Can someone explain why modems have to make such hideous noises when connecting? What exactly are these noises, and why can’t we be connect by using a more pleasing sound??? :eek:
Thanks, Android, you’re right on top of things.
If any of my fellow tech heads know a better explanation, please do so or correct me if my asnswer is wrong.
Anyhow, your modem must convert computer or 1s and 0s to analog. Once the conversion has taken place, analog signals are freqencies or amplitudes of waves, hence those annoying noises.
Now, I am unclear on the digital signals that you can now get on standard analog phone lines. This is something I have been trying to research but little is really explained as to why you can use those same lines to transmit digital signals. I suspect, it has something to do with the switches between the home or office and the phone company.
Thanks Jinx, and I ain’t even had a coffee yet…or a beer 
Seems to me, Techchick68, it wouldn’t be that hard to let the computer do all it has to do silently and then, once connected, give us a pleasant tone…like a “ring”?
I think it’s just a lack of planning and the power of the geekdom. I mean, if telephone can connect in a pleasant way, why can’t my fax machines and modems, etc? I think there is no excuse why we must put up with this noise.
It’s paramount to squeeky chalk or one’s nails on the chalkboard, the knife scraping against the plate, or the squeeky balloon. Even the suggestion of these sounds will drive some people up a wall!
Thank goodness phones don’t do this while placing a call, or we’d all be deaf! If phones can do it, so can our other electronic devices!
You can tell your modem to connect silently. There are AT commands to adjust the volume of the modem speaker and to suppress it entirely. I think ATM0 turns the sound off.
The reason for leaving the sound on where you can hear it is so you can hear anything coming over the line (like busy signals or the annoyed voice saying “Hello? Hello?” when you dial a wrong number).
I don’t know about your modem Jinx,but I could shut mine up by inserting a couple of command codes in the modem setup configuation. If you still have access to the manual, I’d check there
Jinx,
Like the others said, you can quite those annoying noises if you want. Most modems can be changed through Control Panel, some need the AT commands set right as others state.
Me, I like to know if my modem is connecting right off the bat. But then again, I am a tech chick, if I am having a problem with my modem I can usually determine what the problem might be when initiating a session. Windows does a poor job of explaining what might be the problem.
Sure, you could turn off the sound, if you had the will power… but no one does.
It’s because there’s a subliminal, highly-addictive, brain-control wave hidden amongst all that noise.
Once you’ve been exposed, you’ll spend the rest of your life craving it, and serving it - like a carnival chicken pecking a button for a piece of corn.
There is no escape. Your work will go unfinished. Your bills will pile up to the ceiling. Your house will become a disaster area. Your diet will consist only of things that can be eaten while serving the modem. You’ll get up in the middle of the night for “modem-fiXez”. Your unwashed children will run away and join the circus.
…but you won’t care about any of that.
Your one and only objective in life will be to activate the modem… activate the modem… must activate the modem… activate the modem…
… resistance is futile …
:::Enter:::
TriiiiiiiLL scReEeEeEch spRoiNg SHhHhHhHhHhHhHh bedOing! bedOing! bedOing!
Hey, I like “N oR jVIaL”'s little way of imitating those sounds!
Yes, you can shut off the noise, but I can’t do that in the workplace. Between the CPUs and faxes bizzing and buzzing, you’d think we’re working in a honeycomb! At least the dot matrix printer noises have been silenced!
I’ll invest in earplugs!