modem troubles

[kdville]

Hi,
I recently upgraded to a motorola sm56 pci when I upgraded to a pentium 3, 450. The problem is that I am having a lot of trouble getting connected, staying connected and disconnecting. At first, I didn't worry about the connection problems, I figured that it was an AOL problem with increased holiday usage. But now when I get offline, I find that my phone is dead (for hours if I don't catch it). I have to begin the online connection process before I get a dial tone back.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Kay

[Mntsnow]

I hate to say it but that Modem is one of the worse Winmodems of them all http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif I have personally had even better results with the PcTel chipset winmodems than the Motorola chipsets. Truthfully I would suggest that you beg santa to bring you "hardware" modem or atleast a different brand of WinModem. (I have used the Diamond Supramax's with great results..Just make sure you download the latest drivers http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif )

Mntsnow

[kdville]

Thanks for the info...I'd better be writin' to Santa pretty quick- I'm almost out of time! Have a Merry Christmas!
Kay

[bdunn]

winmodems in general are bad. Invest in a real modem.

[Wiz]

and you use aol also, that does not help. Getting booted is rather common. But the dial tone thing bothers me. have you tried unplugging the phone lines fromt he modem if you dont get a dial tone? Try that, if the dial tone comes back, its a modem problem, if it is still gone, i'd have to bet that there is a short else in the phone line.

[This message has been edited by Wiz (edited 12-21-1999).]

[psyklone]

you could slap an ATX in your init string to reset the modem when you use it.

[kdville]

Hi,
I was running AOL 4.0 and it didn't have my exact modem listed--the motorola site suggested using the Lifestyle as a generic substitute. So that's what I was using. I have upgraded to 5.0 and it has my exact modem. Unfortunately, I haven't been online enough to really test it. But it hasn't locked up my phone line, anymore. Time will tell. I'll let you all know.
Thanks,
Kay