Modem Trouble (updated)

Thanks for the cookies

I'm going to go a little (okay maybe ALOT) off-topic here since I'm not sure which forum to post this in...but my dial-up connection (56K) keeps dying out whenever I'm idle on a webpage for 4-5 minutes. As a result, I have to disconnect and then sign back on again. This problem only occurs with my manual MSN connection through IE or Avant Browser (not when I'm connected through MSN 8 )

I've been trying to get answers as to how to resolve this issue and if anyone has any suggestion(s)..I'd appreciate it. Is this a modem drivers issue...and is there a program out there that can correct this

Regards,
Mike

I split/moved this post from this thread; http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=16965;start=0#lastPost
because I thought this question would get the most responses in this section -Detox

 

Re:modem trouble

when you are connected through msn8 aren't you connected through .net. And when you have a manual connection it might not ping it the same and let it time out when inactive. Just a thought

 

Re:modem trouble

Thanks for your reply BigC. Can anything be done to correct this issue?

 

Re:modem trouble

If you are running a firewall you might check if you have your ip ping blocked or not. It has been a while since I have used a dial up modem. Some where I read of a similar problem, I will go and search for it and post here after I find an answer.

 

Re:modem trouble

In this article it mentions call wating as one culprit. I do no when your comp is idle call wating can disconnect you. Just one possibility. I hope you find a cure here if not I will search some more till we find a cure.


http://www.acenet.net.au/help/faqs/connection1.asp


FAQ - Dial-up Network Connections

Why do lose my connection?

Typically disconnections are caused by line noise or interference. Unfortunately this problem doesn't have an obvious solution - there are several reasons why modem disconnections can occur. Here are some common causes, and solutions:

Call Waiting (a part of Easycall service) is a service that allows someone to receive a phone call while they are already using the phone. If you have call waiting, you will hear pips. You may not even be aware that you have this service, as all new Telstra lines have call waiting. These pips will disconnect your modem! When you connect to the Internet, deactivate call waiting by dialling #43# To re-enable call waiting dial *43#.

Unplug all phone type devices,, i.e. faxes and other telephones from the line, while using your modem! Modern phones and faxes have memories that are maintained by small rechargeable capacitors in the device itself. Every 15 or so minutes this battery recharges from the phone line. The recharging usually generates a pulse similar to a noise spike, and disconnects the modem. Some telephone models (for example Telstra Touchfone 200) are known to cause this problem, others (for example Telstra Touchfone 200R) were modified to avoid causing modem disconnections. If in doubt - leave only your modem connected to the phone line when using it.

Error control off If you are using a 56K modem, you may have error control enabled by default. To check this, go to, 'My Computer' -> 'Dial-up Networking'. Now click Acenet, ( next to 'Make New Connection' ) once, to highlight it. Goto 'File', then 'Properties', this will pop-up another window titled Acenet. Now in the 'General' tab and down to the 'Configure…' button. Once you've clicked on that button, another window will pop up, titled 'Your Modem Properties'. Now go to the 'Connection' tab, and down to the 'Advanced…' button. From this point another window will pop up, and it is here you will find error control with a "tick box" next to it. This is where you enable/disable error control. After you have finished, click 'OK' on all the windows to confirm your changes. If there is no change, just restore the setting back to the original. For Windows 95 users: to turn error control off go to Control Panel -- Modems -- Modem Properties -- Properties -- Connection – Advanced.

Ensure that the modem cable is properly connected at both ends. Poorly seated cable can cause line noise. External modems are turned on.

Check all phone cables in your room for proper connection (loose plugs, etc).

Seek advice specific for your modem – try to locate your modem manufacturer Web site, or see excellent Australian site http://www.iinet.net.au/help/modems/index.shtml

Slow down your modem (all other factors being equal, the slower the connection speed, the more reliable the connection will be), turn off all compression – for details see your modem manufacturer Web site.

Try dialling If you are dialling 3872 2000, try dialling 3854 1024 (specific for 33.6k modems and less), as stated above, lowering your connection speed, increases your connection stability.

Finally, ring your phone service provider and ask them to test your phone line. Say that you started using the line for modem transmissions, and that after performing the checks as listed above suspect the quality of your phone line

The Quality of the phone line ... ? This is probably the most confusing factor. We have to accept that the phone lines were not designed for high speed data communication. Your phone line may provide quality sufficient for a telephone conversation, where some amount of noise is acceptable. However the quality of the copper wire laid in your area, possibly many years ago, may cause your modem to misinterpret incoming information and even disconnect for no apparent reason. Modern modems try to compensate for any such interference, but only up to a certain level. If your call is routed through an older exchange noise can be generated on the line, and your modem will hang up. Unfortunately there is no technical solution which would allow a modem to ignore a noise, perhaps "freeze" for a second or two, and then continue. If there is certain level of noise, the modem will simply disconnect.

The quality and speed of your modem Not all modems are created equal. Some lesser brands may have difficulties negotiating the connection, and sometimes you may have to dial two or three times before the connection is established. Once established, the connection may not hold very reliably, and small noise on the line may cause the line to drop. However even the best modem can not cope with wrongly configured system or a poor quality, noisy phone line.

56K modems This new standard allows to download (receive) information with maximum theoretical speed of 56Kbps. This is close to twice as fast as 28.88Kbps, and four times as fast as 14.4Kbps modems. All traffic from you to Internet will stay limited to maximum of 33.6Kbps. 56K is the last standard for modems connected to conventional telephone lines, as the phone lines (copper wiring) are simply unable to carry any faster digital data transmission. Depending on quality of your local phone cabling and phone exchange you may never be able to reach full 56Kbps speed anyway, but some improvement should be always possible.

Modems Resources on Internet There are many excellent resources on Internet describing technical issues relating to modems. Highly recommended Web sites are: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Modems (http://modems.rosenet.net/) ...But Were Afraid To Ask. In addition to many invaluable pieces of information it also has comprehensive links to many other modem pages . V.90 Modem Standard (http://www.v90.com/)– In 1998, 56K modems finally reached critical mass, after the V.90 modem standard was declared by the ITU (the international standards organization) in February. Read all about it – overwiew, links to modem manufacturer sites, etc.

Idle timeout We have an “Idle Time-out” setting on our servers, which is currently set to 15 minutes. What this does is monitor your connection to us and if it sees no data traffic to or from your system for a continuous period of 15 minutes, it disconnects you. This is done to prevent you from inadvertently leaving your connection to us open, and prevent your computer from wasting your valuable Internet hours.
If you want to avoid the Idle Time-out disconnections, simply set your mail program running in the background and configure it to check your mail every 10 minutes.

Modem Disconnections Certain features on your computer can be set to disconnect if idle, please review the URL, http://www.acenet.net.au/help/disconnect.asp to find out how to turn these features off.

Failing all of the above, you may need to take your computer and modem back to where you purchased them from and get them tested for faults.

Software Causing Disconnection By default Windows (Dial up neworking and Internet Explorer) configures your connection to disconnect after a certain amount of idle time. Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express can also disconnect your connection after you have checked your mail. Please review the URL, http://www.acenet.net.au/help/disconnect.asp to find out how to turn these features off.

 

Re:modem trouble

http://train.missouri.org/support/loseconnect.html

I will not postanother article until we see if one of these might fix your problem. If it does not fix with any of these options Let me know and we will find a fix

Telephone Line Quality - Modems are very sensitive to telephone line noise and some are much more sensitive than others. Most modems can handle a small amount of telephone line noise but even the best of modems will eventually drop the connection if the telephone line quality becomes too degraded. Many things can affect your telephone line quality : Old or damaged telephone line networks are common in rural areas and can cause poor connection or frequent dropped connections ; overloaded telephone networks during peek times of the day (mornings and evenings are usually when your telephone company's network is the busiest); the telephone wiring in your home (or at work Internal PBX systems are notorious for causing connection problems); electrical equipment near telephone wires or your modem or your computer (56k modems are extremely sensitive to electric fields generated by power cords) and/or other devices connected to the same telephone line as the computer can sometimes cause problems (an example is that some telephones will actually charge internal batteries every few minutes by going off-hook and drawing power from the telephone line.)

Idle Time-out - Train's modem pool is configured to drop connections after 20 minutes of idle time. What this means is if for any reason the Train modem pool does not receive data from your computer for 20 minutes the connection is terminated. The reason for the Idle Time-out is to allow everyone a chance to use Train. Without the Idle Time-out the number of available lines for users to dial into would be greatly reduced due to lines being tied up by computers that are not actually doing anything except tying up a line.

Session Time-out - T.R.A.I.N. has a 3 hour Session Time-out when the modem pool reaches 80% capacity. Once the modem pool reaches 80% full , the person who has been connected the longest over 3 hours is disconnected. The reason for the Session Time-out is to attempt to give everyone a chance to get on-line. Without the 3 hour Session Time-out the number of available lines for users to dial into would be greatly reduced since it would be possible for a few computers to keep lines tied up almost indefinitely.

Call Waiting - Do you have call waiting ? The "clicking" noise or "beep" sound call waiting makes when you have a call is seen by your modem as line noise and can cause your modem to disconnect you. To turn off call waiting before dialing add *70, to the beginning of the number your computer is dialing (example: *70,9675756)

Unsynchronized communications - Some older computers (especially older computers upgraded to windows 95/9 are just too slow for some of today's newer modems. If your computer is too slow for your modem it can fall behind. Your modem is the interpreter between your computer and the Internet and if your computer cannot keep up then communications between your computer, your modem and the Internet become unsynchronized and eventually either your modem or Train's simply terminates the connection. This is most common with 486 and older computers, especially if they have been upgraded to Windows 95/98 (Installing Windows 95/98 on a older computer can over burden the computer and cause it to run too slow). There is little that can be done in this case aside from upgrading your computer hardware although changing the port speed in your modem settings may help *see Port Speed below*

Port Speed - In modem properties check to see what your modems "Maximum Speed" is set to. Generally, for the fastest connection it is a good idea to have "Maximum Speed" set to twice your modems rated speed. What this means is if you have a 56k modem, for the best performance on the Internet , you would set Maximum Speed to 115,200 . Maximum Speed is the speed your computer communicates with your modem and rated speed, is the speed your modem is capable of communicating with the Internet. While setting port speed to twice your modems rated speed can improve performance it can also decrease the reliability of the connection in some cases. If you are frequently being disconnected , and especially if you have a older or slow computer, try decreasing your port speed.

Incorrect "Modem Driver" Installation - Windows 3.x , 95 and 98 requires a driver for almost every device in your computer ( A driver is a program that interacts with a particular device or contains instructions telling another program how to interact with the device ) . Windows requires a driver for your modem and often it has it's own driver for your modem that it uses by default. If Windows has incorrectly identified your modem and installed the wrong drivers you will likely have a lot of problems (including frequent disconnects). If the driver for your modem is incorrectly installed or out dated you can experience connection problems and/or a host of other problems. You should contact the modems manufacturer or their web page for information on obtaining the correct driver for your modem.

Buggy or Incompatible Modem Firmware - Firmware (IBM calls it Microcode) is your modems built in programming and it is for the most part unchangeable without a program made specifically for your modem by the company that made your modem. If you are dialing into the Houston or Licking 56k modem pool then your modem will need the most recent Firmware available for it. To find out if your modem has the most current firmware you will need to visit your modem's manufacturer's web site.

 

Re:modem trouble

Wow...thanks for all the info/help BigC! I reduced my modem speed and disabled "error control." Hopefully that will resolve the issue.

One other thing....

My curent modem driver is Lucent Win Modem v8.22.0.0. Should I update the "driver files" for that device through System/system properties/hardware/device manager/modem driver

Also http://www.agere.com has a v8.30 generic upgrade available. Should I download it...and what exactly do they mean by "generic"

Thanks once again for all your time and help. All this stuff is new to me and I could use all the help I can get!

 

Re:modem trouble

I would upgrade to the generic. they usually have all of the new driver setup's. I hope the info helps

 

Re:modem trouble

Everything seems to be working fine now. Thanks once again BigC!

 

Sorry to be a pain in the (__!__)...but one quick question before I upgrade my modem driver.


My current modem chipset is v.92 with a Lucent Win modem driver v.8.22. Agere (formerly Lucent) is offering a v.8.30 upgrade (as mentioned in previous post)...but it states that it's for v.90 modem chipsets.

If I have v.92 chipset....is it safe (or recommended ) to upgrade my v.8.22 driver to the v.8.30

Thanks.

 

It might be wise to forgo the update for now if your modem is working ok until a little more research can be conducted Will repost if anything is found I will contact lucent agere and see what they have to say. And don't worry about being a pain in the bu## If you have a question to ask please just ask it gives me something to do .I really enjoy researching,It is a big part of my work in software compatibility situations.

 

Thanks once again bigc. I will hold off on the modem driver update for now.