chipsets on board to do it's own compression) will not hog resources, and will most likely solve your problem.

Another down-point of Winmodems is the fact that they don't work in ANY other OS other than Windows. Not even DOS. Although Winmodems will have limited support in linux kernel 2.4, you will most likely be suck in windows for quite some time unless you replace it.

[Axel]

Regarding speed - two places to check - modem properties under control panel is one, mycomputer-dialup networking-select connectoid-properties is the other one - are you set to fastest possible in both places?

Next - have you checked for IRQ conflicts between the modem and the mouse. control panel/system/device manager/mycomputer/properties

I agree with the above, however - I had a winmodem once - it's a doorstop.

Lastly, I love external modems despite the expense because you can recycle/turn them off without turning off the CPU. Well worth the com port.