h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I know how you feel FB! Don't give up just yet though. Another idea:

Since I changed modem driver I've been able to download a heap of bugfixes/updates from Windows Update, and it may be that one of those has somehow fixed the internet connection/modem driver issue. I'm just trying the experiment, and I've been on for 40+ minutes so far with no hiccups... but of course that could be coincidence.

"AdAware deleted ALL my diallers so i couldn't get online today"

Eh? It deleted all your dial up connections? Must have been something very dubious about them. I have 6 different dial connections on my machine at home (plus a couple of old ones) and Ad-Aware has *never* touched them.
Seems rather strange.

It described then as 'softdiallers' but try as i might, my freeserve hometime dial-up box never got past the 'initialising' stage until i restored all the files from quaranteen.

I check my phone bill regularily on-line and, as per usual agreement all my internet time is free(well up to about 2hours..)and i am only being charged a flat rate. So if there is something dodgy on my computer it hasn't been activated.

When i have more time, i will try and selectivly delete the various suspect diallers until i'm only left with the ones i need.

Just bookmarking. I had exactly the same problem with it freezing up after a random amount of time. So I downloaded the latest modem driver from the website, which stuffed the whole thing. Now I can't connect on that particular machine at all and I don't know what I've done wrong so I'll be interested to see what ideas people have.

Footbacon, is it the Smartlink V90/V92 modem?

Sorry, I've not been back in a while.

What I've done so far is:

Installed Spybot, ZoneAlarm, AdAware. I'm aready using Mozilla, but I don't think it's a virus. A few people seem to have had it happen to them after upgrading

coelacanth - I'm not sure what modem I'm using, where can I find out?

On Control Panel -> Modems.

That's assuming Windows XP still has a Control Panel, mind you. I haven't checked.

B

Oh yes XP has a control panel. It's on the start menu.

FB - what anti-virus software are you using? You've talked about installing anti-spyware stuff but not anti-virus, so it still could be that you have some sort of an infection.

FB: All these people telling you about Modem drivers and the like are leading you up a blind alley. As you are using a broadband modem, none of that applies.

The only time a broadband modem will show is if its a USB modem then it will show up under USB devices. An Ethernet modem won't show up anywhere. It's just another network device connected to the network interface card and such devices do not have drivers.

Donald

I have a HP56 World MicroModem apparently

As far as Anti-Virus software, I have none as far as I know I've not installed any anyway

One thing I do know, antivirus is a must, I have one on my PC (Norton antivirus) as well as one on the firewall.

I don't know if this is the same problem as yours, but I lose my internet connection around every 30 minutes. Really maddening when you're playing online games and are taking on a load of Imperial Stormtroopers!

The connection drops for as little as 30 seconds, not enough for ntl to trace the fault, but I do suspect the modem as it started happening not long after this new one was installed. Upgrading to a 1meg connection hasn't helped

Ah, just had a look - I've got Norton anti-virus!

That's what mines like, disconnects after about 30 minutes. I've just been restarting it and going online gain that way. Sometimes it disconnects after a shorter period too

My dial-up does this as well, Although the time period is random it usually occurs within a few minutes, then after re-connecting a few times it will be stable for a couple of hours.

I can tell when i am losing the connection by the wee lights that represent the connection status at the bottom of my screen. When they stop synchronising, go off completely or only one 'monitor' lights up i know it's time to give up and reconnnect.

Are you with ntl too? It is fine at weekends

At the risk of adding further to the confusion...

If you haven't already, go to Windows Update and make sure all the latest Windows XP security patches and bugfixes are installed (happily, this doesn't include the 90MB Service Pack 2 - yet)

Since posting to this thread a few days ago, I've been using the settings that used to result in a buggy connection and I've not had a single random stoppage. The only thing that I've changed since, that I can think of, is downloading and installing said updates and it seems to have solved the issue in my case, independently of any jiggery-pockery with modem drivers, web browsers and whatnot else.

Downloading all those fixes on a connection that's prone to crashing every five minutes isn't go to be easy, but it might just work.

I still maintain that your system is too slow to cope with XP...

B

In my case, my PC is fast, so I know that isn't the problem.

All the updates get installed from MS as my PC seeks them automatically. However, they don't get automatically installed as some updates bugger up the LAN then we can't share files between PCs, so H checks them first.

But I will check the site to see if there any updates specific to modems, in my case this problem has been occuring for some months now. H installed a new firewall, we had a new modem (both kits were knocked out by a power surge, in spite of protectors) as well as new PCs and installing XP.

Oddly some days it is absolutely fine, particularly at the weekends, so we suspect some kind of traffic limiter during business hours. Another thing is this has become more apparent since AOL started flogging broadband, over guess who's cables? Yep, dear old ntl.

Re: random dropping of the connection.

One of the things that has caused this for me in the past on dial up (not broadband so all you people with it cans top reading here!) is having call waiting enabled. Call waiting bleeps at you when you are on the phone and someone tries to call you. Obviously, if you are dialled up and it beeps at you this confuses the computer connection and it can drop it or cause delays etc. darling ntl enabled this on my line as a free feature. So I got them to turn it off again

Oh dear - if you have the latest Zone Alarm AND Norton you could be in trouble.

Zone Alarm 5 has got VERY bad reviews - especially linked with Norton - see;

http://www.download.com/3302-2092_4-10306242.html

I'd advice you remove Zone Alarm 5.x and install an earlier version - they are all available to download here:

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory.html

Good Luck

CHawke

I don't want to jinx it, but I've been connected for a couple of hours now and it seems to be running smoothly

My connection only dropped hourly today and once it got to 6pm has stayed up and should do all weekend, with perhaps a couple of drops tomorrow morning.