Every time I sign online, something strange happens.
I use AOL (please don’t stop reading right here). Not because I want to, but because I really don’t have the money to pay for anything of my own, and don’t want to use a shitty free ISP (as it is, my brother pays for AOL).
Now, everything was hunky-dory since I got my computer. Lately, however, when I type in my password and hit enter expecting to hear the duh-duh-duh-duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh of the dial tone, I don’t. I still hear it somewhat, but it sounds as if there’s static in the line. I’ve replaced the phone line connecting my computer to the actual line to no avail. I’ve tried it in all the places in the house I could plug it in, to no avail. When I sign online, it takes forever, and I get a shitty connection (i.e. frequent boots, shitty download times, mad lag on muds).
It’s a 700 mhz Celeron, 256 MB of RAM, running Win98, and I have a Lucent WinModem that came stock with the computer.
Any ideas?
The first things I would check would be to see if something is affecting your phone wiring.
Have you noticed any change in the amount of static you get when you use the phone? Check to be sure that you have good wiring connections where the phone line enters the building, and at each of your wall plates/jacks. If you have the same problem at several different locations, it is more likely that your problem is upstream - so check at the outside wall first.
Also, I suppose that there is an outside chance that you have got some kind of corrosion in the jack on your modem code. The suddenness of the problem would make me suspect that this is only plausible if someone had recently spilled something down the back of your computer. If that is what happened - you might try cleaning out the jack (although I am not quite sure how to do that.)
The next thing I would try would be the customer service line with the phone company - although I realize that can be a less than thrilling experience.
Good luck.