# tekkie stuff....modem & port

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tekkie-stuff-modem-port/6726>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 2, 2000, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tekkie-stuff-modem-port/6726 "2000-02-02T04:38:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tekkie-stuff-modem-port/6726/1 "2000-02-02T04:38:00Z")

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Question for all in the know:

Sometimes when I am online, my connection gets dropped. When I go back to dialup to my ISP, it will tell me that the port is already in use–Even though I am definately not connected. The only workaround for this I have found is to Shutdown & restart.

Is there a way to “disconnect the port” manually, w/o shutting down?

I am on Win95.

thanks in advance for any help.

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**Author:** ![royalbill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@royalbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/royalbill)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tekkie-stuff-modem-port/6726/2 "2000-02-02T05:44:00Z")

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Not really. The Reboot is probably the most efficient and fastest cure. Basically the system does not fully reallize that the connection was lost. The modem has not been released by the software. The reboot

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Heaven…One to beam up!

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**Author:** ![Chief\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Chief\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Crunch)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tekkie-stuff-modem-port/6726/3 "2000-02-02T05:49:00Z")

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Try hitting Ctrl, Alt, Delete, after you disconnect. There should be something in the task manager called “Rnapp” or something like that. Highlight it and click “End Task”. See if you can connect.

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**Author:** ![hightechburrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f6c823/32.png) [@hightechburrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hightechburrito)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tekkie-stuff-modem-port/6726/4 "2000-02-02T06:21:00Z")

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When that happens to me on Win98, I right click on the modem icon on the bottom right and chose “disconnect”. My brother has 95 and I think that he chooses to view the properties and he can disconnect it that way.

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We must blame them and cause a fuss before somebody thinks of blaming us.  
Sheila Broflofski

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tekkie-stuff-modem-port/6726/5 "2000-02-02T16:47:00Z")

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Let me guess, its one of those internal modems? Happens to me a lot, that really sucks. You’re doing the best you can with it, you often have to restart, even shutting down rnapp doesn’t do it. Often you ll have to seee an open port message…sigh.

So I changed to an external modem. The operating system doesn’t seem to have much to do with it. You can try reseating the modem.