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

Judy,

If you are using z-term (ughh!) to connect, you are using a modem. And
a modem goes directly to the line, probably with some kind of split
jack. So your beloved antique wall phone has nothing to be ashamed of.
Actually you say that you can get a dial tone through it, no? So the
problem must be elsewhere, probably with your modem taht, knowing
your mores, will be certainly also pretty antique (300 baud, I surmise?)

Anyway did you try to call through the wall phone to the same number
that you connect to the Net? Did you get a tone? If you do, and it is a
good strong signal (you should hear the modem on the other side trying
to establish connection with yours) then the problem is probably with
your modem or perhaps the software (z-term) has lost someway its
configuration.

I second Jack Fulton: get DSL :-)

Cheers
Tom Sobota
Madrid, Spain

Judy Seigel wrote:
>
> 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 08/10/06-03:17:09 AM Z