Hi

Can anyone please help?
My ISP is virgin.net and up until recently I have been on the premium pay as you go contract. I a moment of madness I decided to change to the viginnet 24 seven contract on line. Everything went remarkably smoothly. However next time I tried to log on I could not get through to the server...continually coming up with the error "can not find the server"
I am running Win98, IE5 and my modem is crappy admittedly(motorola sm56 speakerphone/fax/voicemail). While on the premium contract I never really had any problems, however now after speaking to virgin tech support they tell me the problem is with my modem not their service. Apparently this is because I am routed through a different modem rack and my modem can not hack it?? Is there any truth in this???
What I have noticed is if I set google as my homepage rather than virgin's homepage thing load quicker and I seem to be able to get going.
Establishing a connection is never a problem, its just finding the server that seems to give me grief!!

Any suggestions welcome
Oh by the way I have tried uninstalling my modem and reinstalling....No change!

Gav
Have you tried manually entering the virgin address in the address bar? Bring up another page (any) as your home page then type virgin's address in. The fact that you can connect to the net and use it except for virgins says to me that the problem lies at thier end and not yours. I just went over to Virgin.net and had a hellish job getting back out of it. It kept refreshing the page back to their home page when I clicked the back button.

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Ernie

Establishing a connection is never a problem, its just finding the server that seems to give me grief!!

If you are just using a straightforward dial-up from a PCI modem I can't see where Modem Racks come into it. Unless it's that their Modems are of a different type on the new service. But if you can dialup OK and surf I don't see why this should be a problem - maybe I'm missing something!!

From what you said, you probably know that ModemHelp (http://808hi.com/56k/sm56.asp?sc=5%3A59%3A15+PM) don't recommend any modems using a motorola chipset and that motorola have withdrawn support. IF the problem lies with your modem and not with any Browser/Network settings etc, then apart from reinstalling the modem it might help things if you could update its drivers; try ModemHelp for them; BTW they also have a good modem forum, which might be worth a visit.

I have had no problems viewing the Virgin.net site. Do you have any other difficulties surfing around? and I presume that you now have a new dial-up number - or is the type of service controlled by installed software that could be malconfigured?

An afterthought (but I don't know the answer); if your connection is a bit "wobbly" then could some sort of time-out create this error? But it seems more likely that their logon site is busy or malconfigured.


[This message has been edited by Paul Komski (edited 02-01-2002).]

I have just got this popup from "Connection Problems/LATEST" HERE (http://www.virgin.net/customers/help_me/)

Service announcements

We are aware that a few customers are occasionally experiencing some connection problems with the Virgin.net 24seven service.

We are investigating these problems and will deal with them as quickly as possible.

So maybe they know about it after all. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul
"I can resist everthing except temptation" (Oscar Wilde, I think; and me too!!)

Thanks for your help guys. I dont get it. Im on line now through my modem!! , but it took 4 attempts, but the fact im on and running must mean my modem is fine???
If im slow in replying you know why

It seems if I load simple pages every thing goes well, but things like the virgin page and it screws up???

gav

When I was even greener than I am now, mjc solved my "connection problems/download speeds" (not the dial-up per se) by advising me to update my WinModem Drivers. The PCGuide does recommend hardware modems - though these software ones are much cheaper in the main. I guess one of the reasons is that they have to share the CPU and modems work best when working uninterupted. The Motorola setup is one of the worst in the way it uses that CPU time.

What's the possibility of you borrowing an external hardware modem to see if this would resolve your problem? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul
"I can resist everthing except temptation" (Oscar Wilde, I think; and me too!!)

Paul

thanks for your time. Im going to buy another modem today as my last ditch attempt to solve these problems. If it turns out to be virgins problem I wont be happy!!
Please excuse me because I am a bit green but the difference between the hardware and software modem is just that the software one is share with the pc cpu ....is that right! Will any modem work with my system?
I have an amd K6 450, run win98, IE5.
With a hardware modem is there still software to install, drivers etc, etc?
How much should I expect to pay for a middle of the road modem?

gav

You just need a standard modem for a standard system and ordinary dialup (not cable/isdn) right? I would search around some websites to get an idea of what's around. Google (http://www.google.com) or AskJeevesUK (http://www.ask.co.uk) could both lead you there - then you can go out to the shops better armed. The very latest versions support v92 and v44 (and are still compatible with v90) - even though the ISPs are slow to upgrade v90 to the v92 protocol http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif

There will still be drivers etc to install (excepting some PnPs) but they should come with the package. The main 'soft' part of soft modems is the integration with the pc's CPU, which isn't directly involved in the same way in 'hard' modems. Have a look at the PCGuide HERE (http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/modem/sw.htm) where it's explained better than I can.

If you are going to buy a new modem anyways then you have nothing to lose by trying to update your drivers meanwhile. Happy hunting/window shopping!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif


[This message has been edited by Paul Komski (edited 02-02-2002).]