Found this old text file, presumably from back in the EarthLight and InternetAlaska days when I answered these questions all the time. Seemed worth keeping for some reason. -- AdamShand.
These could be responsible for the errors you are seeing. While debugging random disconnects can be very difficult here are some things to check:
- Set your modem initialization string to include: s10=100 If you need help doing this our technical support people should able to help you set that up.
- Make sure that all the cables going between the back of your modem to the jack in your wall are as short as possible and in good repair. If possible try a different phone jack and different cables and see if that makes a difference.
- If you have lots of phones plugged in and especially any cordless phones try unplugging them while you use the modem to see if this helps. Lots of devices can reduce the signal to noise ratio and make disconnects a lot more likely to happen.
- If you can borrow a modem from a friend for a couple days, use that modem and see if that helps at all. Sometimes a modem will work okay but be slightly sub-standard and cause these sorts of problems.
- Call up your phone provider and ask them to test the quality of your phone line. Most phone companies can test for these sorts of problems. They may also be able to provide you will a phone number that you can send a fax to and it will automatically fax you back with information on the quality of your phone line.
- If you have an internal modem installed on com 4 and nothing on com 3 it is often worth moving the modem to com 3 (irq 5 or 7 is normally the best bet though irq 3 will do in a pinch) and that will often improve problems like this. For reasons unknown windows (3.11 and 95) doesn't like to have modems on com 4 very much.
- If you are running Windows 95 it might be worth your while to download and install the latest version of dial-up networking (I believe it's DUN 1.2 and available from Microsoft's web page for free) and also the latest modem drivers for your modem type.
While I realize that this is a rather extensive list and not a trivial thing to do, I have personally seen any combination of these things be the cause of problems like yours. If you do need any help getting this done our technical support people should be more then capable to help you.