Modem Connection Help

Azza

My next door neighbours computers internet connection isn't running so they asked me out to try and fix it. There running on an old Dell PIII (yuck). Anyways when they try to connect they get a message no dail tone detected. They tried changing the telephone line and they are getting a dial tone on the phone. I also tried a different ISP but same thing so its nothing to do with the isp. I went into device manager and the modem was detected and it said the device was working properly (its a 56k modem). Then they had application that tested the modem to see if was working correctly. I tried it and gave a message have way through its run that the modem was in use.

Any idea's what might be using the modem in the background. Its on Windows 98 OS. Also I have a spare modem I could swap around for them to see if it fixes the problem but I jhave no driver disk....does windows 98 automatically have these drivers built in or is that just on XP?

Finally this problem only occured after a mild thunder and lighting storm occured. There house wasn't hit or anything the computer wasn't even on but could that be the cause or is it just coincidence?

Col_Loki

Try changing the Com port (if it doesent work then change it back to what it was)........ think its Com1 it should be set to in 98. I had a problem exactly like that, line was ok, modem was saying it was ok and that sorted it out.

When you turn up the volume can you hear the modem trying to dial out or does it even attempt?

Esel

I've seen modems getting fried by lightning, so that might be the cause.

Azza

Right I will give that a try let you know how I get on.