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Uklinux and it connects at 115K but using kppp stats I see that it consistently leaps and troughs quite badly and keeps stalling. The average speed is about 600b/sec.

This may be because the modem tries to increase its transmission rate, and fails, therefore drops it again. It is normal for a modem on a poor line to do this. Perversely you can get better performance with a slower modem because its peak speed doesn't cause problems - hence no troughs. The modems at both ends renegotiate line speeds at intervals - if you have a modem manual you can use modem initialisation codes which will lower the max. speed at your end. Hit their website if you don't have paperwork. I doubt this is a Linux issue, but Linux may initialise your modem differently to your other machine. Have you compared modem settings? As someone else has said, the 115K is the speed between your serial port and the modem, not between the modem and the ISP. Don't change that, because if your modem uses compression the 115k bandwidth gets used.

You also might be able to complain to BT about a noisy line. If it doesn't meet a minimum standard then I understand that they will fix it without charge.

Complain about crackle on the line. Even if you can't hear it, it may be there :-) Sometimes this is because of water in junction boxes and conduit, and the BT engineer will bale it out. Actually they usually patch you onto a different line to the exchange. The point about gain is equally valid and it makes a LOT of difference. An engineer also told me about some dodgy Spanish bits of v. cheap kit which they can pull and replace at the exchange if they know you have a modem line. My last thought, because you said 56K rather than V90 - before V90 became a fixed standard there were modem wars (modems labelled V56 and X2 were very different), and some ISPs have kit which works better with one make rather than another. That might explain part of the difference. If you ask UKLinux what modem banks they use and whether there are known issues with your make you might get somewhere. Good luck. -- ******************************************************************************** All mail sent and received may be examined to prevent transmission of inappropriate attachments and certain obscenities. Wellington College does not accept responsibility for email contents. Problems to postmaster@wellington-college.berks.sch.uk. ********************************************************************************