Dial up connection problem in Windows XP home edition

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul Wade
  • Start date Start date
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Paul Wade

I have just set-up a new dial up connection manually to a new ISP and
made this connection the default while still keeping my old ISP as a
backup (which works fine), a few times the new connection stays
connected ok but most times the connection lasts about 2 mins and then
disconnects, this same new ISP connection works fine on my old win98
pc without dropping the line.

Observations which “may” be relevant:
The connection to the new ISP uses a password number 4 digits long,
however, when the connection box appears the password area shows about
10 stars instead of 4 which presumably means that the default stored
password has been changed somehow??? I have to change this 10 digit
password and replace it with the correct 4 digit password number and
connect.

When connecting to the internet using a stored URL a connection box
appears (this box shows the password as 10 stars (chars or digits
long) however, when clicking on the connect icon from the desktop a
different much larger box appears, the password area says “use
default password”?
 
Normally, there should be 16 dots (or stars) in the password field if you're using XP Home Edition. No matter how long or short your password really is, XP uses a security feature to turn it into 16 dots, when it is displayed on the screen. This is to keep anyone from noting how many characters your password really is and makes it much harder to be cracked by potential malicious users. However, none of this would have anything to do with your connection being dropped after a couple of minutes, because if your password was incorrect, you would receive an error (Error 691) and wouldn't get connected at all

Try uninstalling the modem drivers and reinstalling them in device manager and reboot the computer. See if there are any updates for your modem. Use the Windows Update site until it tells you 'There are no updates available at this time'

The fact that your other computer connects without problems may indicate that you have a bad modem in your new pc. It's rare, but it does happen that some pcs are actually shipped with a bad modem (not intentionally - probably happens during the assembly process).
 
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