Uncreative Labs

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 3:02 am

My 56k modem was somehow fried during a recent thunderstorm, so I'm temporarily using an obscure internal ISA-bus Aspen Technologies 28ISSSA modem, detected as a "Sierra" 3465. Regardless of the specifics, I've noticed that in my main system, a Pentium III-based Compaq Deskpro running Windows 95 OSR2, the modem sometimes refuses to connect, or disconnects abruptly and refuses to connect again until after rebooting. When I had this same modem plugged into my older Gateway 2000 4DX2-66 system running DOS and Windows 3.11, it was a lot more reliable in its behavior. Why would this be?

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 4:33 am

Some modems required custom initialization strings depending on your system. In a PIII, however, they may have cheaply implemented the ISA and not given it extensive testing like they would have, as it's on it's way out.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Quote:

the modem sometimes refuses to connect, or disconnects abruptly and refuses to connect again until after rebooting

Sure the thunderstorm didn't do more damage than just your modem? If you've got an old external modem lying around, see if it causes the same problems.

Don't know how many times people have come to me saying their modem got fried during a t-storm, and always say "I had the computer turned off/unplugged"...

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:01 pm

In any case, the modem (the internal 28.8 kbps ISA one, that is) has been doing this when plugged into this particular computer LONG before any thunderstorm occurred.

Unfortunately, I don't have any spare external modems around.

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 11:37 pm

You'll probably have to try another modem or set up a computer to act as a dial-up router until you can get a new one (they're running between $10 and $50 at the local chain stores).

www.freesco.org is where you can get a linux distro that will act as a dial-up router. It works really well and needs you to have very little Linux experience to use. (You'll need to set up a network with TCP/IP, but that's not too difficult, especially if you let Freesco do DHCP.)

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 4:21 pm

Well, here's a new wrinkle:

My problems with the ISA modem usually involved the modem sometimes disconnected when it got to the "Validating user name and password..." part when dialing.
Well, I have accidentally found out that if I begin dialing, then run a DOS game from within Windows for a few seconds, then close, the modem WILL have connected without any problems no matter what! Why could this be?

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 3:01 am

Maybe your modems trying to connect at too great a speed? Try reducing the maximum baud rate to the next setting down.