cable and dialup problem

[needy]

When I was using Win 98, my dialup connection had priority over
my cable modem. In other words, as long as I didn't click on my
dialup connection to dialup my ISP, the cable modem was operating.
Once I clicked on my dialup connection, the cable modem would give up
the connection, and allow the dialup connection to work.
Now that I'm using Win XP Home version, the cable modem is the
only way I can connect. Even though I have the same dialup
connections setup, they are grayed out so that clicking on them
doesn't do anything. When the cable is down, I'm unable to connect
through my dialup ISPs.
Does anyone know how to correct this?

 

[Chelsea]

When I was using Win 98, my dialup connection had priority over
my cable modem. In other words, as long as I didn't click on my
dialup connection to dialup my ISP, the cable modem was operating.
Once I clicked on my dialup connection, the cable modem would give up
the connection, and allow the dialup connection to work.
Now that I'm using Win XP Home version, the cable modem is the
only way I can connect. Even though I have the same dialup
connections setup, they are grayed out so that clicking on them
doesn't do anything. When the cable is down, I'm unable to connect
through my dialup ISPs.
Does anyone know how to correct this?

Hiya,
I would recreate the connection. Control Panel-Network Connections and use
the Create a new connection Wizard. You will need your ISP login, password
and telephone number. If you want this as a default connection, right click
and select "default connection". Delete your former dial up connection. Hope
that helps

Chelsea

 

[needy]

Hiya,
I would recreate the connection. Control Panel-Network Connections and use
the Create a new connection Wizard. You will need your ISP login, password
and telephone number. If you want this as a default connection, right click
and select "default connection". Delete your former dial up connection. Hope
that helps

Chelsea

Hi Chelsea! Thanks for the help, but that doesn't work. When I
try to create a new connection, I get a window that asks you to choose
from one of four connection types, "Connect To The Internet", which is
the one I choose, "Connect To The Network At My Workplace", "Setup A
Home Or Small Office Network", or "Setup An Advanced Connection".
Even thought the first one is the one I want, I've tried all four
of these, just to see what happens. When I choose the first one, I
get a window that asks you to choose either "Choose from a list of
service providers", "Set up my connection manually" (this is the one I
choose, although I've tried all three), and "Use the CD I got from an
ISP".
When I choose the second one, I get a window that has three
selections, "Connect Using a Dialup Modem", "Connect Using A Broadband
Connection That Requires A Username and a Password", and "Connect
Using A Broadband Connection That Is always On." The first two
selections are grayed out so I can't select them. Only the last
option is checked, and there's no way to uncheck it. This is where
I'm having a problem.
I think that what I did originally was to setup my dialup
accounts first, then connect to cable. That's how I was able to
originally create the dialups, but now I can't create any more dialup
accounts.
Any ideas? Again, I appreciate any help you can offer.

 

[Chelsea]

Hi Chelsea! Thanks for the help, but that doesn't work. When I
try to create a new connection, I get a window that asks you to choose
from one of four connection types, "Connect To The Internet", which is
the one I choose, "Connect To The Network At My Workplace", "Setup A
Home Or Small Office Network", or "Setup An Advanced Connection".
Even thought the first one is the one I want, I've tried all four
of these, just to see what happens. When I choose the first one, I
get a window that asks you to choose either "Choose from a list of
service providers", "Set up my connection manually" (this is the one I
choose, although I've tried all three), and "Use the CD I got from an
ISP".
When I choose the second one, I get a window that has three
selections, "Connect Using a Dialup Modem", "Connect Using A Broadband
Connection That Requires A Username and a Password", and "Connect
Using A Broadband Connection That Is always On." The first two
selections are grayed out so I can't select them. Only the last
option is checked, and there's no way to uncheck it. This is where
I'm having a problem.
I think that what I did originally was to setup my dialup
accounts first, then connect to cable. That's how I was able to
originally create the dialups, but now I can't create any more dialup
accounts.
Any ideas? Again, I appreciate any help you can offer.

Hi Needy,
Check device manager to make sure the modem is still correctly recognised.
Even if it is, right click it and select uninstall then restart the PC.
This should force XP to redetect it. If it installs ok go to Phone and
Modem in control panel and make sure it is still on the correct port usually
Com1 for external and Com3 for internal modems. On the same form click
properties,diagnostics and query modem. After a few seconds a string of
Hayes codes are executed. Hopefully all of this should tell us if its a
modem problem or an XP hardware communication thing. Lets see what happen

Chelsea

 

[Needy]

Hi Needy,
Check device manager to make sure the modem is still correctly recognised.
Even if it is, right click it and select uninstall then restart the PC.
This should force XP to redetect it. If it installs ok go to Phone and
Modem in control panel and make sure it is still on the correct port usually
Com1 for external and Com3 for internal modems. On the same form click
properties,diagnostics and query modem. After a few seconds a string of
Hayes codes are executed. Hopefully all of this should tell us if its a
modem problem or an XP hardware communication thing. Lets see what happen

Chelsea

Hello again Chelsea! I had tried checking out the modem by
having the software do a modem query while I was in Device Manager,
and it came back with a bunch of codes, indicating that it was
communicating with it and it was working.
I uninstalled it and rebooted......then let Windows detect it and
install it again, as you suggested above, but unfortunately, I still
have the same results.
Some time ago, I remember getting a window that had the option
to, "Always check for a connection", but I don't remember how to
access that window again. Plus, in that window, that option to check
for a connection was also grayed out, so I couldn't select it, but I
wondered if that might have been connected to this problem. The
reason I say that is because, way back, when I first got this
computer, I was setting up the dialup accounts, and I remember that
option and it wasn't grayed out. Since I was also going to add the
modem, I didn't check the box because I figured I didn't want it to
check for a connection, since the cable was always on. Since that
time, when I stumbled across that option again, it was grayed out.
I tried unplugging the cable modem, and disabling the ethernet
card, just in case they were causing something to override the dialup
procedure, but that didn't help either.
I've gone to Microsoft's website trying to see if they could
offer some help but I couldn't find anything. I'm sure that there are
many people who have broadband and a dialup for backup, so I can't be
the only one who has run into this problem. You'd think that
Microsoft would have something about it on their site, but if they do,
I can't find it. Then again, I don't put much faith in their tech
support, since I had a problem with WIN 95, and after paying them $35
for a tech session, they were unable to help me. I ended up going to
a newsgroup and got the solution in 5 minutes for free.
Again, thank you for taking the time to try and help me, I do
appreciate it.

Needy

 

[Chelsea]

Hi Needy,
arn't computers fun? I don't remember you saying what service pack you are
using but try this
Reinstall Service Pack One and see if that makes a difference alternatively
if you are on SP2 then reinstall that.
Does the problem still exists?

If you don't currently use SP2 then don't install just yet as it will just
complicate things.

Chelsea

 

[Needy]

Hi Needy,
arn't computers fun? I don't remember you saying what service pack you are
using but try this
Reinstall Service Pack One and see if that makes a difference alternatively
if you are on SP2 then reinstall that.
Does the problem still exists?

If you don't currently use SP2 then don't install just yet as it will just
complicate things.

Chelsea

Oh, I know how computers can be aggravating.<g> I've done a lot
of fixes on computers in the past, but this has me stumped.
As for my operating system, I'm running SP1. I will never
install SP2. Everyone I know who has tried has had nightmarish
problems. Some people still haven't been able to get their computers
back up and running.
I even stopped installing their updates. I did this after I
installed one of their updates and it slowed my computer down to a
crawl. After I uninstalled that update, the computer went back to
running normally again. I figured, if that's what I can expect from
their updates, I don't need them.
As for my system, well, I using a Dell Dimension 8250 system,
running a 3.06 Ghz Pentium 4 with hyper threading technology, I have
1.5 GB of RDRAM, 320 GB of hard drive space, an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
video card with 128 MB of Ram, a Santa Cruz Turtle Beach sound card.
The modem is a Conexant HSF V92 56K RTAD Speakerphone PCI Modem. The
ethernet card is an integrated one.
You probably didn't need all that info, but I figured I post it
anyway in case something might be useful.
As for reinstalling SP1, well, I've already done that in the
past.....several times actually, but still no luck. What bugs me is
that I WAS able to setup the dialup accounts when I first got this
system. I don't know what changed, because I never used the dialup
accounts until my cable internet went down one day. That's when I
discovered that I couldn't access my dialup accounts, or, create a new
one. It's as though, when I hooked up my cable, everything else
became disabled on it's own. That's why I thought that if I unhooked
the cable, everything might go back to normal but it didn't.
So, if anything I mentioned above might give you any ideas, I'd
be happy to hear them, and as always, thanks for taking the time to
respond.

Needy

 

[Chelsea]

Hi Needy,
that sounds quite some system you have there. You'll know this but I'll say
it anyhow-without sp2 and with an always on connection it is just a matter
of time before something infects your system. I know SP2 sometimes messes up
systems, but I must say I have 5 pcs here and have worked on quite a few of
my clients computers and very few service pack updates have gone badly
wrong. I'd like to think it was my brilliance, but SP2 is much more stable
than is claimed. Most of the new features can be switched off if necessary
anyhow. What you must have is protection from the flaws that worms like
sasser and sobig take advantage off. I'd give serious consideration to SP2.
Why not make a system image and try it. Actually I looked on
Expert-Exchange about this problem-those people are seriously good with
troubleshooting. The accepted answer to your problem according to them is 1)
reinstall SP1 or 2) put SP2 on.

Chelsea

 

[Needy]

Hi Needy,
that sounds quite some system you have there. You'll know this but I'll say
it anyhow-without sp2 and with an always on connection it is just a matter
of time before something infects your system. I know SP2 sometimes messes up
systems, but I must say I have 5 pcs here and have worked on quite a few of
my clients computers and very few service pack updates have gone badly
wrong. I'd like to think it was my brilliance, but SP2 is much more stable
than is claimed. Most of the new features can be switched off if necessary
anyhow. What you must have is protection from the flaws that worms like
sasser and sobig take advantage off. I'd give serious consideration to SP2.
Why not make a system image and try it. Actually I looked on
Expert-Exchange about this problem-those people are seriously good with
troubleshooting. The accepted answer to your problem according to them is 1)
reinstall SP1 or 2) put SP2 on.

Chelsea

I'm not concerned about any problems that could occur by having
an always on connection. I run Norton Personal Firewall, ZoneAlarm
Pro, Norton Anti Virus, Pest Patrol, Counter Spy, AdAware SE
Professional, SpyBot, Startup Monitor, and just in case all of those
programs miss something, Norton Go Back. If anything gets through
that, then I doubt that SP2 would have protected me anyway.<g>
Also, when someone says that to correct a problem like I'm
experiencing, I need to install SP2, I kinda grin because, what
they're saying is that Microsoft turned out Win XP with SP1 that
wouldn't do what I'm trying to do, and that I need to install SP2 to
fix it. That wouldn't make sense, as I'm sure there are many other
people trying to do what I'm trying to do, and have succeeded before
SP2 ever came out. From everything I've read about SP2, it only fixes
security holes in Win XP, and I've fixed them with the programs I
mentioned above..
One thing I've always practiced.....never upgrade your operating
system, just use what the computer came with, since that was what the
computer was designed around. If you need to upgrade for whatever
reason, then buy a new computer with it already installed. If it's a
Dell computer, then you shouldn't have any problems. I've bought 5
Dell systems over the years, just because I wanted the latest and
greatest, and have never had any problems with them....and no, I don't
work for Dell, I just love their systems. When they come out with a
dual 64 bit processor, I'll get one of those, although I don't think
I'll be able to afford to max it out with ram like I usually do,
unless ram drops a considerable amount in price by then.(I think the
64 bit processors max out at 128 GB of ram.
Just curious, but do you use ZoneAlarm Pro? If so, have you
noticed all the attempts to access your system form Korea, China, and
Europe? I've gotten 5 alerts since I started typing this response.
It's been like that for weeks now. I guess there is no shortage of
hackers, no matter what country you're in.<g> Jeez, I just had
another one. I may have to turn off the pop up alert messages.
Anyway, if I can't get this to work, I might drop in another
hard drive, maybe a 400 GB one, and install Win XP on that, just to
see what happens.(jeez, 2 more ZoneAlarm popups, again from Korea.)
So, I guess I'm back to square one. As always, I appreciate your
help Chelsea.

Needy