Dial up problems and broadband update...

[Cole]

I don't think that my title does this justice, so please let me explain:

I recently bought the Girlfriend a second hand laptop and installed XP Home on it for her. XP recognises the Lucent Win Modem within the Laptop, but as a back up I have also given her one of my old external modems (Diamond, aprox five years old).

My broadband line was recently upgraded from 512kb to 2mb (Plusnet in UK) and neither modems attached to the laptop will register the dialling tone (although they will dial if I turn off 'wait for dial tone first'). I have tested the Diamond modem on my PC and the same thing is happening (modem line attached via a broadband filter). I could use dial up when I first got broadband at 512kb.

Back at her house, much the same thing was happening (no broadband), but here at least I did get the external modem to dial out, although it would not establish a connection (although I could put this down to being a Saturday night!).

At her Mum's house (no broadband), I got a connection, but with the extenal modem only, the Lucent modem would still not recognise the dial tone.

Now, the questions, do I:

- have a potential dial up/broadband (i.e. slight change of dial tone) conflict issue with my line at home...? or
- have a couple of temperamental/useless/outdated modems...?
- try an alternative ISP for the dial up (I went with Beeb.net which I used to use)...?

Thanks for any help and advice. I left dial up about a year ago when I changed to Broadband, but for the GF, she only wants to check her emails and do a small amount of surfing...

[jackal70058]

Could be the modem, but not really sure. Since you try on many line, with or without the broad band, it would try to seem as the modem problem.

You could try reinstall the driver.
Use different phone cord incase wire inside is broke

[redwudz]

Broadband can spoil you.

There's something strange here. The Lucent modem should work, though it's not often a great modem.

If you haven't done it, try to find newer drivers for the modem. It's old enough, though, XP should have good enough default drivers. I assume XP for all computers.

Modems are much easier in general than broadband to set up.

All that said, if you're not getting anywhere, you need to try a different modem. The laptop probably has a built in modem. Maybe a PCMCIA modem may be your answer. Takes up a card slot, but a newer modem may help, if all else fails.

It really should work fine with the onboard modem, but you never know...

[stiltman]

dialup broadband?
Computer modem?

Is that how they do it in the UK?

In the states
ISP supplies Broadband with their modem or sinilar
You supply a computer with ethernet or USB

They do use PPPoE (in some cases) but that's handeled by the ISP's modem or the gateway you install

[jackal70058]

Try to use some type of DSL filter, too.

I hear noise in line can cause dial-up stuff to not work right.

I guess it's DSL, you have broadband the phone line?

[Cole]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I can now report back on progress and am slightly embarrassed at the outcome...

What prompted me to post was a telephone call from my Girlfriend, where she said that she couldn't get on line at home. Because of what had happened at my place, I wondered if there was an issue with the laptop itself, which was baffling me.

What originally occured in my house still stands (or at least not retested), but last night I went to her house to test her Laptop and went through what needs to be done to get on line.

It was working! She didn't realise!

She was using the external modem and somehow the modem's speaker had been turned off. Thus she didn't think that the modem was dialling out.

She also said that there were error messages. These turned out to be the good old 'it sometimes takes two or three goes to get a connection' situations.

What I had not realised is her understanding of how it worked. She uses a PC at work so I assumed that she knew what to do. However, as she explained to me, at work, she turns on her PC (which is on a network) and her emails are already there! What is that old saying about don't assume...

Anyway, the end of the story is that I have fully explained the process of how to get on line and that the laptop (albeit with the extenal modem) is working properly.

dialup broadband?
Computer modem?

Is that how they do it in the UK?

No, I think that I may have explained this wrong. My broadband is 'alway on'. I boot up my PC and the broadband connects automatically.

What I was trying to do was then get on line in my house, using the laptop's dial up modem rather like making a normal telephone call to get the Laptop on line (as in able to make normal telephone calls). I was able to make dial up 'telephone calls' when my broadband was at 512k, but since it was upgraded to 2mb, I didn't seem to be able to do so.

Broadband can spoil you.

Absolutely! No way could I go back to dial up as the speed seems so slow it is painful!

There's something strange here. The Lucent modem should work, though it's not often a great modem.

If you haven't done it, try to find newer drivers for the modem. It's old enough, though, XP should have good enough default drivers. I assume XP for all computers. smile.gif

Modems are much easier in general than broadband to set up.

All that said, if you're not getting anywhere, you need to try a different modem. The laptop probably has a built in modem. Maybe a PCMCIA modem may be your answer. Takes up a card slot, but a newer modem may help, if all else fails.

It really should work fine with the onboard modem, but you never know... confused.gif

I will carry out further investigations on the internal Lucent modem as it would be less grief to have to plug in an extra modem all the time. XP has recognised it and it is working as far as the PC is concerned, but I think a bit more investigation is needed. Having said that, at least the thing is going now, which was the main aim.