"Jim Adney" wrote in message ...
Over the past year my dial-up modem connect speed has been working
it's way downward. I used to connect at around 44-46k, but it's been
going down, more or less stepwise, first to about 40k, and now to
33-36k, although I actually had one connect at 19k.

I called my local phone service repair line to see what they had to
say about this, and was told that they will only guarantee 14.4k. To
me, this seems rediculously slow, but I haven't called anyone else.

What do people out there get these days? Is switching local telco
providers likely to make any difference? Is there any chance that the
14.4k is just a smoke screen that I need to poke thru a bit to get
better results.

Legally the phone co. is only obligated to provide 9600bps.
I get a minimum of 49K, usually 50K from Earthlink dialup,
but there are 11 local access numbers from where I live.

And, yes, I used a laptop to connect directly to the telco service
disconnect with the rest of my house disconnected. The results were
the same, so I'm sure that the problem is outside my home.

Not quite following you. Have you tried from an immediate
neighbor's house?

Please don't bother suggesting something faster. I know about those
options. My dial-up ISP is free, and would prefer to avoid the
considerable extra expense of a high speed connection.

Does your ISP offer any other local access numbers? If so,
try them. Or just for a test, use a number that's not local and
see if there's any difference.