Caller Id vs Modem

hayes · Jul 23, 2002

OK, after a year and half paying for caller id service, the wife decided to harrase the phone company (Sprint) to see why it wasn't working. After 2 calls and about 2 hrs on the phone they said they would send someone out to take a look. The repairman showed up, did some magic at the box at the end of the street and bang, caller id works. BUT now our 56k modem will not connect up to our service provider. The modem doesn't seem to detect a modem on the other end of the line after dialing.

Anyway, the repairman is supposed to be out by 3pm today to take a look, until then anybody have some info that I can use if I have to convince them it is there problem.

Thanks

Larry

Anonymous Poster · Jul 23, 2002

Well sir, the problem has been determined by our highly qualified expertly trained technician to be in your wiring/equipment, so you will now be charged for a service call. Coincidence is NOT necessarily causation, and we need money at the phone company to cover the payments MCI won't be making.
Thank you for using our "service".

mikim · Jul 24, 2002

may or may not work ..... but try putting ---*82 pause--- in your dialing string before the called number -- ie: *82##555-555-1212 where # is the pause signal for your modem.

hayes · Jul 24, 2002

Well,,,,, I think we figured out what was wrong. We actually had 2 problems, 1 the ISP number we were dialing was faulty, it was supposedly out of service, 2. The new cordless phone we bought seemed to be keeping the line active after the modem disconnected. We would pick up any phone in the house and hear a beeping sound, unplug the cordless and the noise went away and dial tone returned.

We figured this out after 1 hour on the phone with the phone company, and 1 hour on the phone with the ISP.

Anyone else have problems with a cordless and a modem?

Larry

JerryG · Jul 24, 2002

About once a week my cordless keeps the line active after hanging up. I never have had to unplug it though. I just push the talk button on phone on and then off. That has always worked for me.

MossRoad · Jul 24, 2002

Here's the drill from our telecomm guy if you have modem troubles.

Disconnect every device on the phone lines in your home. All answereing machines, cordless phones, regular phones, caller id boxes, alarm systems, modems, etc...

Locate the demark point (usually a gray box on the side of your house) and open it on the side that you can open.

Disconnect the jumpers that lead from the phone company side of the box to your side of the box. It is usually just a clip in connector.

Make a really long phone cord and plug it from this point, through a window and into your computer.

Test your modem and see how it works.

If ok, then reconnect the jumper and close the phone box. Go try your modem at its regular location. If it doesn't work, the problem is in your home wiring. If it works OK, then start re-connecting all of your phones, answereing machines and such, one at a time.

Test the modem each time you add a device. It goes pretty fast.

Surprisingly, many cordless phone base units and answering machines cause interference on the lines.

Hope this helps.

Bird · Jul 24, 2002

Aaaah, yes, I have lots of experience with that demark (or is it demarcation?) box. Our phones are out of service often enough that the first thing I do is go out there and plug in a phone to make sure it isn't our house wiring (and it never is). Fortunately, we have two lines; one for the wife to talk on and one for me and the Internet./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif The Internet line went dead Saturday and is finally working again today, so the last few days, I've been using her line and even with her cordless phone left off the cradle, never had a problem (except the usual slow service from my ISP).