- Why do I get disconnected?
There are several possibilities for this which are listed below.
Your telephone has "Call Waiting" feature. Call waiting signals are beeps sent from the telephone exchange to notify you that there is another call coming in. Unfortunately, they will sometimes break your connection. You can switch call waiting off by dialling #43# or even better, add it to the dialup string on your connection software (e.g. ADTD #43# and then the telephone number of your POP). If you want to switch it back on again when you have finished your Internet session, you will need to dial *43#.
Windows 95/98 has an option (which is set on as default) to disconnect after 20 minutes of inactivity. Unfortunately, Windows 95 only recognises mouse and keyboard input as activity; it does not see a 10 MB file download as activity! If you are doing nothing else on the Internet while it is downloading, you will find that you get disconnected 20 minutes through the download.
To fix this problem, click Start button | Settings | Control Panel | Internet. Then select the "Connection" tab and untick the "Disconnect if idle for 20 min" box.
Most phones require some power to store their memories, and so each phone draws a little power from the phone line when it charges its memory. This causes a spike on the line, which in turn can drop the modem. If you have one or more phones connected to the same line, you should disconnect the telephones before dialling the Internet if you are experiencing dropouts. Fax and answering machines can also be problem. If you are having disconnections every 15-20 min and you have a Telstra Touch-Tone phone, disconnect it. You can almost bet this is the problem. Many users have reported success after disconnecting their Telstra Touch-Tone phones.
To solve this, you can unplug the phone when you use your modem, buy a new phone, or if you are renting your phone from Telstra (as most people do), have Telstra replace it at no charge for a Touchphone 200R, which solves this problem.
Telstra recommends that a 'mode 3' socket be installed for use with a modem, if any other equipment is in parallel with it. This will isolate the other equipment on the line whilst the modem is in use.
You may have poor-quality phone lines, in which case the modem speed is too high for your telephone line and the connection is unstable. Please try to connect at a lower speed (e.g. 19200 bps or even 9600 bps). If it becomes more stable, then the problem is likely to be related to telephone line quality. In this case, please check with your telephone company.
You may have a poor-quality modem. (See the paragraph below). There are many modems on the market, and the obvious question is why someone should pay around $450 for a US Robotics Courier V. Everything when they can get brand X for under $150 and it does the same speed. The obvious answer is that you get what you pay for. If you purchased a cheap modem and complain that you get disconnected all the time, you are probably going to wind up paying for us to prove that everything else works fine and you can stay online just fine with a better modem. We have found that the US Robotics Sportster modem is a very reliable modem at a good price.
You are using a "WinModem". These are predominantly internal modems which are built using fewer chips compared to traditional modems. The work normally done by the missing chips is instead controlled by software burdening your computer's main processor (the Pentium, PowerPC, etc.)
- Is my computer dialling inappropriate numbers and adding to my phone bill?
In recent publicised occurrences it has been found that some people have suffered a jump in the price of their telephone bills associated with Internet usage because their computer has been found to be dialling 1900 or similar numbers.
This new Internet-based trap is known as 'Dumping', and it occurs when, as a result of visiting certain websites (normally adult sites), users are disconnected from their local Internet service provider (ISP) and reconnected through very expensive overseas modem calls, usually to information numbers.
These websites (and/or files downloaded from them) alter the dialup settings inside the computer, sometimes without the users being any the wiser. They only find out that their call was transferred when they receive a substantial phone bill resulting from the international calls made to reach the overseas service providers.
To prevent this from happening, users can contact Telstra or their telecommunications company and have Call Control (Call Baring) enabled so that outgoing call attempts made to 190 and other expensive or inappropriate numbers are blocked.
Further Information:
Telstra's Call Control service
'Dumping' A Problem
Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO)
- Why does it take so long to connect?
“ Log on to Network” is a tick-box option under "Dial-up Networking".
To get a faster connection to the server, simply untick this option. It is not necessary for Internet use. This will then speed up the actual connecting process.
Simply follow these steps in order to untick this option:
· Double-click "My Computer" on your desktop
· Double-click "Dialup Networking”
· Right-click on your Connection tab (usually called "AlphaWave” or "My Connection")
· Select Properties and left-click
· Click on the "Server Types" button or tab
· You should then see the "Log on to Network" box. Simply untick it.
· Click OK, then OK again
Next time you redial, your connection should happen a bit faster.
- Why does my dialup password keep changing?
This question is relevant to Windows 2000 & XP only. If by this you mean that the number of asterisks always shows more than it should be when you dial up, this is a normal situation. Irrespective of how long your password is, 2000 & XP will show your password as 16 asterisks as a safety measure to help prevent unauthorised access with your account.
- Why doesn't my V.90 modem connect at 56k?
There are several possibilities for this, the most common of which are listed below.
The telephone line into your premises is old or of inferior quality, or you are situated far away from the telephone exchange. Both of these factors will decrease the actual connection speed of your modem.
The telephone line into your premises is on what's called a "pair gain" system. This means that more than one telephone service is sharing the copper wire that your telephone is connected to. It minimises the bandwidth available through the line. While a pair gain system is perfectly adequate for normal voice transmission of telephone conversations, it will not allow the full throughput of data via a modem. Telstra will be able to determine if your line is on a pair gain system and be able to advise you of possible remedies.
If you have a pre-Pentium computer (this applies to IBM-compatible PCs), check the UART. The old 8250 UART is considered unreliable above 9600 baud, and it is recommended that the UART is upgraded to the 16550 UART in order to operate at 56,000 bps.
If you are using a Rockwell modem, you may need to try inserting this into the extra settings of the modem properties: s202=32. This will turn off the modem’s AD conversion detection ability, thus forcing the modem to always attempt a v.90 connection.
The maximum speed is set in Windows at a lower speed that your modem is capable of connecting at. To remedy this, click on "Modems" in the control panel, select your modem’s properties, and in the Maximum Speed section, select at least 57600 bps.
The maximum speed for your communication port is set for a lower speed than it is capable of. To rectify this, right-click on My Computer, select Properties, and then the Device Manager tab. Expand the Ports (COM & LPT) section by clicking on the + sign. Select your modem’s COM port and click the Properties tab. Under Port Settings, select at least 57600 in the “Bits per second” section.
- Modem initialisation strings & extra settings .
A modem initialisation string is a combination of modem AT Commands that are used to specify certain values inside the registers of the modem. These values usually correspond to certain options inside the modem, which are disabled or enabled depending upon the valued specified in the particular register.
If you have a properly installed modem driver or ".inf" file, you normally don't need any initialisation string or extra settings when using DUN (dialup-networking) - the ".inf" file for your modem determines the init string, which—when everything works right—gives you the best connection possible. But, it doesn't always work that way, and sometimes you can improve your connection by adding extra settings (an additional initialisation string). Many command formats are specific to different modem chipsets, so you need to be very careful when implementing them.
The V.34-only modem string or script is a workaround for customers that are unable to connect using the V.90 and other 56k protocols. In many cases, even if the V.90 implementation negotiated downward properly, the resulting connection speed might only end up being between 28.8 kbps and 33.6 kbps due to phone line quality or subsequent line noise. In these cases there is no performance difference between using the V.34 and V.90 protocols.
If you continue to have problems after reading this document and trying some of the other tips for fixing disconnection problems, you may want to contact AlphaCall’s helpdesk and ask for a modem string for your modem as a last resort.
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FAQ