Vista Modem Dialing Incorrectly

[Guest]

Dell Latitude D620
1GB RAM
Intel Centrino Duo T2300 @ 1.67 GHz
Vista Business 32-bit

Installed Vista cleanly. Not sure when this went awry or if it ever worked
correctly but my dialer is not working properly. It is not dialing the
number correctly as entered. This is a problem because I remote into many
systems, mostly phone PBX, to administer.

I set up my location properly. When I put in a number in the dialer, Vista
changes it. When I dial "412XXXXXXX", it dials "1 4 XXXXXXX". The only way
I can get Vista to dial the correct number is to add an area code rule, even
for my own, that adds 412 to the number. So then I would put "XXXXXXX" in
the dialer and it dials "412XXXXXXX". This only helps with the one. If I
need to dial outside my location, I have to modify the existing rule to suit
such. I cannot just add another rule. That did not work.

Am I doing something wrong? Did I miss something? I made sure all my
drivers, including BIOS were updated. I do have the latest Windows updates.
I tried both the Windows driver and the driver directly from Dell. The modem
is a Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem.

Any help or things to try is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

RichardC,

Are you sure the modem drivers are Vista Compatible? If the drivers are
made to work with Vista, and you're not getting proper performance, then the
issue likely is with the drivers. However, it's hard to tell. Hardware not
working properly is usually an indication of a driver bug of some sort.

If you can't get that modem to work properly, you can consider replacing it
with a hardware based modem (modem with on-board processor and DSP, digital
signal processor). These hardware modems don't need drivers, as such, to
operate properly. You just plug them in and Windows loads everything you
need to operate, apart from Call Waiting and/or FAX capability. Hardware
modems cost more than software modems, where the processor and DSP function
are performed by software, because the chips are more costly than software.
Here is a site that has two hardware modems that fit in a PCMCIA slot:

http://zoom.com/products/dial_up_pc_card.html

Hardware based modems are also available for desktop configurations where
you install them in a PCI slot. Just some thoughts for your consideration.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, the drivers are Vista drivers. I got it from Dell website and chose
Vista as my OS. I also tired using the built-in driver too. No dice. If I
modify the area code rule in the dialing properites like I mentioned below,
it does dial and it does connect. But consider what a pain it would be to
have to (re)modify the area code rule each time I wanted to dial another one.

Thanks.

 

[Rishi]

Hello Richard,

I doubt if its a hardware problem. The device (I have the same one as you
do) seems to work for me although I don't use the modem at all, so I'm not
entirely sure about that. However, can't you create two rules (Dialing rules
I mean, not just the area code rules), and simply switch between the two
instead of editing one area code rule for one dialing rule and editing it
every time? That seems to be the only solution I could come up with to the
problem.