Modem Problem / Dialtone

Krouc

Modem Problem.

For sometime I have been having trouble holding a stable connection. My problem started hen I changed from UTVip to XL. I read about several cases where people were having the same problem. Dial up, get connected, connection dies after a few minutes and/or traffic flow would start/stop. This is identical to what was happening to me. Sometimes my connection would be fine, other times not.

I have been onto UTV and they pointed to my modem. I then set about checking this out.

I went through the usual:
Drivers up to date
Reinstall
Settings (FIFO buffers, speeds, tone/pulse, turning off V92 etc...)

I tested using hyperterminal and thats when I found something odd.
When I use the ATDT command I noticed something unusual about the dial tone. The tone was as follows;

Tone*beep*Tone*beep*tone*beep*....

The beep is with the dial tone. There is about 2 seconds between the beeps. Still using HT I tried calling a number. I got;

Tone*beep*Tone DIALLING NUMBER *beep*tone*beep*....

It would ring the number fine (My mobile) but the 'extra beep' was there all through. There is no beep whatsoever when I use a handset, just the normal dialtone one would expect.

It appears to me that my modem is putting this beep on the line. My guess is that it continues to broadcast the beep and its knocking me off. Has anyone ever come accross this before? At the moment I have been connected for almost an hour and no problems but this isnt always the case.


TIA,
K

spongebob

is call waiting enabled on your line?

Krouc

Nope Muck. I called Eircom to get a line check and got all those options turned off.

The Biddy first ran the test with the phone connected and said the test was giving a result that indicated Low Insulation. I removed the phone and it was fine, or so she said after reminding me I had switched CPS.

I may try to get a FHS test on the line but I doubt its the line.

The line is good tho from my experience with that kinda thing.

K

MadKevo

Think the "beeping" is normal - it tells the far end that you're a modem/fax and you want to start a handshaking sequence. This would explain why your modem works, but doesn't account for line drops - it may be line problems as you already suspect.
As regards the beep, an example of why this happens, say you dialled a fax machine/answering machine combo - the fax machine wouldn't cut in unless it heard the beep= tone, letting the answering machine handle voice calls. Just for fun :rolleyes: you can whistle to make the fax think it's a data call, but you'd want someone else to be paying the bill for that kinda carry on...
Dunno why you're only hearing it now, perhaps a default AT setting has been changed while updating/reinstalling.
HTH,
/MK

Krouc

That makes sense. i'll just have to look for an AT command to turn it off. I have never heard a beep before on any modem that I have used. I would assume its not needed when dialing into a POP. I wonder could the UTV dialler have made the change?

I have been suffering with this for some time now. Having tried everything I could think of I contacted UTV, who blamed my hardware and then Dell to ask about the beeping only to be told by 'Ronald' in Indian that the modem was broken and gave me the number for parts. The quality of service/techs at Dell is/are terrible.

Also Martin from UTV stated that my modem might prefer a certain route to the pop. I find this odd as the modem cant dictate the route it takes along the copper. I would think that would be more of an exchange issue. I think I am being led down the garden path....

The bad thing in all this is that it now points back at the phoneline and more to UTV. The problem only started when I switched. I'll get another test done.

Is anyone having problems holding a stable connection with UTVIP XL? I read a lot about poor service (engaged, disconnects..) but UTV never seem to acknowledge it.

K

MadKevo

was thinking some more about this, and some experiences I've had (with modems!) come to mind:
Dialling eircom Net subscription service, using external v.92 capable modem, in Galway, got consistent 44.6 or so connect speed. Traceroute revealed that I was conencted to a pop in Galway and the internet speed could charitably be called "sluggish" at peak time (evening).
Dialling IOL Free service (same PC, same modem), got consistent 46.6 speeds*, and a faster web experience, wih traceroute telling me I was connected to a POP in citywest so no nasty network from Galway to Dublin to contend with all the other dial users **

*my point about the different connect speeds, which were consistent at different times of day and days is that the call goes over the same copper to the exchange, the same A/D converter at the exchange and comes out onto a software modem hooked up to ISDN PRIs (PRI=PRI no matter where it is, it's digital) at Galway and Citywest, both showing as V.90 calls on the modem (not V.92 in either case), so what's different: the quality of the equipment in the ISP is the only factor I can see.
So maybe the answer is an incompatibility betwwen the modem chipset and the ISP's one. Perhaps UTVip & Xl have different POP equipment to terminate calls (which is possible as they'd probably need more ports to handle flatrate calls, and it makes sense to terminate new E1s from Eircom onto new equipment).
Anyone know if TV have different POP equipment in use on their network which might explain this babbling theory of mine...?

**it was a slow PC, but definately a fater internet experience to the same Irish sites from IOL viz Eircom net...

Stopping now.
/MK

Frank Grimes

Originally posted by Krouc
I may try to get a FHS test on the line but I doubt its the line.

What do you mean by an FHS test?