I finally broke down and bought a computer for home. Received it on 10/2 from Dell. Windows ME. Free AOL for a year. Could not get on the internet. Finally, I downloaded a “patch” from Microsoft at this work computer, which was supposed to amend the AOL software to get me on. It didn’t. After spending about 40 hours on the phone with Dell, Microsoft, and AOL, I finally switched to Earthlink. Their software is no good for the ME, but they verbally purportedly got me on. They didn’t. Dell said the Modem is OK, AOL said the modem was no good, and Earthlink finally said it is either the modem or the phone wiring. Phone guy came over and checked everything out, including the big box on the corner, and said it was all OK, and gave me some advice on hooking up, such as maybe there was too many numbers somewhere. (Whatever.)
Finally, a guy at Dell had me take out the modem and put it in another slot. Only I took out the sound card by mistake. Hey, I told the guy should I disconnect the wire, which I had to to get it out of the slot, and he asked, “What wire.” I told him that green wire, but he ignored me. Anyway, I could not even get my computer working at all. Or maybe there just wasn’t any sound. In any event, he said, “Ah hah!” It is the modem, and he sent a guy over to put in another modem. The guy put back in the sound card which I erroneously mistook for a modem (Hey, I never said I was computer-wise) and put in a new modem. Still couldn’t get on. The guy spent an hour talking to Dell, and finally gave me the phone and left. Dell gave me what they call a hyperterminal number (I type in about a dozen all told, as everybody tried to connect me to some hyperterminal) and I finally did get connected - to a blank screen.
Actually, I did get on for a few minutes a couple of times, but was soon disconnected.
To make a long story short (or is it too late for that), Comcast is going to install a cable modem and hookup this Saturday. Now I wonder if this will solve my problem. A new modem and no phone line. It should. But what do I know. (Obviously not much.) Even tho the phone guy said everything was OK, I believe it is the phone line. My theory is that with the capacity of the ME (800 mhz)the phone line into my condo is just not capable. Does that make sense? Will the cable solve my problem?
What kind of modem is it? If it is a 56K modem, it should work. Did you have internet access at home with another PC? If so, the new one should work also, assuming that all the settings are correct.
All that said, I may be all wet. I don’t have Windoze ME and it may be an altogether different ball game.
A friend of mine just bought Dell Dimension1440, with 1 yr ‘free’ AOL package. He can surf but veeery slow. He wants to switch. Techsupport sucks (full employment, they take anyone who can “answer” a phone in English).
I wonder if you have all the correct support installed.
If your dial-up adapter and TCP/IP protocols are not set up then you will not communicate with anything.
Go to ‘Control pnael’ then click on ‘Networks’, you should see a dialogue box which will show wether these are installed.
Check this out first and see what you get.
We’ll take it from there.
I happen to have a cable modem through comcast, and it works perfectly fine through WinMe
There is a known conflict between WinMe modem drivers and AOL 5.0 – there is the MS fix on the web, and there is an upgrade to AOL 6.0 that is supposed to also fix the issue
Thanks to all who have replied. I did not get an email telling me I had any posts, so I haven’t replied earlier. I will answer the questions:
Cheezit: It is a 56K modem. I have no other PC at home.
Candone: Tech support has sent me there many times. I have the dial-up adapter and TCP/IP protocols. I also had AOL protocols, which Earthlink deleted (or I deleted on their instructions), but reinserted them with a new AOL CD after Earthlink failed to get me hooked up.
Handy: Been there. I’m using an office computer. Let me tell you, it is much smaller than the ME and is quite blurred. The message I’ve been getting I have told the ISPs: Failed to make connection. The computer failed to respond. Connection broken. Sprintnet failed to respond. I have actually got hooked up a couple of times, but for only moments, before I got disconnected.
Kinoonss: I got the fix. Downloaded at work from Microsoft. It didn’t help.
Thanks again. I guess the cable will solve my problem, but time will tell.
It seems like lousy service to me if they cannot get the original thing to work and they have to sell you something else. I’d just return the whole thing and tell them to stuff it for Thanksgiving.
Try this one next, it caught me out for some time, everything would dial up and connect fine but no data transfer would take place.
Go to Control Panel
Then to Modems
Click on Properties
Then on the Connection tab,
Then click on Advanced
This brings up the Advanced connection settings dialogue box.
Make sure that ‘Use error Control’ Is checked but uncheck the the options ‘Required to connect’ and ‘Compress data’
Then make sure ‘Use fow controll’ is checked and 'Hardware(RTS/CTS)is checked.
Only reason I found this out was that I had an auto connection setup which worked but the other ones would not so I compared them item by item.
Where are you located, if near the twin cities I would be happy to try and fix it for you (only cost you a thank you).
I can’t quite guarantee results, but have been tooling with computers the last seven or eight years and been working with them (as a job) for the last two.
Having worked for Earthlink AND Dell in the technical capacity, I can say that Dell’s tech support are better trained than Earthlink. If you can’t get on with Earthlink and they redid your networking and TCP/IP, try, as someone else suggested, a free service. Netzero is probably the best. If you cannot get online from Netzero, then it is most likely your computer hardware or software rather than the providers. If you can connect with the free providers, then it is most likely your internet service.
Your problem with AOL - which version is it? There is a known bug in ME that AOL 5.0 will not work with ME. You must uninstall 5.0 and install either 4.0 or 6.0. It will cause you to have shut down and start up problems as well as connection problems.
If it is your hardware, don’t give up because one tech wasn’t able to solve your problem. Dell just opened a new service center which is supposed to cut down on hold time. Most of the people there are very experienced - some have their A+ certification.
A cable modem may give you the connectivity unless there is another problem with the computer. Just be careful of cable modems because their speeds depend on the number of connections present in the hub. You could end up with a 28.8 connection with the modem. Your phone lines do have a great deal to do with your connection and ability to pull web pages. If your modem is pulling in bad packets, you won’t get a page up because it will be spending time trying to get good ones.
You don’t list error messages you get trying to connect. The main one to worry about with hardware is the 630 error. That is a hardware error. When you connect, you should listen to the dialing and the handshake. Does it sound normal? If you hear a dial tone, and you get to the handshake, and get a different error message than 630, it is either software, or the ISP. In software, it could be the OS or the drivers. While I cannot privately address this problem, I do urge you not to give up and keep trying with the Dell techs.
As far as the speed, watch what you put in your system tray.
I’m not getting email from straightdope re postings on this thread.
Anyway, I couldn’t wait to try out Casdave’s ideas. Compress Data was checked so I unchecked it. Hey, I got on, without too much difficulty. Thanks ever so much Casdave. Just a couple of tries, both with AOL and Earthlink. But I couldn’t stay on more than 20 minutes.
AOL was my default ISP and they were installing some kind of revision automatically which would’ve taken 30 minutes, but I was disconnected twice with less than 10 minutes to go. I did send an email and got the weather.com, but when I tried to get here, I was disconnected. I changed AOL as my default because when I dialed up Earthlink, AOL appeared and I had to go thru AOL. My unchecking that box, I’ve solved that problem.
So, Casdave if you know of some way I can stay connected, please let me know. (I’m writing this at work.)
Thanks to you too,DebiJ. I’ve had all kinds of error codes with Earthlink, some with 700 something and quite a few in the upper 600’s. I wrote them down and I think I still have them at home, but the 600’s were, I believe 670, 680, and 650. I may have had one 630, but I don’t think so. The details for the failure did not mention any hardware problem, but were similar to the messages I got from AOL. AOL doesn’t give codes, but the reasons were, as I stated, failure to connect, AOL.net or Sprint.net disconnection, computer failed to answer, etc. But now with Casdave’s fix, I’m able to connect! But I cannot stay connected. Do you have any ideas, DebiJ?
I should have mentioned, DebiJ, that it was not just one tech support person. I spent over 40 hours with the different companies and talked to over a dozen different persons. Not one was as helptful as Casdave. But I’m still not there.
I hate to keep popping up on this thread, but I got so excited about even connecting that I left some bases untouched that DebiJ brought up.
The AOL version is 5.0. However, I got the fix or the “patch” as they call it from Microsoft on the web at work and downloaded to a floppy and installed it at home. As I mentioned, when I did get on today, AOL was automatically updating something -God knows what- which would take half an hour, but I could not stay on long enough. It may be a 6.0 update. Perhaps I should try reinstalling the floppy, but I did that twice already. And I could not stay connected with Earthlink either.
DebiJ, you say that the phone line may be the problem. I hope so, because then the cable will solve my problem. But I don’t know much about computers and computer lingo, and I don’t know what you mean by a 28.8 connection with the modem, or “bad packets.” What is an “OS”? And what is a “system tray.” You have to use words that even a computer-disadvantaged guy like me can comprehend.
I know my friend couldn’t get on AOL the other week because her wsock32.dll needed to be changed. She asked me to do it. We changed it to the new one, which is about 65k, the old one was 156k, or thereabouts.
bar, just search for that file & see what size it is. It should be in windows/system but it could be anywhere.
The modem init string can be changed to keep you online longer but thats a big job.
The modem might be set up to disconnect under certain conditions.
Go to ‘Control Panel’
Select ‘Modems’
Click on ‘Properties’
Then on the ‘Connection’ tab
Look under the section ‘Call preferances’
There is an option ‘Disconnect if call idle for more than’ followed by a box with some number in it.Usually this is set to 20 mins when the operating system is installed.
Uncheck that option box and see what happens.
I would recommend that you get a download manager so that if you are getting something off the net and you are unexpectedly disconnected then you will be able to redial and carry on where you left off.
Couple of free ones for you to look for are,
Download Accelarator plus
Very easy to use.
Or better still
Go’Zilla
Both of these can download from several servers at once to a folder of your choice.