sudden disconnects

[Dave Gower]

Unfortunately because I live in the country I can only get 56K dial-up. I
got a new computer with a software modem last September. Last November it
started something annoying, sudden disconnects. These are completely random.
Sometimes I get two in a minute, sometimes it will go for an hour or more
and be OK. When it happens I can hear a faint and short "click".

I've talked to the vendor (a respected local store that does its own service
and has lots of commercial customers) and he says the type of modem he
installed is very reliable. I've tried unplugging the other phone devices,
no improvement. My phone lines and jacks inside the house are all new. When
I do download it comes through quickly enough for dial-up. The quality of
voice transmission is good. I've talked twice to my ISP and they've checked
my XP settings, but say they can't help any more than that.

I don't think it's the outside lines because that's usually
weather-dependent, and it doesn't seem to be any worse on wet windy days
than dry ones.

I've never heard of a virus or trojan that does things like that.

My vendor suggested I might want to try an external hardware modem but
wasn't very optimistic. Any other thoughts?

 

[philo]

Unfortunately because I live in the country I can only get 56K dial-up. I
got a new computer with a software modem last September. Last November it
started something annoying, sudden disconnects. These are completely random.
Sometimes I get two in a minute, sometimes it will go for an hour or more
and be OK. When it happens I can hear a faint and short "click".

I've talked to the vendor (a respected local store that does its own service
and has lots of commercial customers) and he says the type of modem he
installed is very reliable. I've tried unplugging the other phone devices,
no improvement. My phone lines and jacks inside the house are all new. When
I do download it comes through quickly enough for dial-up. The quality of
voice transmission is good. I've talked twice to my ISP and they've checked
my XP settings, but say they can't help any more than that.

I don't think it's the outside lines because that's usually
weather-dependent, and it doesn't seem to be any worse on wet windy days
than dry ones.

I've never heard of a virus or trojan that does things like that.

My vendor suggested I might want to try an external hardware modem but
wasn't very optimistic. Any other thoughts?

Here is what you can do to at least try and isolate the problem:

sign up for one of those free services such as juno or net zero

give it a try and if you still keep getting disconnected
then it could be a line problem or possibly a modem problem


if you do not get disconnected, then the problem is probably with your ISP

 

[CBFalconer]

Unfortunately because I live in the country I can only get 56K
dial-up. I got a new computer with a software modem last September.
Last November it started something annoying, sudden disconnects.
These are completely random. Sometimes I get two in a minute,
sometimes it will go for an hour or more and be OK. When it
happens I can hear a faint and short "click".

Do you have call waiting service on the line? Check with your
telco about how to disable it. If you do, an incoming call can
interrupt the carrier so the modem thinks it has been
disconnected.