A: Almost all disconnects are caused by a noisy phone line, bad modem or having call waiting on your phone and not disabled. Several years ago we switched over to the newer digital type of modem banks. With this type of service the only place for your modem to pickup line noise is between your modem and the phone company's switch, once it leaves the switch it's digital all the way to our servers.

In Order to keep costs down, most computer manufacturers have resorted to installing the cheapest modems available. The worst ones are known as "Win modems" The winmodems are basically a stripped down modem that offloads most of the functions normally performed by dedicated hardware on the modem card to your computers main CPU. True to their name most Winmodems can only be used with Microsoft Windows, they will not work with dos or other operating systems. Some of the cheap modems will work fine, while others will give you nothing but grief. We always recommend a good quality modem. One thing to remember is that you get what you pay for. Some of the better brands are USR/3Com and Zoom, but be aware that even these companies offer some of the cheaper "winmodems". Your best bet would be to purchase the "upper end models".

If you are using Microsoft OutLook Express, make sure you have unchecked "Hang up after sending and receiving" email, its under "tools | options | connection".

Try all of our phone numbers, some modems work better with different servers.

373-4028 (Cal City)
373-1698 (Cal City)
373-5702 (Cal City)

769-1108 (North Edwards/Boron)
769-4103 (North Edwards/Boron)

Here is a brief overview of modems and some steps you can take to hopefully fix modem related problems.

#1 First try using our modem/phone line diagnostic service. In order to use this service you must be logged into our (760)373-1698 or (760)769-4103 phone lines. Please be patient this will take a little time, Check it now

#2 Make sure that you have call waiting disabled if you have it. Just add "*70," in front of the phone number that you are dialing.

#3 Make sure that no one is picking up an extension phone while you are on line.

#4 Pick up your phone receiver and dial a "1" listen for any hiss, pops, another persons voice or ringing sounds. If you hear any noise you should call the phone company and request a technician to check it out. Note that most phone companies will be unsympathetic if you mention that your modem connect speeds are slow, you should instead complain that "you can hear noise" or that "your fax machine is not working properly".

#5 Disconnect all telephones, answering machines and faxes from your phone line. Log on and see if your problems go away.

#6 Run a direct line from your modem to the phone demark on the outside of your house, use a quality twisted wire cable like cat 5 network cable.

#7 Take your computer over to a friends house and try it.

#8 Modems are supposed to automatically slow down when they detect phone line noise and then speed back up once the line clears up. But some modems will not properly downshift speeds, instead they will just drop the connection. You can fix this by entering the proper AT commands to limit your modems maximum speed. You will have to find the proper command for your modem and enter it into the "extra settings" in the modem properties box in windows

#9 Insert an initialization command in the modems control panel that will help your modem stay connected through signal losses. Click Start, go to Settings, Control Panel. Double click the Modems icon. click the Properties button (to the right of the list of modems). Click the Connection tab. Click the Advanced button. In the Extra settings box type: s10=250

Note: if there is already a string in the Extra settings box, look for the s10= in the string and change its value to 250. If there is no s10= in the string, just add s10=250 to the end of the string. There should not be any spaces in the string.

When you are done, click OK all the way back to the modems control panel, click
Close, and then close the Control Panel. Try connecting again to see if this helps.

#10 Go to your modems manufactures web site and download the newest software drivers and the newest firmware drivers

#11 Sometimes forcing your modem to connect at a lower speed will help you stay online if you have a noisy phone line, here is a link that will show you how.

For more info check out this modem page http://www.teleport.com/~curt/modems.html