modem wont connect unless....

[ismellsmoke]

Here's the spill When trying to connect to the internet the only way the modem will connect is if we lift one of the phones in the house while the modem is trying to dial out.After lifting the phone receiver for a second the modem then dials up like it should.....it can be any phone in the house , even the cordless one. What's going on here ?
Thanks , ISMELLSMOKE...A/K/A Ed

 

[Bartman39]

can you say... "dying modem"...

 

[LiLithTecH]

Can you say "Bad wire"!

Do you have a phone connected to the modem?

 

[ismellsmoke]

There is no phone connected to the modem , but they are all on the same line.

 

[stevewm]

I've had to replace 2 modems for clients that had the same problem.


First client: modem would only dial out if a phone was picked up, otherwise it would just sit there doing nothing and eventually time out. It worked like this for a few weeks. Eventually got to the point where it failed completely. Refused to dial at all. Replaced modem, problem solved.

The other client's died instantly. I was able to get it to dial ONE time, but the DTMF tones (tones the numbers make) came out heavily distorted. So the local phone CO didn't recognise the numbers and therefore didn't dial. Replaced modem, problem solved.

 

[earthman]

Almost certainly a defect in the modem. Taking the phone off hook drops the line voltage from 50 to about 10-15 I think, obviously the modem can't handle the normal line voltage.