'{'s are characteristic of either a modem problem, or line noise. Line noise can increase when it rains. A good test would be note any correspondence between outside moisture (such as a recent rain) and any odd characters. If you note a relationship, you may want to have the phone company check your lines for breakage or your junction box for water leakage.

If they are '[' brackets, as these appear, then the usual problem is terminal emulation. The easiest thing to do is to set both Free-Net and your home computer's software to use 'vt100' or 'vt102' (they are synonymous.)

If, instead, they are '{' brackets, then usually the telephone connection or your modem is the problem. You can check this by swap-out. First try another modem on your telephone line, and see if the problem occurs. Then use your modem from another telephone line, preferably one on a different exchange. The '{' brackets will probably persist with one or the other of these; if not, then the weather may be implicated. Try to note any correspondence between foul weather and poor communications.
[Randolph Langley, langley@freenet.tlh.fl.us]