strange problem

[richter]

Well I woke up this morning and my phone line was in use, as in no dial tone and no incoming calls getting through but I wasn't sure why.. The internet hadn't been connected in awhile but my winxp just sitting there on the desktop was clogging up my phone line.. only way i can get a dial tone is by shutting down this computer.. to get online now i had to remove the computer phone line from the wall, pick up my cordless phone to get a dial tone, leave the cordless off the hook and plug the wire back in and let the computer dial.. and when i do that i either connect at 31 or 24 kbps, that has never happened before.. i always get 49 or 50+.. anyone have any idea? i haven't installed any new software that i can recall.. i've tried everything i can think of

 

[iowaboy]

Have you had any storms lately? The first thing that came to mind and the first thing to check is the modem. More than likely lightning destroyed the modem by coming through the phone lines.

 

[1timemember]

upgrade your modem

 

[richter]

heh, i am from iowa as well.. and we did have a thunder storm either last night or the night before.. i've managed to make it connect at 50.6kbps again and its working perfectly but if i disconnect the internet and pick up my phone ill just hear "if you would like to make call please hang up and try again" etc and my "in use" light is on.. if the modem was destroyed why does it still let me connect at normal speeds? that is about the only explanation that sounds reasonable though.. hmm maybe reinstalling my modem (winmodem btw blah blah) drivers?

 

[richter]

btw my modem is a 3 year old US Robotics 56k Faxmodem Win 1806, came from gateway with this box

 

[Zedric]

If your modem was struck by lightning you wouldn't be able to connect at all. My guess is the storm hit the phone lines somewhere and "crippled" them. So during a normal phone call you won't notice anything, but you can't run the modem a full speed.

However the modem seems to act a bit strange. It could have taken just a little hit I suppose. Try replacing it, if that doesn't help call the phone company and complain about the lines.

Do you live on the country btw or in a city?

 

[Bytes Back]

The modem is not recieving enough power to pull it off the hook, I saw the exact same thing before. In those circumstances we put a external modem on.

 

[richter]

Do you live on the country btw or in a city?

live in this city.. des moines

The modem is not recieving enough power to pull it off the hook

That seems reasonable.. could that be caused by lightning though? or was it just wear and tear on my (internal) modem

btw i can get it to connect at the correct speeds now but it involves a cordless phone and unplugging the modem from the wall first.. guess I have to make a trip to office max *sigh*

 

[Bytes Back]

most likely cause is the power supply and in paticular the power to the PCI slots. This could also be a motherboard problem. or the modem

Rather than try to replace one of those only to find its the other, the cheapest and pretty much certain to work option is the external modem.

 

[richter]

ok, thanks for the help everyone

going to try an grab an external modem (refundable of course) and see if that does the trick.. ill probably be back to complain if it doesn't

peace