# Connection problems



## PinkBat (Jul 15, 2006)

Is the following a phone line problem or an internet provider problem? I'm trying to figure out if it's time to change providers or if I would continue to have the same troubles.

When I dial up I get: Remote computer did not respond in a timely manner.....or.....Username and password not valid.

After a few tries I'm finally connected....I am then able to change website pages a couple of times, then it's all downhill from there.....IE cannot display webpage....constantly...over and over. Then it will work again for a couple of minutes.

When I click on the "diagnose the problem" link it will answer that windows has detected a problem that cannot automatically be fixed.

Vista...IE 7.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

I think there is little doubt that your problem is phone line quality.

The first thing to do is to try to get your phoneco to clean up the line. Avoid mentioning the modem problem (say it's audible static) because they like to use the "you only have a voice grade phone line" excuse. There's no such thing as a voice grade line. If your phone line is working properly then your modem will work properly.

Please report back with your success with the phoneco. I have some modem suggestions that might help if they aren't cooperative.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

Most likely it's your phone line. The easy way to find out is if you know someone who uses the same dialup number as you (doesn't have to be the same ISP). If they're not having a similar problem, then it's almost certainly your line.

The phone company will fix lines outside your house, but will charge a lot to fix lines inside your house. So you have to figure out where the problem is. Get a long phone cord, and plug it from your modem directly into your phone box (the box on the outside of your house where the phone service comes in). Newer boxes have a modular jack where you can plug in; if you have an old box with screw terminals, you'll have to temporarily wire in a wall jack, or some other such hack. Before you do all that, you might try plugging into a different phone jack in your house, preferably one that doesn't share any wires with the one the modem uses now.

If the problem goes away when connected directly to the phone box, or to a different jack, then you have a bad wire between there and your computer. If not, then the phone company has a bad wire somewhere outside your house.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

backwoodsman7 said:


> The phone company will fix lines outside your house


It's been my experience that phoneos are not very good about cleaning up phone lines. The fact is, cleaning up phone lines doesn't generate revenue for the phoneco. They would prefer than their field techs perform installations and such.

I had a very serious situation (my ISP business was at stake) in rural Arizona about 8 years back. I was surprised that the corporation commission (Arizona's utility commission) had so little influence with phonecos. Aside from the fact that the outside lines are the phoneco's responsibility, you're completely at their mercy.

As I said in my previous post, their favorite excuse is the "voice grade phone line" excuse. That line seems to be universal among telephone customer service reps. Never accept that as an excuse. The FCC sets specific technical parameters for defining analog telephone service, and there is no exception for voice grade telephone lines.

I've found that the best strategy for dealing with the phoneco is to not mention modem use at all. They seem more sympathetic to poor voice quality than modem problems. Also, if you complain about problems with voice conversations they can't use the "voice grade" line excuse on you.


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## PinkBat (Jul 15, 2006)

Thank you for your help, Nevada and Backwoodsman. I contacted the phone company a couple of months ago and complained of "audible static" and never mentioned an internet connection problem.....they came out and checked for audible static....found none to be present and told me to contact them again when the static occurs again.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

PinkBat said:


> Thank you for your help, Nevada and Backwoodsman. I contacted the phone company a couple of months ago and complained of "audible static" and never mentioned an internet connection problem.....they came out and checked for audible static....found none to be present and told me to contact them again when the static occurs again.


Okay, one thing I've found helps is to drop the modem back to v.90 mode, if it's a v.92. What operating system do you use, and what brand/model of modem do you use? Once I have that info I'll try to give you instructions to force the modem into v.90 mode.

And about the phoneco, you have nothing to lose now by contacting them again and opening a trouble ticket for your modem trouble.

If all else fails, I'll try directing you to an inexpensive Agere chipset modem. They seem to be the most resistant to marginal phone lines.


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## Stann (Jan 2, 2005)

The problem may not be your phone line quality. If you are getting the "user login" screen then your modems are successfully connected and the login authentication protocol is unsuccessful (ie. login/password). If your computer is "running slow" then maybe your "login exchange" is not getting executed in a timely manner.

If you turn on your modem audio then you'll at least know if your initial modem connect goes to completion. If you feel comfortable with changing your modem's command codes, then add a M1 to it (it means modem audio on until connect) so that you can hear it's "song". Each modem protocol has a distinctive "song" that you will readily recognize and be able to tell if the modem connect is successful.

How to turn on your modem audio: Settings -> Control Panel -> Modem Options -> Modems tab -> Properties -> select your modem then Advanced tab -> then type M1 in the "Extra Initialization Commands:"

If the modem connection is fine but the login is failing then it is probably just your computer is 
too slow (untimely responses). If so, free up resources but deleting temporary files and cookies and then check your CPU usage for CPU hogs using the Task Manager.

Good luck.


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## lharvey (Jul 1, 2003)

Agree with Stann.

This sounds like a low resources thing to me. Since we don't know the OS I would venture a guess that it is Win98. I may be wrong but if it is, you will probably see that the system resources are at or below 60%

If Win98 Right click on My Computer>Properties>System Resources This will tell you what you are sitting at when Idle.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

lharvey said:


> Agree with Stann.
> 
> This sounds like a low resources thing to me. Since we don't know the OS I would venture a guess that it is Win98. I may be wrong but if it is, you will probably see that the system resources are at or below 60%
> 
> If Win98 Right click on My Computer>Properties>System Resources This will tell you what you are sitting at when Idle.


She's got Vista (see very bottom of first post), so I'm guessing it's a fairly new machine. This could be an issue if Vista was installed in a previous XP machine. 

I'm still thinking the username and/or password are getting damaged by phone line interference during authentication.


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## Delrio (Mar 11, 2007)

I'm also having these problems. Sometimes it will say: Remote computer cannot respond and sometimes it will say: phone line not connected. I've changed the cord and that didn't help. After a few trys it goes thru. Is my problem also the phone companies line?? Thanks to the geniuses!!


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## PinkBat (Jul 15, 2006)

This computer is only three months old and came with Vista already installed. It says I have 69% free space. 

I'm really not comfortable making any modem changes, etc. I just want to be able to figure out if this is a phone line problem.

My problem has gotten worse. Now I am able to get connected to the internet without problems, but bringing up pages takes forever.....I have to hit refresh 3-6 times before the page will finally load....and then mostly with red crosses where pictures are supposed to be. It has made shopping impossible, due to my not knowing whether the order form has been submitted and confirmed or not.


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## Peach2 (Jan 12, 2008)

The problem with IE7 is an easy fix I never use IE at all now only FireFox


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## PinkBat (Jul 15, 2006)

This morning everything is working well....I made no changes on my computer at all. That rules out computer problems then, correct? I mean, they wouldn't fix themselves, would they? lol ( I just gotta get this figured out)

Does the quality of phone lines change from one day to the next? Or did the internet provider fix something over the weekend?

This problem happens quite often.....internet will be working well for a few weeks and then be nearly useless for a week or two.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

PinkBat said:


> Does the quality of phone lines change from one day to the next? Or did the internet provider fix something over the weekend?


Yes. Phone line quality can certainly change from one day to the next. Analog telephone lines are sensitive to environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity. Your phone line quality will change along with the weather.

The reason that humidity comes into play is that phone wires become covered with a thin layer of oxides (almost invisible) at terminal connections that conduct better or worse depending on the moisture content of the oxides. Temperature comes into play because screw-down connectors, and even the wires themselves, swell & shrink with temperature swings. There are other factors too, such as carbon build-up on old-style lightning protectors.

As for your ISP, the problem is not on their end. This type of problem indicates poor phone line quality, but your ISP needs to use digital phone lines on their end in order to serve 56K service. Without going into too much technical detail, it's sufficient to say that phone line quality isn't an issue with digital phone lines in the same sense that it's an issue with analog phone lines.


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## PinkBat (Jul 15, 2006)

Thank you so much, Nevada. That certainly explains a lot. 

I noticed that my local phone company has DSL available. Not knowing how anything works these days......does phone line quality also affect how well DSL would work for me?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

PinkBat said:


> Thank you so much, Nevada. That certainly explains a lot.
> 
> I noticed that my local phone company has DSL available. Not knowing how anything works these days......does phone line quality also affect how well DSL would work for me?


No, DSL either works or it doesn't. It doesn't fade in and out. It's a different animal from dialup service.

In my area the phoneco had a DSL special for $25/month. Since we aren't on the national grid around here dialup service is $18/month. Then to get phone messages while I'm online I had to use Pagoo ($5/month) along with call forward on busy ($3/month). Therefore, dialup was costing me 18+5+3=$26. Therefore, it was actually $1 less to have DSL.


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