Ever since my ISP changed their software to allow V.90 error correction I have been plagued with "can not detect carrier" error messages. This only happens when the net is busy. I will even get bumped off when the TV in the background goes to commercials and then can't get reconnected. My ISP says this is a phone company problem. Is it? My normal connection speed used to be 19200 now it is 14400. During the week that the schools were getting out in this state and the kids were otherwise occupied everything was normal. Now sometimes I can't connect for hours. I would sure appreciate an experts opinion. My ISP also blames my Telepath modem from Gateway which worked fine for a year before this. It's hard to keep up with the news and prepare when you can't hook up. Thanks

-- I_am (frustrated@isp.dud), June 05, 1999

Answers

Why not try setting up another account, there are plenty around that give a free 30 day trial. That way you can see if you have the same problem with the new ISP. You may want to switch anyway if your ISP wants to place blame elsewhere, rather than help you straighten out your problem.....

-- nobody (nobody@nowhere.com), June 06, 1999.

Frustrated==

I am on Uswest, and in the past two weeks I have been constantly disconected, sometimes even before my email is downloaded. I too am PO'ed about the problem. I have noticed that the connect rate on my 56k modem is always around 20k-25k Errrrr

Then too, here on TB, the tranfer rates go down to about 200 bytes per second, or less, a lot of the time, and then I get bumped off. Double ERRRRR!!!

Uswest is ?coincidently trying to sell a new service, which increases the throughput, for an additional $10 a month. ONE MORE ERRRRR!!!

Can you say bait and hook??

-- unspun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), June 06, 1999.

I've been with Mindspring for 2-1/2 years now. There have been very few problems, and they've been quick to address those that occurred. Mindspring has local access points in most states -- check this list of their Local Access Numbers.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), June 06, 1999.

There is a lot of possible problems / solutions here. Your ISP should have people in the tech support area than can help you adjust your modem Init string and dialer if necessary. (If they don't find a new one!) Also check with Gateway and see if they have any fixes. Some modems can be flashROM upgraded.

One trick I have used to help stay connected to the new v.90 ports is to tell the PPP dialer to check the phone line every 20 seconds. The regular activity seems to help. Sorry I can't be more specific, I don't do Windows.

One final note, modems do go bad. The USR Sporster modems we used in our user group BBS would last about 10,000 hours and then get very intermittant. A typical failure mode is dropped connections. It may be time to look for a new v.90 modem and enjoy the increased speed.

BTW - Got Lightning Protection on the phone line?

-- Jim (jimed@iglobal.net), June 06, 1999.

go to 56k.com and download new v90 drivers,you can call gateway and get a custom init string,go to properties in the modem control pannel and verify that the max speed does not exceed your modem,if all of that fails,go into your dial up networking icon and add four commas after the phone#,that should disable the v90 protocol.zoob.if nothing works,e-mail me.

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), June 07, 1999.