modem disconnects no matter what.

[Drachenhunter]

Hello.

I work for an internet service provider and a customer of mine is having an issue that has me totally stumped.

His computer is 2 years old( has either windows 2000 or ME)
and internal motorolla 56k(I can't remember the exact model number)

He doesn't have call waiting(and blocking it wouldn't let him connect at all)

When ever he connects to the internet he gets disconnected within one min. I deleted his old connection and made a new one. I've lowered the modem speed to 57600 and added commas at the begining and end of the number to make sure it got a stable hand shake. No matter what I try he can't stay connected. I dialed up to the number out of my office and stayed connected for 20 mins before I disconnected it.

He is dialing into a modem pool that we VISP from and they say everything is working fine. Their logs don't show any errors and neither do ours. I'm at my wits ends. A two year old computer/modem shouldn't be going bad so soon should it? could it be a driver issue? or maybe there's an int string I can put in.

Please post any thoughts you might have.(as right now I don't know what else to do.)

Also I don't know if this is related to the disconnect problem but he gets connected(before it disconnects) and tries to load any webpage he gets an almost instant error message saying the page is unavailable. I figure that IE can tell that the connection isn't going to hold so it doesn't bother trying to load, but maybe it's a differant problem(or maybe it's causeing the other problem.) I've had him delete his temp. internet files and that usually fixes the problem but it didn't this time.

BTW he runs an updated virus scanner(not sure which) everytime his computer starts. So I don't think he has a virus, but could/would a virus cause this?

I didn't know this post was going to be this long but considering I spent an hour and a half on the phone with this guy I guess I had a lot to say Anyway if anyone can think of a fix(or a diagnoses) I'd greatly appreciate it.


Thanks,

Cody,
formerly of sound mind.

 

[manarth]

well, basic steps include -

- reinstall DUN (windows ME only) : repairs the TCP/IP stack
- reinstll modem drivers
- scan for spyware
- make sure yours is the ONLY connection
- try just dialling up (don't open browser / email / etc): this will rule out any application incompatibility
- ensure any auto-start programs like Kazaa and MSN Messenger are deactivated (again - in case it's software incompatibility)
- check the "disconnect if idle for longer than xx minutes"

Next time he dials in, it may be worth asking him to use (dos command) "ipconfig" - make sure the IP address matches the one you're DHCPing to him.

Gut reaction - reinstall DUN / TCP/IP. just a guess though.


I also troubleshoot for an ISP,l and I find I resort to advising the customer to use their "system-restore" disk (do warn them that this normally wipes their HDD though!)

although with my fine array of tools and software I can normally solve the problem when I'm in front of the PC, I haven't got hours to devote to one customer's problem.

It's worked before, so if you systemrestore, there's no reason it won't work again. Good luck!

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[InnoTech]

i second the notion. DUN reinstall would be the next step.

something to try:
like manarth said, connect but don't open anything. let it sit a minute or two. then go to the DOS prompt and do a constant ping on yahoo.com to see if it dissconects for that. if not, useing switches run a constant ping with larger packets. (let us know if you're not aware how to)

reason being is that it may stay connected but when you &quot;stress&quot; the onnection it may dissconnect. if so, I would say phone line issue.

does the EU have more than one phone line?


&quot;Jack of all trades. Master of none.&quot;