When my computer was rebuilt, the guy didn't put in a place for a dial-up connection. That was all well and good before, as I had cable internet. But now I can't afford cable so I am back to dial-up. So, I grabbed on of my dead computers from the closet and took out one of the dial-up modem thingys. I put it in, (oh, Windows XP by the way), and my computer said it found new hardware- win lucent modem. So, I get on AOL (don't blast me for that, my girlfriend wants it), and try to set up a new location, but the darn thing can't find it. The computer says it is on the modem is on COM 4. Other than that, I really have no clue what to do. Any help out there?

What do you mean when you say it can't find it? The modem?

Did you check the Device Manager and see if the modem drivers are automatically installed by Windows? If you see a question mark next to it, then you will have to install the proper drivers for it. If that's the case, see if Everest can detect the exact type of card you have there:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Download Everest and install it. Then look for the modem settings (or something that's similar....maybe under Network if not modem). See if you can locate the brand and model of the modem you have there.

I had similar problems with a lucent Winmodem on my eMachines. You might want to look at the hardware manager (Right click my computer>Properties>Hardare>Device manage), unless you already have which I bet you did.

Once I had a problem with my ethernet card, getting new drivers messed it up more. Finally what I had to do was reinstall windows. Might try and get a dialup number from a friend and test it out (I use my sister's work dialup). You need to find out if the problem is with the 3rd party AOL software or windows.

If EVERYTHING fails then I recommend reinstalling windows (back up if you wish).

This is valid only if your old modem drivers are in your Windows install CD. If not, you lost both the installation time and your eventually precious files on your old installation.

There's your problem. That software can't even locate ITSELF... back in the old days, I used to have that problem. I worked on a client's computer once... AOL wouldn't even INSTALL. Well, it would, couldn't find the modem... oh, it was there... I had their computer call my cell phone. AOL tech support was blaming HP and HP tech support was blaming AOL.

Go with DSL if you can... cable is freaking over-priced and no dedicated line. DSL is dedicated and rather cheap.

Just get rid of AOHell... it causes too many problems on computers... WAY too many problems.

[N]F

Yeah. But you can back up before reinstalling. If all else fails what do you have to lose? 2 hours? That's not much. If not hire me to do it heh

Firstly go to your desktop and right click "My Computer" (or alternatly the start menu), then go to the "Hardware" tab; from there click "Device Manager" or "Manage Hardware". Find the modem and check it out. Then post here with any other problems.

When I'm installing a dial up modem, the first thing I do is identify the chipset on it, now obviously the chipset will be Lucent because of what was detected, but this does not mean XP will have the drivers for it, in most cases it doesn't. So you would want to get the latest drivers you can for the chipset of the modem.

Even better, if the modem still has a sticker that identifies the manufacturer, then you can visit the vendor's site and download the latest drivers from there.

Install the modem card.

Unzip and run the setup files or just unzip then go into System Properties (right-click my computer and choose properties), Click the hardware tab, then device manager, locate the device which could end up in Unknown devices, or some other category, just look for something that has a yellow triangle with an exclamation/question mark, if there's more than one, I suggest you locate drivers for all that are appearing.

Right click on the modem, select update drivers and select have disk or manually specify the location, locate the location you unzipped the files and then continue, it should install, it may even prompt a message saying it's not been tested with XP, you can continue with it, most drivers work fine.

Install the files, then you'll need to configure the modem a bit, check in control panel for modem type options, you have to change the region to suit your location, this could also be found in the properties of the modem in device manager.

After that, you'll need to setup a dial up connection, Start | Settings | Network Settings | New Connection Wizard | Connect to the Internet | Set up connection manually | Connect using dialup modem, then enter the ISP's name, the ISP's phone number then your Username and password, and check any of those options below if needs be, then just connect to the internet and test it out.

Cheers,

MC

OK, installing a driver is not a big lost of time. We were mainly talking about installing windows. When you re-install windows, you loose everything in your computer, and if you want to first make a back up you must backup your whole C: disk.

This post has been edited by yordan: Mar 2 2007, 10:31 PM

Yordon only reason I say this is I've been there before...