Re: Since the list is so quiet....

Well, based on my experience, I would guess that the computer/modem is the
problem. I am also using dialup for reasons not too far removed from yours.
Some considerable time ago the modem in my computer started finding it
difficult to get a dial tone, even though the phone was working fine.

My solution: I have found that if I plug in my old dial phone just for a
moment, (with the phone off the hook so that I actually get the dial tone)
then unplug it and plug the computer back in, this time it will find the
dial tone and all will be well.

Why should this work? Who knows, but it does.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Seigel" <jseigel@panix.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 5:38 AM
Subject: Re: Since the list is so quiet....

>
> Since the list is so quiet, I figured I might be able to appeal to the
> leashed brain power & expertise for advice on a problem that arrives
> suddenly after more than 10 years of dial up... So I'm hopelessly
> backward, but that's well known -- who else would take up gum printing in
> old age?
>
> My problem is -- I'm still doing e-mail by dial up --which actually has
> many advantages, including that I get to spend the oodles of money saved
> on more intellectual pursuits (although the real reason I do it is (a)
> stubborness... and (b) simplicity, I have enough systems, services,
> contrivances, and "service providers" in this house for an army). Besides
> which I can really excuse myself from web hopping, which makes me old
> before my time.... So what's the problem?
>
> A couple of weeks ago I started getting an intermittent "no dial tone"
> message from my attempts via terminal emulator (Z-term) to log on...
> though I could lift up the phone and get a dial tone. Trying an hour or
> two later, I did get a tone, so I figured there was just too much
> traffic... somewhere.
>
> But today I couldn't get a dial tone all day, so tonight (12:30-ish AM) I
> plugged into an extension of my husband's office phone which is nearby (I
> mean sometimes I HAVE to use touch tone, since my dearly beloved white
> antique wall phone is rotary... And, I'll have you know, I could get $45
> for that on e-bay. I think folks use them as planters, or ash trays, or
> something.)
>
> So there is a dial tone out there & the problem is... something in the old
> phone? (Sob !)... That's intermittent? The demons got tired of Carmen and
> found me? Sliding down the telephone wire?
>
> But how could my rotary phone be working, give me a dial tone and calls in
> and out but say it has no dial tone for a connection? And some time
> later, with the same configuration, same connections, etc., decides to
> work, then maybe the next week won't? A loose connection? A flaky thumb
> plug?
>
> Verizon has lately been taking an overdose of dumb pills and was
> absolutely no use at all... they for instance left me one of those robot
> messages to say a non-working outlet was due to my faulty phone, when it
> belonged to somebody else in the house who had already had it fixed -- by
> verizon.
>
> So verizon said this problem was caused by my service provider, but it
> seems rather to be lodged in my old phone, a split personality of some
> sort. Anyway, I suppose that old phone which doesn't hear as well as I do
> any more is due to be replaced (ash tray anyone?). Can you still buy a
> landline phone? Anyway, thanks for listening, if anyone has a suggestion,
> that would be even better...
>
> Judy
Received on 08/10/06-12:46:03 AM Z