Internet, modems in Russia

[JohnG]

Hi everyone.

My wife is going to visit Russia soon. I am preparing a laptop computer for her to bring and possibly leave there for her parents. Her parents live in Izhevsk, and they have what we in America would call a "party line". I am wondering if any of you would know if, first of all, will a modem work on a party line? My other question is about the modem itself. In Russia, I imagine they need a different type of modem than we use here. Does anyone know about this, or where to purchase them?

Any information would be helpful.

Our best regards to all here.

By the way, we finally got her green card in the mail a couple of weeks ago. It came from the TSC of all places, not the Miami INS.

[BubbaGump]

... in response to Internet, modems in Russia, posted by JohnG on Feb 28, 2003

The type of phone jack we use in the USA is RJ-11.

http://www.walkabouttravelgear.com/modem.htm

http://www.fos.ut.ac.ir/text/links/home/inter/Internet/HTML/chap4.htm

Dialing Guide for Russia
http://www.worldcell.com/wrldrw/grw/country/russia/09grw.html

[Pacifix]

... in response to Internet, modems in Russia, posted by JohnG on Feb 28, 2003

Party line works except don't use it all the time as the neighbour will get mad. When we had our own apartment with a party line I spent so much time online that they had the tele company come to cut us off, hehe. When I say cut us off I mean it. They came with a knife and cut the line. :-) It was something about internet not being registered on that line. So much for good neighbourhood and a warning beforehand... :-)

I used an analog modem. The connection was not the best. Sometimes it would drop the line all the time. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the modem was pretty standard. Like what we would use in Norway anyway. The phone jack is different though (uhm, I think, I don't know what you use in the US).

She'll probably have to change the modem settings though, so have her bring the manual with her. I don't remember what I did, but I had some hassle before it worked. My tip would be for her to get in touch with someone who's computer literate once she's there.

Best wishes to your wife on her trip!

[CS767]

... in response to Re: Internet, modems in Russia, posted by Pacifix on Mar 1, 2003

Hey folks I solved part of the electrical maze of problems.Type in www.harborfreight.com  keyword solar.I bought the 2783-ovga one that will do AA,AAA,cellphone Bat. and has a 110vac and 12 v adapters.$29.00  but beware if you ship to your house $42.00
after all the BS charges and tax.Go to harborfreight if you have one in your city.I will test it here b-4 I load it in the suitcase.I bought it to protect my digital camera batteries.

[BubbaGump]

... in response to Solar Chargers  , posted by CS767 on Mar 1, 2003

If you're not charging a lot of batteries (like AAs or AAAs) it would have been cheaper to just get a travel adapter and plug that into your charger.  Solar chargers would be less efficient with the being less intense in Russia.

[BubbaGump]

... in response to Internet, modems in Russia, posted by JohnG on Feb 28, 2003

I'm guessing based my answers based on what I knew from past experience.

For party lines in the USA, both people talked on the same pair of wires but there was a third wire to allow the central office to ring one phone or the other.  I don't remember how that works but it used to make sense to me.  Another method would have the ringers on the 2 phones respond to different ringing frequencies. On the party line I had back in the early 60s, our neighbors could pick up and hear us talking.  With a computer it would be like picking up on an extension line and messing up your modem transmission.  Better negotiate with the neighbors when you use the phone line for the modem.  

For computer modems each country used to have it's own unique standard.  Since that was a big problem for travelers, countries in the later 90s were going to standardize on just one modem standard and I think that happened but that was when I left the telephone industry.  All these countries still have different phone jacks and you usually need an adapter for your standard US phone jack.  Many countries now use the standard US jack on their phones with a adapter for their own wall jack.  You can get a wall adapter at Frys or other big electronics stores.  Standard phone lines in the US only use 2 wires.  Other countries often use 3 or 4 but those other wires provide additional functions you don't really need so you can get by with just 2 wires.  I never did find out what the phone system for Russia is like but I did know for about 20 other countries.  

There are basically just 4 worldwide standards for phones: USA, UK, Germany and France (France is unique of course).  Most countries adopted a standard similar to one of these.  Most countries in Europe have phone standards similar to the USA.