Little info needed...re..phone lines

[sheriff]

I have this friend having trouble getting connected to internet. I have checked his computer here at my house. It's a k6-2-450 machine running win98, 56k modem. It connects to internet here at my house just fine. I took his machine home to him and one of my machines also. Neither machine can get a connection to the ISP (we use the same ISP even though our homes are 15 miles apart, so all i had to do is change my dailing number at his home and use my same login). His machine is using a internal modem, mine a external zoom(that works about anywhere I have ever tried it). The telephone company has been there checking his phone lines telling him his phone line is good. How can that be. His machine and mine work here at my home, but neither can connect to ISP at his residence..Anyone have any ideas??????

[golfcart]

What kind of error is it giving?

You might try running a line directly from the computer to the telephone box outside. If it magically starts working then the lines inside his house are bad.

[sheriff]

I have connected directly to the box on the side of his house, by-passing all the house wiring. The telephone guy is suppost to have checked from his house connection point back down the line, and told him the lines are good. In my opinion, Not so.

[sheriff]

Sorry bout that I see I didnt ans your question. There are no errors, the machines just do not connect and redial (whatever there limits set to).

[golfcart]

Can you hear the attempt to handshake?

[Shifter2101]

just wondering if he's got static in the line while on the phone w/ppl?.... maybe its an open line from the box to the pole?

[SirroccoX]

Try plugging in an ordinary telephone and seing if you can dial out. First dial any number and see if you can dial out. Then try to dial the ISP phone number and see if it answers. Take it from there

[sheriff]

The house phone uses this line and works fine. And yes I can here the modem trying to make the handshake. Like I said I tested both machines at my residence. Both connect to ISP just fine at my residence. All I have to change is the dialup number(from my local number to his local number) both numbers are to the same ISP. Any more Ideas.?????

[Bovon]

Ok, first off...how far away from any telephone company equipment room..sometimes called the switch room do you live??..does he live??..

Reason for asking, 56K V90 technology does not work over about 3 (sometimes 4) miles away from the phone companies equipment room...too far over the lossy copper lines. (Besides, the telephone company technicians are taught to test the lines ONLY TO TELEPHONE WORKING STANDARDS). The analog data transmission from modems etc., was never the concept when copper was designed to carry telephone audio voice data. When the internet came along, the only way to get it out to the people...was by the already in service telephone copper lines...some buried so long ago..they are rotten.

Then there is another problem..besides the distance. V90 technology will not permit dual conversion..this means that when it leaves your house..it is an analog signal...when that analog signal reaches the telephone companies equipment room, it (sometimes) is sent on further over fiber optics cables..this type cable will not carry analog signals, so the analog is converted to digital..and sent along, where it will arrive at another equipment room, reconverted back to analog to be sent over the phone lines to the ISP's server..that..my friend is dual conversion, and V90 will not work.

One more thing that can destroy a data signal from a modem in any house..is the charging systems in cordless telephones, voice mail (old answering machines, etc.) These chargers in these systems sometimes put hum..or noise into the phone lines..killing the signal from the modem. Test the computers connections to the net by disconnecting each and everything that is plugged into any telephone socket in the house..if that helps..add one back at a time until the culprit is found.

The telephone technician that came out and checked for noise on the lines...disconnected the house first. If he had tested with the house still connected..he probably would have seen lotsa noise.

The above is technology from over 40 years in the communications work area.

[sheriff]

Thanks Bovon. Its what I have been telling him. I live within 5000ft of the switch. He lives several miles from the switch (about 10miles). He does have one advantage. DSL is offered to him. If he subscribed they would have to provide enough filters so the dsl would work.
I Think that noise is being generated on the phone (maybe by a connection that is loose, works fine with voice, but bad enough to not let the computers complete the handshake). This is not something that happened over night. A year ago it worked fine, then a modem got zapped during a storm, it was replaced and it worked again, another modem got zapped. Any way on the 3rd modem it started getting disconnected from the ISP. Now the handshake wont get completed. I dont know what else to tell him besides bad phone line.