Phillip Williams wrote:
>  I have a Compaq 5000 series presario with an internal 56k modem that
> occasionally won't get a dial tone. A while back I found that after
> trying to connect, I'll close my AOL software and try my phone (on
> same line) and there isn't a dial tone. Suspecting a bad line or
> connection, I replaced all lines and connectors from the outside box.
> I still have the problem intermittantly and am wondering if it's
> possible for a dying modem to prevent a dial tone from being present.
>  I haven't tallked to the local phone company yet about checking the
> line coming to the house as we have three seperate lines and this is
> the only one having problems.
> If the modem isn't a possibility as the cause, I will contact them next.
>
> Thanks,
> -Phil Williams-
>   
Sometimes your modem can hang, and not let go of the line. When this 
happens you need to tell it to hang up. To do this go to Start, Run, and 
type in "command" to get a command prompt.

Now you will need to know the com port your modem is using, it should be 
com1, com2, com3, or com4.

In the command prompt box type "echo ath0 > com1" [without the quotes], 
hit enter, and the modem will hang up the line, and you will be able to 
use it again. Make sure to change com1 to whichever com port your modem 
is using.

Hope this helps. I used to have to do this quite often in the days of 
Win95 and Win3.1, but have DSL now so haven't had the problem in a long 
time.

Later, Ray Parrish


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