I have a question about a modem a customer had on their computer.  Forgive
me if this is rather long but it needs some explaining.  This customer
called me explaining that they tried to connect to the internet.  (This is
their first time online).  The problem they were having is that when they
tried to connect they would get a message 'Cannot communicate with modem'.
I walked them through some steps.  Took them into Device Manager and the
modem was listed there.  There was no indication of any problem, no
conflicts so I took them through the diagonostics, testing the modem.  No
initiation string appeared.  I've done quite a few such tests and to the
best of my knowledge this indicates that the modem is bad.  I suggested they
bring it to me, I would do a bit more checking but I believed a new modem
was in order.   Now this customer works where I do.  She happened to mention
this to our administrator who dabbles in computers and he told her that was
not the case, to bring it to him.  She did.  He did end up replacing the
modem but said that all that was wrong was that the system could not find
the driver.  Now here's my question.  Is he right?  This may not be enough
for any of you to give me a solid answer since I didn't have the system here
to look at it but since the modem was listed in the device manager I would
think the system recognized the modem.  It couldn't communicate with it
because the modem was bad.  If I'm wrong I'll have to swallow my pride but
if I'm not at least I know that I wasn't way off base.  It frosts me that my
boss has horned in on my business.  I'm sorry I can't give my many details
about the system.  I do know that it is old, with windows 95 and the modem
was a 33k.

Thanks,
Carol Burnside


I have a question about a modem a customer had on their computer.  Forgive
me if this is rather long but it needs some explaining.  This customer
called me explaining that they tried to connect to the internet.  (This is
their first time online).  The problem they were having is that when they
tried to connect they would get a message 'Cannot communicate with modem'.
I walked them through some steps.  Took them into Device Manager and the
modem was listed there.  There was no indication of any problem, no
conflicts so I took them through the diagonostics, testing the modem.  No
initiation string appeared.  I've done quite a few such tests and to the
best of my knowledge this indicates that the modem is bad.  I suggested they
bring it to me, I would do a bit more checking but I believed a new modem
was in order.   Now this customer works where I do.  She happened to mention
this to our administrator who dabbles in computers and he told her that was
not the case, to bring it to him.  She did.  He did end up replacing the
modem but said that all that was wrong was that the system could not find
the driver.  Now here's my question.  Is he right?  This may not be enough
for any of you to give me a solid answer since I didn't have the system here
to look at it but since the modem was listed in the device manager I would
think the system recognized the modem.  It couldn't communicate with it
because the modem was bad.  If I'm wrong I'll have to swallow my pride but
if I'm not at least I know that I wasn't way off base.  It frosts me that my
boss has horned in on my business.  I'm sorry I can't give my many details
about the system.  I do know that it is old, with windows 95 and the modem
was a 33k.

Thanks,
Carol Burnside

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