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It’s in Googles Patent… but not the end of the story! Googles Patent application became public information according to United States Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005 Serial No.: 748664 Filed: December 31, 2003.
That day I went home to read the legalize mixed with geek speak and attempt to make whatever sense I could out of it… and I have to confess, I’m still re-reading it

When I got to Section [0096] Domain-Related Information I was very interested indeed because I knew it could effect hundreds that I manage Domain Name Service (DNS) for. Before I share the details of the story of how I tested this sole value of pre-paid domain issue on Google and in my mind, I’d like to quote the Patent Application with a special attention to item [0099]:

[0099] Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. For example, domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.

About the time I re-read this the second time, I grabbed my cell phone to telephone my Business Manager. - LOL

I told him, I discovered something really simple and one of the few things that will cost a few bucks, but then, it’s all relative.

One thing that everyone who knows anything about Google is that they are all about not promoting spammers! Since Spammers or fly by night get rich quick idiots use throw away domains, they never invest in their domains future… I may even have slapped myself on the forehead for the simplicity that this one little thing which makes so much sense.

I discussed with my manager peer the possibility to not test over a 9 month period because I’m just as needy as my clients are to do good on the ‘net, but to do it over a quarter of a year. The following day I proposed paying for three additional years, then a month later three more, then on the third month the remaining four. We also determined that since we’ve had a decade to prepare our site, we could not make any other changes what-so-ever. No dotted i’s or crossed t’s because I love that humour in these days of technology. I knew that this test wouldn’t fall into the scientific quality, but figured the results could be measured, in any regard.

Now at this point I need to share the string I was trying hard to “own” for just too long a period. I’d been working on the string “National Internet Service Provider” since 2004 but just couldn’t get about page 40. Yep, not 40th place, but rather the 40th page, and I thought I knew what I was doing, because I did have over decade of experience behind me.

Ten to fourteen days after pre-paying three additional years, I did my Google research and discovered I made it to page 20. As far as I could tell that represented a 100% improvement! It was all I could do to wait another couple of weeks to pay for another three…

So when the second month rolled around, I promptly paid another three making the total only 6 years in advance so far. Geez-O-whizo, I found myself at the bottom of page one, about 7th to 10th place. You can imagine my excitement and the even stronger desire yet to just go ahead and pay for the rest… but no, I knew that some day a story would come from the experience that would potentially benefit anyone interested. It seems enough people have asked me over the years how to do better in the engines, so mot it be.

On the third month, the remaining four years was paid giving config.com a full decade of prepayment. It was at this point we reached the number one spot for that string I wanted so badly of “National Internet Service Provider”. Of course, a few calls and extra mail started to flow also. The down side for the Internet service business is that our bread and butter was established with traditional dial-up Internet access which has been migrating to broadband cable, DSL, and wireless. In the course of tweaking our site to reflect the commercial interest which we had maintained since 1993 on the ‘net, we started getting more commercially oriented calls. To our surprise, even from a few big companies
that were looking for various access solutions which included dial-up.

Once we were established on the top ten, we also started gaining click throughs to our pages which also gained page rank and in the end, many other strings started moving to the top ten also. One should also assume that just because the domain was paid in advance, they need not do anything else toward maintaining any degree of quality SEO, without the many other things that can effect the final placement rank! I like to say there are many little simple things that need to be thought of as an element of a web page. It’s not getting them all done overnight but rather getting the important easy ones out of the way first, and move on to the next!

I might also add that how fast prepayment may work for you, compared to my story, I’d suggest getting the basic minimum preqreuisites out of the way at the creation of each page! I also like to compare domain pre-payment like buying an ad in a local newspaper that will run only one day and may generate a worthy result of a few calls, to, like having an advertisement that will bring results for a decade! All you have to do is keep paying every year, for another year, and have the other elements of SEO in place and you too can “own” your own piece of Google placement.

Now that a couple of years has passed since we learned the value of pre-paid domains, we made several discoveries which we like to call SEO trade secrets. For the sake of completeness, added credibility, and of course some humor, I’ll share a couple.

My marketing Guru and I sat one day and thought of all the big name companies in technology we could fill up a legal pad full line by line. Then we went to domaintools.com and started to perform a whois on them. To our great surprise Google being at the top of the list and the owner of the Patent only had there paid for a few years in advance. As of this writing at http://whois.domaintools.com/google.com it Expires: 2011-09-14 … I guess Google doesn’t need to promote themselves or has special code that favors their pages which I also doubt.

It’s really exciting to see our company above such as Microsoft for different Internet business strings, whom to their credit had their domain paid for farther in advance than any of the other companies we researched which Expires: 2014-05-03! I’ve wondered however if their motive wasn’t SEO related but to the embarrassment they suffered when they purchased Hotmail back around 1999 and failed to renew their $35.00 annual domain fee. The Hotmail domain expired and millions of users were without email until a nice young Linux Geek paid it for them. I always
loved that story enough to smile knowing even a huge multi-Gazillion dollar company can make a simple mistake which
can cause so much potential harm, integrity certainly, and otherwise!

As long as the big boy public companies are spending millions more toward their on-line advertising each year than on their SEO, I guess the small guys still have a chance in the World of E-commerce! I get the biggest grin every time I see Verizon paying their $8.00 per click out of their 1.3 billion dollar advertising budget for 2007 knowing they have a lot more money than me, and that the knowledge one can possess can still compete online….

This is in fact the first thing I tell a new potential client to commit to, even before paying me, as it will help me help them much faster and less of the other littles things that need to be attended to. It is simply that important to any company that is serious about online marketing.

Our One-time $250.00 SEO review service allows potential new clients to put our experience to the test before considering an annual $2000+ SEO consulting retainer.

For complete information regarding our Professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) visit URL:
http://www.ProfessionalSearchEngineOptimization-SEO.com

About config.com:
The domain config.com was established in 1994 provides Internet access throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico using multiple network providers serving over 15,000 cities. config.com also offers Ohio based DSL, web hosting, VoIP, SEO, E-commerce, and many other International Internet services.

config.com offers unique web packages which include optional added values of http://TheInternetBarterExchange.com and
ProfessionalSearchEngineOptimization-SEO.com simple automation.

Contact:

Joe Rinehart, Author
http://www.JoeRinehart.com
config.com, Inc.
124 East Spruce Avenue
Ravenna, Ohio 44266-3048

Ofc: 330.297.9595:
Toll-Free: 888.config.com (1.888.266.3442)
http://www.config.com/
mailto:info@config.com

###

Press Release - Ravenna, Ohio

config.com Internet services is introducing a new web site Search Engine Optimization (SEO) review service which allows potential interested e-commerce clients to experience the value of our electronic marketing knowledge.

config.com has extensive experience with electronic marketing now called (SEO) since 1994 and has studied the major search engines since they’ve been established. Having utilized various placement strategies and monitored their changes and Patents, we’ve kept up to date.

Several examples of our ability to be seen above most others is with our own High Tech Internet company electronic marketing efforts by simply searching on Google for a few common search strings we verified on Sept. 17th 2007 which include:

Results 1 - 10 of about 257,000,000 for what is national Internet access. (0.14 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 200,000,000 for best small internet companies. (0.27 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 189,000,000 for commercial internet service. (0.32 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 260,000,000 for business internet access companies. (0.14 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 374,000,000 for national internet service. (0.37 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 49,500,000 for america base internet service. (0.16 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,040,000 for small business seo provider. (0.22 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,050,000 for small business isp hosting. (0.15 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 5,070,000 for internet access in ohio. (0.13 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,140,000 for National dial-up network isp. (0.13 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 6,530,000 for isps for small business. (0.22 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,330,000 for international small business e-commerce service provider. (0.32 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,080,000 for international dial up internet access. (0.12 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 77,900,000 for international broadband internet service. (0.17 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,090,000 for national dial-up companies. (0.18 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,880,000 for national small business web hosting provider. (0.14 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,900,000 for national small business hosting provider. (0.15 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,280,000 for small business e-commerce service provider. (0.19 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 86,800,000 for wireless national internet. (0.15 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 28,900,000 for american internet service provider. (0.22 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,330,000 for internet service provider php mysql apache. (0.12 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,010,000 for high speed dial up internet service. (0.25 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,890,000 for i need high speed dialup. (0.14 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,100,000 for small isp companies. (0.11 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,920,000 for exclusive marketing management program. (0.26 seconds)

strings that config.com owns in the top 20 includes:

Results 11 - 20 of about 56,300,000 for small business internet service provider. (0.14 seconds)
Results 11 - 20 of about 2,230,000 for web hosting internet service provider isp. (0.09 seconds)
Results 11 - 20 of about 2,880,000 for isdn internet service. (0.08 seconds)
Results 11 - 20 of about 2,160,000 for dial-up network isp. (0.12 seconds)
Results 11 - 20 of about 3,960,000 for small business isp. (0.12 seconds)

Projects in which we are involved:
Results 1 - 10 of about 328,000 for sequoia mutual fund. (0.13 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 265,000 for antique chinese tray laquer. (0.16 seconds)

The most competitive in our experience client strings we are pursuing include:
(http://www.TotalFood.Com - New York Metro Food Service Restaurant Trade Magazine)

Results 21 - 30 of about 541,000,000 for Food Service [definition]. (0.06 seconds) (Please note: We’d like to point out that is OVER 1/2 BILLION pages which contain the string “Food Service” without the quotes)

Results 1 - 10 of about 263,000,000 for Food Service books. (0.20 seconds) (Please note: We’d like to point out that is OVER 1/4 BILLION pages which contain the string “Food Service Books” without the quotes)

Try Googling any of the above strings and look where our Internet technology company config.com is placed! Don’t take our word for it, go ahead and try a few! Chances are were #1 in a very highly competitive industry… after all, even config.com can’t compete with Verizon’s 1.3 billion advertising budget this year, so our SEO activities makes a difference!

Our new one-time $250. SEO review service allows potential new clients to put our experience to the test before considering an annual $2000+ SEO consulting retainer.

For complete information regarding our Professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) visit URL:
http://www.ProfessionalSearchEngineOptimization-SEO.com

About config.com:
The domain config.com was established in 1994 provides Internet access throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico using multiple network providers serving over 15,000 cities. config.com also offers Ohio based DSL, web hosting, VoIP, SEO, E-commerce, and many other International Internet services.

config.com offers unique web packages which include optional added
values of http://TheInternetBarterExchange.com and
http://ProfessionalSearchEngineOptimization-SEO.com automation.

config.com has invested heavily toward maintaining a quality of
network services for both consumer and commercial Internet markets
while supporting socially conscience projects.

Contact:

Joe Rinehart, President
Jeff Billman, VP Marketing
John McFarland, Treasurer
config.com, Inc.
124 East Spruce Avenue
Ravenna, Ohio 44266-3048

Ofc: 330.297.9595
Toll-Free: 888.config.com (1.888.266.3442)
http://www.config.com/
mailto:info@config.com

###

Hello Friends,

I was a recently guest on the 08/27/07 07:00 AM EDT Podcast show of Techno-Granny which was my first Podcast experience. It was a pretty fun experience and you may listen to my words of advice in the archives.

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=30986&cmd=tc

Enjoy,
Joe

Dear clients, friends, subscribers, and peers,

As many of you may know, config.com Internet services has been
involved in many non-profit or socially conscience projects
throughout our existence. We have had the opportunity to meet and
work with several wonderful personalities who have also helped make a
difference, on whatever scale. One of the most exciting people we’ve
ever had the opportunity to partner with was Dave Krueger.

It is with great regret and sadness that we inform you of the passing
of one of our “sponsored friends” Dave Krueger who was the producer
of “A Voice for Kids”, a teen suicide prevention show aired from the
Cleveland, Ohio Television and radio markets which was also picked up
on various media stations across the county.

Dave Krueger passed away earlier today after a brief illness at
Southwest General Hospital. He was holding the hand of a dear friend
at the time…

Years ago, Dave saw the growing problem of teen suicide and decided
to do something about it! He indeed made a difference, a big one, and
also became a guiding beacon for those of us he solicited to assist him.

Those of us that had the pleasure of working in any capacity,
regardless of how large or small, shall never forget his excitement
for life, and his ability to share that excitement with anyone who
came in contact with him! I’ll personally never forget his smiling
face when Tom Katovsky of http://www.healthyreferral.com introduced
us, and those times thereafter he’d telephone. I once complained
about it raining outside and how drab it was, and by the time I was
off the phone, I was happy to be working inside… He just had one of
those rare unique personalities that made every one feel special and
excited about life.

If you’d like to see the web site that we sponsored for him to help
achieve his worthy goals, please visit http://www.avoiceforkids.net

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and his kids.
May God bless Dave and his many kids!

Best ‘net regards,
Joe

Dear clients, subscribers, peers, and friends,

Over the years we’ve done a pretty good job of not harassing our
clients with email, unless we’ve had important network news
announcements! Once in a while, we like to share something fun and
interesting, even if we don’t have a network problem. This is one
such occasion.

We are very pleased and proud to announce our first National ad in
any “traditional media” which can be found in the April issue of
Entrepreneur Magazine on page 148! The ad will also run in the May
issue in their Products and Services section.

Sure, we thought we were doing good by having our config.com company
logo next to Earthlink’s in the Verizon SuperPages on-line at http://
yellowpages.superpages.com/listings.jsp?C=Internet+services
+providers&STYPE=S&R=N&EG=0&MC=1&OO=1&F=1&EEM=1&CP=Computers+%26
+Electronics%5EInternet+Products+%26+Services%5EInternet+Services%
5EInternet+Service+Providers and go figure that our dial-up access
subscriber based started migrating to broadband cable, dsl, and
wireless, access about the time we achieved this.

The good news is we’ve always been gradually gaining with our
commercial activity so this is what we are now focused on advertising
these days. To see our Entrepreneur magazine ad on-line, please visit
URL:
http://www.config.com/media/advertising/print/magazine/Entrepreneur/

Thank you for your consideration!

Best ‘net regards,
Joe

Config.com Internet Services of Ravenna is proud to announce that we
are moving to a new location at 124 East Spruce Avenue, Ravenna, Ohio
44266-3048!

After over a decade of renting office space, we’ve made the move from
leasing to ownership of our office facility. This was done to better
protect the config.com stockholders, and clients, by building equity
assets rather than continuing to rent or lease office facilities.
Since December of 2001, we’ve paid in excess of $150,000 in office
rent for the facilities we are leaving behind. While we have been
proud to be in the former Oak Rubber corporate headquarters which was
once the Worlds largest toy balloon manufacturing plant, we are also
very proud to move toward ownership of our own facilities.

We aren’t moving too far either! Instead of being two blocks to the
West of the Portage County Ohio Courthouse, we’ll be two blocks East.
Our new office location is one block South of the Main and South
Prospect Street Sunoco gas station intersection, across the street
from the seven story senior citizen “Prospect House”, just next to
the Pittsburgh Paint Store (formerly Majestic) at the former Guardian
Title Company offices:

124 East Spruce Avenue
Ravenna, Ohio 44266.

To see a Google map go to URL: http://www.google.com/maps , type (or
cut and paste) in the address:
124 East Spruce Avenue, Ravenna, Ohio 44266

To use a Yahoo Map go to URL:
http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=124+East+Spruce
+Avenue&csz=Ravenna%2C+Ohio+44266&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=

Since the building is ready for us to move in, we are, effective
immediately! We welcome everyone to visit us at our new digs between
9 am - 5 pm Monday through Friday or by appointment.

About config.com:
config.com provides Internet access throughout the United States,
Canada, and Puerto Rico using multiple network providers serving over
15,000 cities. config.com also offers Ohio based DSL, web hosting,
VoIP, and many other International Internet services.

config.com offers unique web packages which include optional added
values of http://TheInternetBarterExchange.com and Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) automation.

config.com has invested heavily toward maintaining a quality of
network services for both consumer and commercial Internet markets
while supporting socially conscience projects.

Contact:

Joe Rinehart, President
Kelley Reynolds, CEO
John McFarland, Treasurer
config.com, Inc.
124 East Spruce Avenue
Ravenna, Ohio 44266-3048

Ofc: 330.297.9595
Toll-Free: 888.config.com (1.888.266.3442)
http://www.config.com/
mailto:info@config.com
Emergency Cell: 330.389.1192

###

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) basics that all web masters should know

It must first be known that these tips are generalizations, as all search engines are different. The engines we care about the most is google and yahoo which historically have accounted for the most referred visitors. All the others including what is known as FFA directories are only good for the duration of the links, and may even bring in one or two new visitors monthly.

The first most important aspect of SEO is the URL: or address bar.

The domain name, the directory naming structure, and the file names may all be important to gain reasonable results.

http://www.config.com/36.html doesn’t really describe anything or contain any of the keywords people may likely search for. If this structure must be used due to web builder programs or whatever, then consider mirroring a page location that contains some structure and be certain that the numbered pages contain the titles, descriptions, and keywords.

Our sign up page is located at URL:
https://secure.config.com/registration/Internet/access/MODEM/dial-up/sign-up.html

Now, if someone searches for Internet access registration or signup, boom we’re there.

Also, the domain name that you should choose can matter greatly. It doesn’t have to be the name of your company, but consider one that describes your products, although this can be handled in the path structure mentioned above. The point is, that the domain name can make a difference

The second most important thing is the title of the page.

The title should focus toward the content of the page. You’d not want to include shoes if the page is designed to sell socks.

Titles should contain as many keywords that one can use coherently in a sentence. Use the space, don’t just say xyz company.

Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page, while also using the keyword phrases which people might be using at a search engine to find your site.

The third important prerequesite is using Meta-tags.

It’s really amazing how many beautiful web sites I run into that have no meta tags at all, much less the minimum description and keyword tags.

Here’s an example of a properly coded page using META TAGS;

Please view the source code of http://home.config.com

The fourth most important factor is the actual content of the page itself.

This is the obvious fact, but let’s go one step further. Don’t make one paragraph pages, or cut and paste someone elses content in the same industry (beside potential copyright infringement issues). The more original content the better!

If you are using images, then define the images with ALT TAGs because they too are searched. Think in terms of handicapped accessibility and blind users. Yes, blind users also surf the ‘net, except they have speech synthesis cards that read the text off to them, and when it runs into an image, it’ll read the ALT TAG description of that image.

Content is King! Use as many buzzwords that you can while writing copy for you page.

The fifth factor is optional comments.
Use these with care as they should not be redundant usage of words, but rather pertain to the geographical location you are trying to market when the content on the page has no references to that location for instance.

Once the 5 basic elements are understood clearly, there is also a few other things that anyone interested in doing well in search engines should know. These may include:

1. Get out of the Google sandbox if you have a new domain and pay for it as far in advance as you can afford!

config.com offers additional years at $14.95 past the current year. Visit http://www.PleaseRegisterMyDomain.com

2. DON’T USE FRAMES! All web pages should contain their own above 4 elements. If you use frames, I don’t care how good you are and how pretty your pages look, they will not do good until you drive enough traditional marketing behind it and that could cost millions to compete with others in your industry
The search engines can’t read JavaScript links and menus, and can’t interpret graphics images and Flash. You can still use the eye candy, but just make it easy to navigate for the visitors, and the engines will follow.

3. Use correct and accurate information for the domain registration whois information and make your the email addresses are current and working!

4. Have an abuse and postmaster email set up with your web hosting provider.

Once these thing are complete for a given web page, then it may be safely submitted to the engines.

Press release

RAVENNA, Ohio - Internet service provider config.com establishes The Internet Barter Exchange to provide free optional membership to it’s hosting clients as an added value E-commerce marketing tool.

Through a partnership with The World Trade Banc, config.com hosting clients may market their goods and services to over 500 barter exchanges representing over 70,000 other merchants World-wide and also purchase from an inventory of over $100,000,000.

The barter option for web site hosting packages was the conceived by Joe Rinehart, President of config.com, Inc. upon successfully selling hundreds of website hosting services using barter toward the goal of achieving National advertising media for his small rural Internet service provider (ISP) company. As our success in barter began to grow Joe wondered “What if, we shared our success using barter with our clients to help them grow their businesses?” and set out to research the possibilities. It was then discovered that while a few web hosting companies offered Search Engine Optimization (SEO) none could be found that offered organized barter exchange membership as a vehicle for marketing on-line.

The Internet Barter Exchange was developed after a year of research and development. A partnership with The World Trade Banc will offer up to $1,000 credit line for new members of the Internet Barter Exchange joining through config.com’s all-inclusive website builder packages.

Internet barter exchange membership through config.com’s web site builder package is optional with no setup fees or monthly fees. A 5% fee will occur on any buy or sell exchange transaction.

For additional information on this creative new web hosting service visit http://www.config.com or http://theinternetbarterexchange.com

About config.com Internet services:
config.com has hosted web sites since Jan 1994 and is headquartered in Northeast Ohio. config.com uses a portion of it’s revenues from profit clients to subsidize substantial discounts or grants for non-profit web sites.

config.com has provided Internet solutions for the Akron Digital Academy (the remote learning program for the Akron, Ohio public school system), the Cleveland Clinic (MRI transmission), and has hosted web sites which include United Nations job opportunities (UNJobs.org), A rare disease medical research database (Tryps.org), Kent State May 4th 1970 (May4.org and AlanCanfora.com), Olympic Gold Medalist Butch Reynolds Care for Kids Foundation (butchreynolds.com), KatrinaHousingFoundation.Org, HealthyReferral.com, A World of Difference (Cambodia World Family Sponsor (a-difference.org), and others listed on-line.

config.com also provides Internet access throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico using multiple network providers serving over 15,000 cities.

Contact:

Joe Rinehart, President
config.com, Inc.
124 East Spruce Avenue
Ravenna, Ohio 44266-3048
888.266.3442
http://www.config.com/

###

I’ve used modems ever since the days of 1200 baud back in the eighties. These days I’m a little more fortunate to have 1.56MB per second high speed T-1 access from work, but I still use a modem from my home or outside the office. As more people are signing up on the ‘net I’ve been asked more often about the dreaded “drop carrier” and if everything is OK with our system. This is why I’ve decided to write an indepth article to detail the causes of problem and some potential solutions.

To detail the exact meaning of what a “drop carrier” is, I’d offer this explanition: A dropped carrier is the loss of a connection after the point of username and password being accepted by a server. This article does’nt attempt to detail all of the reasons a connection isn’t made! Password errors are too common and just don’t count. A dropped carrier has the same effect as hanging up the phone on either end.

There are many causes of disconnections or dropped carriers. I’ve created a list to work by in the order I believe solutions are achieved faster. These include:

The details of each item on the list and their solutions include:

a storm or other foul weather

A storm or fould weather is likely the most common cause of dropped carriers. Dampness can basically short circuit the connections and often times a human ear can hear the static in the line. The fact is there isn’t much that can be done to improve this situation except ride out the weather until it’s better.

It is worth mentioning that it’s important to protect your equipment during storms with good surge protection. Without any protection, you are better to be off-line and don’t forget to unplug the phone, computer, monitor, printer, etc… since they can get zapped even if they aren’t on should lightning strike.

Config.Com servers use both surge protection and a battery backup system designed to shutdown the system in the event of an electrical failure. When the power is restored, the system automatically goes back on-line.

picking up a phone extension in another room

Another popular cause for getting disconnected is someone in another room picking up an extension to make a telephone call. ABout the only solution to prevent this from happening is to buy phones with LED lights which show lines in use.

caller rudeness (opp’s I meant call waiting;)

Many phone companies offer additional services these days including call waiting, distinctive ring, call forwarding, etc… These services are operated on digital networks. computers are digital beasts. The modems which convert analog to digital signals back and forth see the tones emitted from services like call waiting as hangup commands (ATH0). The solution is to either turn off the service in your modem settings before dialing out or if the telephone line is dedicated for computer usage, then remove the service from the line and save a few bucks;^)

reverse phone line wiring

The reverse polarity of a phone line can also cause poor connections. Your local electronic store offers a “line polarity tester” for about $5.00. This is something worth checking even on voice lines as it will improve the quality of your telephone service.

bandwidth consumption by too many users

Bandwidth consumption is also a popular cause of dropped carriers. Only so much data can be transmitted through a “pipe” at any one time. A full T-1 can handle about 100 simutanious network users transmitting data at the same time. If an Internet service provider (ISP) has several hundred phone lines on a single T-1 and everyone would update their browsers or otherwise participate in video or sound conferencing, the users would first start to see slow transmissions, then as consumption increases, dropped carriers.

Config.Com makes the bandwidth consumption statistics available for our network subscribers peace of mind. At present we have much more bandwidth than can be used at any one time. We aim to maintain bandwidth carefully as our network grows to assure clean connectivity for all users.

incompatible or cheap modems

It’s a well know fact among old time modem users that two of the same type of modems connecting to each other offer the best throughput. If you connect two of the same brand name cheap modems they will likely be fine. The problem lies in that the Internet service providers offerring dial-in access often are not using inexpensive modems. The quality of their connections may be determined by the type of modems they use.

We believe that if people are getting computers these days to surf the net they should get a good modem worthy of the task. You may skimp on memory, video, sound, etc, but if you are concerned about the quality of your connection, then you should consider the modem as important as the computer itself!

Now, that we’ve cleared the air on quality modems, we run into another problem. There are several types of quality modems. To ease the confusion, we simply recommend asking your Internet provider what type of modems their service uses. If it’s 3COM/USRobotics then buy a good robotics modem. If it’s Cisco router, then buy a Rockwell chipset modem. In all cases we do NOT recommend buying a WIN modem because of it’s inexpensive pricing, because they depend of your computers processor to make them run better, rather than having their own 16550 AFN/AN UART buffer chip.

Config.Com uses 3COM/USRobotics modems because they are the World’s largest manufacturer of modems!

poor modem settings

Not much to say here other than try to stay with factory defaults. If you play with your modem settings and don’t understand them, you are asking for trouble. If you’ve already done the damage by playing with them, bring a terminal widow up then type in “AT&F”. If this doesn’t worf for your modem then you’ll need to read the manual or contact your modem manufacturer.

outdated modem drivers

This is one of those tricky things to determine if it’s the right version for your ISP. Modem drivers used to not be a problem until the speeds of modern modems got faster. Every time a new protocol is invented, there is always some lag time before a standard is produced. The most extreme of this was when 56k was invented by US Robotics which is known as X2. It wasn’t long before Rockwell released their version of 56k which is known as 56K-Flex. After a period of months the V.90 standard was agreed on and many modem manufacturers rushed to jump on the higher speed bandwagon. Since Feb. of 1998 when the V.90 standard was first released there have been several updated versions released. It is important to have the same version as the modem you are connecting to to assure the cleanest connection possible.

Config.Com uses the most recent X2 and V.90 protocol versions available! Our service contract with 3Com includes notification of new releases and upgrades to better keep our dial-in service the highest quality possible.

modem protocol version incompatibilities

This is very closely related to outdated modem drivers. If you have the first release of V.90 and I have the 5th, well, they are going to have differences in them. The solution is again to update your drivers to be sure they are current.

outdated remote access server hardware

This is a very important factor in not only possible drop carriers, but the quality of a 56k or ISDN 128k connection! Many networks established before 1999 we using equipment designed for 28.8k or 33.3k modems. Of course, as protocols were invented so were upgrades for these remote access servers, but, here’s where the problem lies: A Cisco 5200 router was designed using an Apple 20Mhz processor. In order to even attempt to offer 56K and ISDN access the 5200 Cisco must have several upgrades to it. These include:
1. Must be using Mica modems
2. Must be maxed out with memory, &
3. Must use the latest operating system.
Even after these three critical upgrades are made, there are no guarentees of clean connections. especially after reaching about 50% of the servers capacity. I have heard it from a system administrator authority that this is the reason a major telephone company spent a large chunk of change to upgrade their entire network to use Cisco 5300 remote access servers! We’d like to note that the processor speed has double from the Cisco 5200 to the Cisco 5300.

Config.Com specifically designed it’s network for high speed access! Not only for 56K and ISDN, but to allow for ease of upgrading to the forthcoming xDSL standards.

We choose to use the 3COM/USRobotics Total Control remote access server for dial-in access. Our phone lines are digital Primary Rate Interface (PRI) DS1/T1 rather than Basic Rate Interface (BRI) lines. Sure, BRI service will still work with 56k and ISDN modems, but PRI works better.

We selected the Cisco 2610 for routing our Internet packets due to it’s faster processor speed, and other quality features. All of our equipment was purchased in 1999 with the maximum memory available so we’d better meet the demands of 100% high speed capacity access and to take our network down less for upgrades;^) The fact is our Cisco router has more flash memory that it will ever utilize!

These are examples of how we didn’t cut costs at the expense of the quality of our dial-in network to achieve a higher profit margin!

improper gateway setting

While most ISP’s can set their remote access servers to override the Domain Name Services (DNS) and gateway settings, I’ve seen cases where this was done but the user had the wrong settings and encountered problems. Blame it on Uncle Bill… but whatever the reason, it’s worth checking into.

server side idle timeout settings

ISP’s have the ability to set a remote access server to disconnect a user if no characters are transmitted from the keyboard for a particular period of time. There are ways to override this from the user side, but it’s often frowned upon by the ISP’s. If you added up the cost of the modem, phone line, bandwidth, and other overhead involved with just a single access line, it is a lot more than the value of one users account. ISP’s offer dedicated connections for people that need 24 hour access.

Some ISP’s have changed their access accounts and method of marketing to only offer 200-300 hours monthly due to abuse or being taken advantage of by a few users who insist on tieing up resources to the point of losing money for the ISP. One published community ISP model that did this was http://www.delaware.net who did lose about 2% of their user base when they made the change. The quality of their network improved, since those they lost were mostly users that attempted dedicated access were also the largest consumers of bandwidth. Now that ISP make a higher profit due to lower user to modem ratios ;^)

server side session timeout setting

Ahh, this one is a sensitive topic in these days of marketing “Unlimited Access”. I’d like to point out that config.com markets using the phrase “Unlimited Attended Access”. That being said, the fact is some ISP’s will set a session timeout wich causes a disconnection after the specific period of time is reached. No known why to overcome this obsticle as it will require the caller to dial in again, even if the user is using automation to do so.

Config.Com uses the session timeout of 24 hours when dial-in network capacity reaches 75%. This means that a user account will be disconnected after being active for 24 hours. He must re-connect to continue using the account. During periods when network capacity is lower after expand the network infrastructure we lenghten the limits. You may always telephone or email the system administrator to extend these limits for very large file transfers or something like a family emergency.

consumer side idle timeout setting

The Microsoft default settings are something like 15 minutes. We recommend these be extended to at least meet the ISP’s or to have enough time to go to the bathroom, eat lunch, make a quick run to the store, or even accept a telephone call. This settin is under the users control and are accessed by going to my computer, then dial-in networking properties.

a bad phone company trunk line

Not much can be done about this excepting a complaint to the telephone company. This type of problem is more likely to be found in rural areas and have a tendency to exist between communities. If after everything possible has been tried and determined to not be at fault under the users and ISP’s control, then by all means contact the phone company.

I’d suggest to not tell the phone company that you are having problems with your computer, but rather have static on the line or get garbled faxes too often. The reason to keep data transmission out of he pictue is that they will say there is no guarentee for data connections unless you purchase one and frankly, that’s the job of an ISP or ISDN user who wishes high speed connectivity;^)

Your best hope is that enough people will complain in the same geographical area that the phone company will send their specialist out to investigate, and hopefully, find the problem. The down side of this is… In my experience, I believe we’ve pinpointed two sections of our county that users seem to have problems with drop carriers or poorer connections more than normal, but we’ve not succeeded in seeing them solved after three years of helping people get connected

distance to the phone company central office,
The further distance from your modem to the closest phone company central office or sub-station the more likely you are to have a poor connection. Technically, there are ways to solve this, but frankly they can get more costly than the average consumer can afford. The best solution is to buy the best modem possible for your connection to your ISP.

a server reboot, &

Well, this speaks for itself. Can’t do much to prevent it, but your ISP can plan and try to limit it to some degree. Operating systems have to be upgraded from time to time and there may other emergency situations which require a system to be booted. Some ISP’s make their “uptime” stats available which is something to consider when selecting an ISP. Config.Com’s present uptime record for a server is 183 days. As soon as all the servers have their Operating system upgraded, we are going to shoot for a longer record!

other network hardware and software maintenance

This is related to booting servers, but not limited to it. Hardware and software needs upgraded from time to time. You ISP may plan to do this all at once, as grow occurs, or technology is outdated.

Config.Com presently manitains a state of the art network with regard to hardware. A few software upgrades are always being made, but more often than not software upgrades don’t require booting unless it’s an operating system.

Lastly, and very importantly, config.com has designed as much redundancy as possible and will continue to strive for that kind of commitment to quality. Frankly, we haven’t reached the perfection of having multiple T-1 Internet connections, but then I don’t think any other service “to our community” has reached that point either. We have achived a dial-in network design which allows our mail server and radius server to be rebooted without logging users off, because we add the user names and passwords in both our UNIX radius server and our 3COM remote access server.

Security alarm systems

This cause had to be added as it was quite a learning experience for me. We had a user who was getting dropped about every three minutes religiously. When he brought the system into our office, it worked fine. After several months, he telephoned me to inform me that the problem turned out to be due to having his computer modem plugged into the same line that his home security alarm system was on. The bottom line is: If you have a security alarm system, you should not use it for your modem!

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It is my sinere desire that this article helps you understand the many causes of dropped carriers and might offer some solutions to help you limit their occurances.

Best ‘net regards,

Joe Rinehart,
Operations Designer & Network Administrator
Config.Com, Inc.
124 East Spruce Avenue
Ravenna, Ohio 44266-3048
330.297.9595