Dialup problems after reinstall

[Bill]

I had a good dialup connection (netscape), and all was good with the world.
I suddenly got a registry corruption error, could not boot into windows at
all, and had to do a complete reinstall of xp.

It detected all of my hardware and installed drivers nicely. All is good
except my dialup connection is now very bad. I tried reinstalling the
modem, a different slot, reinstalling isp software, different phone numbers,
new driver, older drivers, and even a different isp. Also tried a different
modem. Same results - bad connections.

It is unlikely my phone line suddenly went bad, since I have a laptop with
the same isp that works fine.

I have sp2 installed, and I think the connection was bad before I
re-installed sp2. I have the firewall turned off, and have no virus scan
program running. I have run spyware programs and there is nothing.

I have a firewire card installed and it seems to be ok - always connected.
I have tried a different com port for the modem, and changed the connection
speed. I still get lousy slow connections. I used to connect repeatedly at
about 50k, now I am lucky to get 28k and it is constantly disconnecting.
The modem is a Motorola sm56 pci card, I have also tried an algere modem.

What else can I try ? Is there some other xp setting that may be messed up
?

 

[Noncompliant]

Are you using the same phone outlet for your PC as your laptop? Could be a
dirty physical connection at the jack.

 

[Bill]

It's the same outlet. And it would be bizarre for the dirt to show itself
at the exact moment I did the reinstall.

Bill

 

[Noncompliant]

That's why I asked the question. You said phone line, not same phone
jack...
The only suspects are before the phone jack now. Both hardware and
software.