Analog modem connection keeps disconnecting

Software & Apps
#1

Strange as it may sound, there are still some people connected to the internet using a 56K analog modem, such as my mother (and now it is my problem to solve her problem as described below :wink: ).

She is running Windows 2000 and has a 56K internal modem (recognized as Intel chipset) on an ASUS motherboard with AMD 700 MHz CPU (do not know all details). Until earlier this week the modem worked fine, without any problems. Now the modem is able to connect to the internet, it goes through the entire connection protocol without errors.

Once the connection is established, I can see a lot of outgoing traffic and only a bit of incoming traffic (ratio 10:1). This is strange because I am trying to open a webpage and I would expect a lot of incoming traffic and only a bit of outgoing traffic. I assume that the pages are hardly loading because all bandwidth is used by outgoing traffic.

I opened task manager to see all running processes. Unfortunately I do not have a screenshot here, but there were only a few processes and none of them looked suspicious to me. I would have expected some kind of spyware (Avast antivirus is installed and last updated on October 20, 2006, so I doubt it is a virus), but all processes looked legitimate to me.

After approximately 60 - 180 seconds the connection closes without any error. It is not a fixed timeframe, it varies. My mother talked to the provider helpdesk and she checked all settings for this provider and all was ok. I have checked several options and couldnā€™t find anything strange either (no box about disconnecting after a period of inactivity was chedked). The system log does not list any errors, it only mentions that the modem connection was terminated (COM 3). I tried reinstalling the modem driver, to no avail.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be and, more importantly, how to solve it? Could it be a hardware defect that is solved by buying a new internal modem? Is it more likely to be a software problem, virus and/or spyware?

Any help is much appreciated. If you need any particular info, let me know and Iā€™ll see if I can dig it up (donā€™t have the PC with me and my mother isnā€™t too knowledgeable when it comes to computers).

Thanks in advance!

#2

The outgoing could be Windowsupdate traffic, sends quite a lot outgoing. Try turnig autoupdate off and see if that eliminates it.

Grab a hijackthis log from it and post somewhere (could go direct to one of the forums where they know that stuff).

Always found 56k modems to be either fine or very dead, I seem to recall a little trick I used to use, of backing the uplink speed down to max 28.8 in order to gain a notch on the downlink speed (though that may just be luck), Once connected, it should renegotiate speeds rather than disconnect - I canā€™t recall ever seeing a loss of connect, but an assortment of below par connect speeds.

#3

The modem in my old Dell desktop Win98 SP2 started acting something like that. It would drop off with no warning and sometimes I could dial again and sometimes not. The problem got worse over time until the computer could no longer maintain a connection. I am almost sure it was a hardware problem. I tried reloading the drivers and everything I could think of but never solved the problem. Eventually, I got DSL, yaaaaza!, added a NIC card, and removed the dial-up modem (PCI buss card?). A new dial-up modem should be cheap nowadays. Or find someone that has an old external modem you could try outā€¦

#4

I had a similar problem about 3 years ago on my momā€™s old 233mhz P2 running win98se and I could never solve itā€¦it was working one day, the bam, it just quit. the only difference was it wouldnā€™t auto disconnect, it would dial in just fine, log into the network, have about 5secs of a bunch of outgoing trafic and very little incoming, then all traffic would stop, it would stay connected but it would never load anything. I tried everything I could think of, reinstalled drivers, checked all settings, deleted the connection then manually re-entered everything from the ISP paperwork, replaced modem, did a ā€œrepairā€ instal on win98, installed a 30 day trial of AOL :Z , hell she even called and had a tech from the ISP come look at it. The only thing I didnā€™t do was a full re-instal of the OS because it was only a win98 update and my mom lost her full version of win95 :doh:

a full reinstal might solve it, but then again it might not :\

#5

Check for line noise. If you hear statics on the phone, then the line noise may bee too much for the modem to navigate. If the modem is part of the MB, then Iā€™d go out and get a cheap $10 PCI modem.

#6

If you can get another modem try connecting with that. Also just because your virus database is up to date doesnā€™t mean you donā€™t have a virus, itā€™s also not that hard to hide a running process.
Have you run adaware, spybot or others you might have?

#7

Thanks for the suggestions.
I will try a download of some spyware removal tools and burn it on CD for herā€¦
I may be able to convince her to get ADSLā€¦but I cannot stand the fact that it isnā€™t working as it is nowā€¦

#8

Solutions didnā€™t work unfortunatelyā€¦
Hopefully the switch to ADSL will make it all better.

Again, thanks for your input!

#9

Tax, you might try disabling call waiting on your motherā€™s phone line. Alternatively, if your mother is using a V92 modem, try to get hold of an older V90 modem as they tend to have fewer problems with cut-outs.