Why do I get disconnected prematurely?

Here are the possible causes:

  • You have call waiting
  • Someone is picking up another phone extension in your home.
  • Noisy Phone Line
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    Call Waiting:
    If you have call waiting, you definitely need to disable it. What you have to do is insert a *70 in your dial string to disable call waiting while you are on the internet. Once your connection the internet is finished, your call waiting will become activated again. To disable Call Waiting:

  • Open up My Computer
  • Open up Dial-up Networking.
  • Double-click ICNet.click on Dial Properties.
  • Put a check mark in the box labeled, "To disable call waiting, dial" and type in a *70 in the box.
  • Click OK, and that's it.
    •

    Someone is picking up another phone extension in your home.
    If someone picks up a phone on the line on which you are using your modem, it is likely to disconnect. Let everybody in the house know that you are online, or consider getting a dedicated phone line for your modem.

    Noisy Phone Line
    This can be the most difficult and frustrating problem to resolve. Line noise can come from either inside your home or from outside Bell Atlantic wiring. If your disconnect problems begin just after a period of heavy rains then the problem is most likely due to moisture in the Bell Atlantic lines. In that case, there is not much to do except wait till the lines dry.

    To investigate any kind of line noise, the first thing to do is listen to the quality of your dial tone with your ear. When your computer is not connected to the internet, Pick up any phone and listen to your dial tone. It should be a pure tone. If you hear any crackle or static on the line, or any humm (from 60Hz electrical) then almost for sure line noise is your culprit. At this point you need to determine if the noise is coming from your home/business or from Bell Atlantic wiring.)


    To rule out internal wiring, first try to disconnect any other telephones, FAX machines, other computers, etc from the line you are trying to test. If the problem does not go away, try plugging a phone directly into the telephone jack in the Bell Atlantic Network Interface Box and listen to the quality of the tone. (This is the so called Demarcation point between your equipment and Bell Atlantic's equipment.

    Sometimes the easiest way to rule out line noise is to take your computer to a friends house that for sure is getting a good connection to the internet. If you stay connected at your friend's house then almost certainly you have a line noise problem.


    If after all this you believe there is a line noise problem due to outside Bell Atlantic wiring, the phone number to call for Bell Atlantic repair is:

    Bell Atlantic Repair: 1-800-275-2355

    If you have a mild line noise problem, there is a good possibility that Bell Atlantic will not help you. There are a few tricks you can play. Mild line noise may cause momentary drops in the DTR modem signal which will cause your modem to hang up. One init string that will for sure fix this is: &D0. The only problem with using this string is that your modem will not release the line after your call is terminated so then you also have to make sure your modem gets an ATH command once a call is terminated.You can do this by creating a small batch file at creating a short cut to it on your desktop. For example, if your modem is installed on Com2 then batch file should say:

    ATH >> Com2

    or if the modem is on Com3 then the batch file should say:

    ATH >> Com3

    You can tell which port your modem is on a Windows 95/98 machine by going to Control Panel, System, Device Manager, and then look at your Modem Properties.

    On some modems, (USR for example) you can use the s25=10 command which will double the amount of time the modem will accept a drop in DTR.