This has got me stumped

[Tony Meyer]

My dial up connection is acting weirdly, and has been for some time. It
seems like its impossible to download anything larger than about half a meg
without getting disconnected from the net. Yet sometimes I can. I have
uninstalled my modem, several times, and each time it reinstalls it goes to
a port higher eg last time I reinstalled it went to com port 37, saying
all the rest were in use. Now as far as I know, I don't have 37 com ports,
but the modem works.... sort of. Yesterday I uninstalled the modem and coms
one and two, then reinstalled them and the modem went to com 38!! I then
manually put it onto com 2, and it whinged and moaned about it saying it was
in use, but I was firm with it. The properties now say its working fine with
no conflicts, but I still can't download bigger files, such as my AV
definitions. I also changed the modem cable, to no avail. I have two other
computers here, using the same phone line but with no problems. Any
thoughts? Thanks so much.

 

[painless]

In device manager, find a menu item that says "show hidden devices"
checking this box will allow you to see the other 37 modems (ports) that XP
thinks have been disconnected, and allow you to remove them. After fixing
this annoyance, I would try another modem. I ran an ISP for a while, and
could not believe how many problems were solved by changing out the modem
for another brand, or chipset. FWIW The Agiere chipsets seemed to be the
most compatible. (they were also the least expensive)

 

[Tony Meyer]

Yeah, thanks for that, I've actually replaced the modem 3 times, which I
forgot to say in my original post, so I'm pretty sure its not the problem,
but I think I'll do it again, just to make sure. I'll let ya know. Cheers

--
Tony Meyer
CompUTec Computer & Network Services
35 East Street Pukekohe
Phone (09) 2383337 Mob. (027) 2227849
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

In device manager, find a menu item that says "show hidden devices"
checking this box will allow you to see the other 37 modems (ports) that
XP
thinks have been disconnected, and allow you to remove them. After fixing
this annoyance, I would try another modem. I ran an ISP for a while, and
could not believe how many problems were solved by changing out the modem
for another brand, or chipset. FWIW The Agiere chipsets seemed to be the
most compatible. (they were also the least expensive)

 

[Tony Meyer]

On having a look at the hidden devices, there is nothing in there apart from
com ports 1 and 2, seem strange?Cheers

--
Tony

In device manager, find a menu item that says "show hidden devices"
checking this box will allow you to see the other 37 modems (ports) that
XP
thinks have been disconnected, and allow you to remove them. After fixing
this annoyance, I would try another modem. I ran an ISP for a while, and
could not believe how many problems were solved by changing out the modem
for another brand, or chipset. FWIW The Agiere chipsets seemed to be the
most compatible. (they were also the least expensive)

 

[Enkidu]

I ran an ISP for a while, and could not believe how
many problems were solved by changing out the modem
for another brand, or chipset. FWIW The Agiere
chipsets seemed to be the most compatible. (they
were also the least expensive)

Chortle! That's probably because the "problem" went to a
different ISP!

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[painless]

No, it was my ISP, and I kept track of my customers. Most of our problems
were caused by Rockwell and PCTEL chipsets on modems. I personally replaced
a lot of modems, usually solving the disconnect problems. The second most
common problem was the telephone wires INSIDE the house.

I was offering some advice to the OP concerning a very common problem, and
may even be wrong about the actual cause, however, replacing a $14.00 modem
seems like an inexpensive start for troubleshooting, and if that proves not
to be the problem, having an extra modem on hand is never a bad idea.