Pamela,

I've just gone through a whole week of trying to fix a dialup problem on
Windows 95b, but what I've learned also applies to Win 98 and 98SE.  First
of all there is a long elaborate procedure to uninstall the Windows DUN.
You can't just use the normal Windows uninstall.  See Microsoft KB article
Q181599, sorry don't have the URL. It requires you to do a lot of removal
of files manually because an un-install of DUN doesn't remove these files
and a subsequent re-install will not overwrite them. Also you will need to
extract some files from your install CD's. Be sure to follow all the
instructions to get the re-install to work. If you don't remove the files
manually you will still be stuck with the corrupt files even after a full
reinstall of DUN (and maybe even a full install of Windows?)!

For my problem, what I found after all my agony of searching, installing
and re-installing may save others from having to do a re-format and
re-install of DUN. Apparently the problem is common enough that Microsoft
has included a fix (at least for Windows 95).  A corrupt telephon.ini file
will cause a multitude of error types and hit and miss dialing.  I started
receiving tapiexe errors and rundll32 errors.  About 1 out 5 times I could
clear the error message and still be able to dial out.  It got
progressively worse.  One time I got a message that my Calling Card
information was corrupt.  If the dialer didn't work on the second try, it
would lock up my machine.

Microsoft has included a file called tapiini.exe which will rebuild the
telephon.ini file.  You need to rename your current telephon.ini file (or
delete it if you are brave), reboot then run tapiini.exe.  It runs so fast
you may not think is does anything.  I looked at my telephon.ini with a
text viewer and saw the corrupt characters before renaming it.  After
running tapiini.exe, the file had much less information in it but the
dialer worked flawlessly (for the first time in 10 days).

In short, you need to look at the article follow the long procedure before
trying to re-install DUN and maybe required to re-install Windows 98SE.

Doug

At 8/24/00 01:39 AM, Pamela Leming wrote:

>A friend of mine is having problems with connecting to his ISP.  I've been
>trying to help him over the phone, but it's been almost impossible!
>Here's the story:
>
>He was connected thru his ISP (Concentric), browsing the internet, PC
>locked up and had to reboot.  After reboot, could no longer dial out and
>Windows
>gave him some type of error message about dial up networking not working
>(?).  He
>ended up calling the ISP, they had him look in Network Properties.  No dial up
>adapter found.  When the tech at the ISP had him delete everything there
>and try
>to REINSTALL the dial up adapter, the computer locked up again.  Since dial
>up networking is installed, each time he reboots windows, he gets the message
>that Windows must install the dial up adapter.  Yet, each time he tries to do
>this, the computer locks up and won't complete.

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