Is there a special cord I should use for my dial-up? I use my regular tel

[patricia92243]

telephone cord and lose my carrier a lot. I was wondering if my phone cord had anything to do with it, and if so what kind of cord should I use? Also, where to buy one if I do need one?

[NewHampshireDem]

1. Yes, there is a special cord ... but you can only buy them from me!

:evilgrin: Seriously, no, there isn't. A regular phone cord is fine, though if you are having problems, there is nothing wrong with trying another cord to eliminate the possibility that the cord is causing your problems.

Here was a good FAQ I found with some solid suggestions.

Q. I keep getting disconnected. What's the deal?

1. Make sure your idle timer is turned off. Win95 users go to Control Panel, Internet. Click on the Connection Tab. Uncheck the Idle Timer if it is checked.

2. Remember call waiting? If you have it, and haven't disabled it using 70#, then it's a problem you'll have to address. Call waiting signals WILL disconnect you.

3. Poor line conditions cause the vast majority of unexpected disconnects. If you can hear any noise on your line, then its very likely you will not be able to connect reliably. If you suspect line noise, give your phone company a call and ask to have your line checked for noise.

4. Modem incompatibility can cause random disconnects. We've seen this with some older generic modems, as well as some new 56k and V.90 modem types. If you have a newer 56k or V.90 modem, check the vendors website to see if there is an updated driver or a specific compatibility issue.

5. Replace the phone line from the back of your modem to the wall. Some low grade cable can cause problems.

6. Try calling from a different location. This is an easy way to see if it is your phone line conditions that are causing the disconnects.

Still having problems getting disconnected? Here's help!

First off, If you are having problems with your initial modem connection (you can hear the modem "handshake" but it never connects), try adding S7=120S9=20 to your initialization string.

Disconnects generally happen for one of 6 reasons:

Poor line conditions. You will probably want to take a look at our line quality study for some information about line conditions and suggestions on how to improve things. Generally when disconnects happen from line quality problems, it is a good idea to decrease the connect speed, and increase the carrier drop response time. For most modems, to decrease carrier drop sensitivity, add S10=100 to the modem init string. You might also want to check for problems in your configuration.



Flow Control. Your modem may overwhelm your dialer if your hardware flow control is not enabled, which will result in problems ranging from lockups to hang-ups. For most modems, enabling the hardware flow control involves adding &K3 or \Q3 to the modem init string.



Protocol Violations. Some modems do not implement the v.42 standard correctly and it is a good idea to disable the protocol. On almost all modems this is done by adding %C0 to the modem init string.



Disconnect timers. It is unlikely, but possible that your modem has a inactivity disconnect timer set up. This is usually disabled by adding S30=0 to your modem init string.



US Robotics Sportster modems. The US Robotics Sportster is notorious among Internet Service Providers for its incessant disconnections and other problems. There are a few things you can do to make it a bit more reliable. The first thing to do is to get into a terminal so that you can write commands to your modem and send it ATI7. Check the dates that you get back from it. If they are not some time in January, 1996, you will need to upgrade the ROM in your modem. Contact US Robotics for this (check out their web page as well). If your ROM is dated before October 1995, you *must* upgrade to get any kind of reasonable performance. For modems dated October, 1995 and later, you can improve performance some by adding &H1&R2S27=32S32=16S33=32 to your init string

RPI Modems. Many 14.4 modems are, in fact, overdriven 2400 baud modems with no error correction or data compression. In order to use these modems, you need to be running some version of Windows, and install an RPI Patch.

Hope you find some relief from your problem. If not, try contacting your provider and if they are not responsive, find another!

[patricia92243]

2. Thanks. There are several things here I'll try. n/t