Modem slow to disconnect

[mike2002]

I disconnect my Modem by right-clicking its icon in the System Tray
and selecting Disconnect. Lately, instead of disconnecting immediately,
the icon (now with a 'disconnection' sign on it) hangs for a good 20 secs or so before finally shutting down. How can I cure this?
I'm using Windows 98SE with a dial-up comnnection.
In the past, when my wife wanted to use the phone, I could disconnect
practically instantaneously.

[Paul Komski]

Imagine that once the disconnection sign is shown the phone can be used and that its just taking time to close down the relevant software and their GUIs on the pc. If other things are slowing down as well, then just good pc health checks like scandisk, defrag, clearing temp and temp internet files might help a lot.

You can also buy hardware such as THIS which as well as letting a telephone user disconnect the pc, will also allow Call-Waiting to alert you to incoming calls in the absence of V92 support. I am thinking of getting once since I don't think the ISPs are ever going to enable V92 in Ireland.

[mike2002]

Paul: Hi. Re: "once the disconnection sign is shown the phone can be used.", no it can't. A phone is right by my computer, and the modem
'noise' can still be heard through it. It's strange because it has disconected instantly in the past.
Apart from that, the system is 'clean' from TIF files, defragmented, etc.

[Budfred]

You might want to run some security scanners to make sure you don't have an uninvited guest messing with your connection. I would run spybot and maybe an online antivirus scan to make sure that your antivirus is not contaminated.

Budfred

[Paul Komski]

Well it seems that it maybe just hard to get your modem's attention. BTW, is the dialup connection speed as normal or has this degraded too.

THIS mentions trying to change the flow control setting and has a method of killing the connection using dos and a bat file.

Other things you could try would be to decrease both FIFO buffers by a notch and of trying software rather than hardware control in the modem configuration settings.

... and yet other fixes might be to update your modem drivers and to uninstall and reinstall DUN or just try creating a brand new dialup connection.

Troubleshooting modems can be THE most difficult of tasks but perhaps someone has a specific fix.

He he - of course you could always just pull out the jack from the modem!

PS If you're running ZA you could try the STOP button prior to RClick Disconnect, which might let the modem get the message quicker.

[mike2002]

Budfred: Have run Spybot, plus an up-to-date AVG Anti-Virus, scan, plus an online scan with Panda Virus sScan. All 'clean'.
Paul: Dialup speed is OK.

What HAS changed is that I signed up a few days ago to a second ISP (Blueyonder) giving unmetered access. My original ISP (Waitrose.com) is a per-per-minute. As an experiment, I tried connecting and disconnecting with the two. The result was interesting;
Waitrose disconnected in a second, but the Blueyonder connection 'hangs' for 20 seconds or so before the icon exits from the System Tray.

So what's different between the two in Dial-Up Networking?

Waitrose:
Properties/Server Types. 'Enable Software compression' is ticked.
'TCP/IP' settings: 'Use IP Header compression' & ''Use default gateway on remote network' are both ticked.

Blueyonder:
Properties/Server Types. 'Enable Software compression' wasn't ticked. (I enabled it - but without any difference). The 'Use IP Header compression' is not ticked, but 'Use default gateway on remote network' is ticked.
(What all this means is beyond me!)

Another way to exit the connection is Ctrl+Alt+Delete and close down 'Rnaapp', but there is the extra delay in waiting for the Close Program box to show itself.

Blueyonder was installed from a disk, and it's a bad thing that it changes Outlook Express to enable the 'Preview Pane' for messages. (I immediately restored it). But, as it only happens with one ISP, I wouldn't have thought it necessary to start playing around with different settings.
I'll mail Blueyonder and see if they've got any ideas.

Watch this space......

[Paul Komski]

Maybe Blueyonder will have the answer for you. I always try to avoid using any ISP's connection software if I can and install all the components manually. They typically overwrite or upgrade IE and OE and often try to get you to their own home page by default. Sometimes they use their own internet connection software but mostly you can just configure DUN manually yourself just adding the correct dialup number and using all the default settings.

Could be worth doing this and then play around with the settings in your home made DUN connection - maybe mimicking the settings in Waitrose (but using the correct DNS settings for Blueyonder - that is if they are required and not assigned automatically).

[mike2002]

I'll live with the connection-delay. But something else is bothering me.

Am I going crazy or what?

As previously stated, I've got two DUN connections - Waitrose & the newly-installed (unmetered) Blueyonder. Naturally the latter is the one I use.

When using Mailwasher, I couldn't figure how it could connect to both ISPs through the one connection, but it did, retrieving mail through both accounts from the same DUN.
I tested it out by sending messages to myself; from Waitrose to Blueyonder and vice versa, and also by sending and receiving messages from Yahoo, again from both accounts.

One message sent to my son (from Waitrose) couldn't be sent (rejected by the server) and I assumed he was still having a problem with his mail. However, at present, I cannot send mail from Waitrose at all, although I can receive mail addressed to it from either the Blueyonder or Yahoo accounts.

If I connect to Waitrose and try to send mail to Blueyonder, an error box appears, saying it has been rejected by the server. If I connect to the Waitrose DUN, I cannot send mail through Bluyonder, it tells me that a connection is already established, and that I must connect through
Waitrose.

I deleted all my 'test' mail, so I have no evidence. But how was I able to do this before, and what has changed?

[Budfred]

Mailwasher doesn't retrieve mail, it just looks to see what is on the server and shows you so that you can download, delete, and/or bounce. Since it doesn't actually download, it can connect to the internet through any server and check as many different accounts through different ISPs as you would like to pay for.

I am not sure I understand what the other issue is, but it sounds like a problem with your old ISP rather than with your system. Have you contacted them to ask what is up with your email??

Budfred

Edit:

I just looked at your message again and it looks like you are trying to send mail through one ISP while online with the other. There is a way to do this, but you can't just do it from your desk. You would have to go to the ISPs web site and access your email on their server and use their webmail service to send the message. You can only directly send email through the ISP that is connected at that time.

Budfred again

[Paul Komski]

Nearly all ISP's will let you access any pop3 servers to collect mail.

Many ISP's will however only let you access their own SMTP server to send mail (or will just block you sending/uploading via a competitor), while you are connected through their connection. This is usually also the case with uploading to a website provided by an ISP.

The "trick" is to configure the mail account(s) so that the pop server is for the account where one wants to get the mail from, but to use the smtp settings for the ISP you are connecting through if you want to send mails while connected through that ISP.

If you are regularly connecting through both ISPs this will mean configuring additional mail accounts in OE (or whatever mail client that you are using).

Example for two ISPs; (ISP#1 and ISP#2). The servers are mail.ISP#1.net and pop.ISP#1.net and mail.ISP#2.com and pop.ISP#2.com (for smtp and pop servers respectively).

a) MyMailViaISP#1 settings:- mail.ISP#1.net and pop.MyMailAccount.com

b) MyMailViaISP#2 settings:- mail.ISP#2.com and pop.MyMailAccount.com

PS Another possibility. Some mail servers will let you send mail directly through their smtp servers - BUT ONLY after you have logged on to the POP server first. BTW, AOL is another ball park altogether.

PPS On a technicality. Mailwasher does retrieve mail - and has to be configured for the relevant servers like any other mail client. It just retrieves it in filtered fashion and doesn't store it in folders for you.

[killercow]

THE BEST MOST AWESOME FIX FOR THIS PROBLEM IS GET BROADBAND!!!!!!

[mjc]

Getting broadband is not really a "fix", nor is it available everywhere.

this particular problem seems to be a configuration issue.

[killercow]

HOWEVER you dont have to connect or disconnect.......CONSTANT CONNECTION.......see........and for availability there's satelite for rich people that NEED a faster connection

[Paul Komski]

killercow - I would just love to have broadband. Satelite is now available here in Ireland but at 1500 Euros installation and 1500 Euros per annum it is out of my, and many people's, league. 1 Euro is nearly the same as 1 US$.

Would it mean that one could send mail through any SMTP server though???

[killercow]

ok wow that sucks...dsl here in da USA DSL is like $40/month.

[Budfred]

And a lot of people here in the USA still don't have access to DSL or any other broadband except maybe satellite. Broadband is nice, but it is still a luxury for most.

Budfred

[mike2002]

Returning to my original query about the Modem taking time to disconnect
on the Blueyonder ISP; I don't know why, but it has improved comsiderably of late. Disconnection time is somtimes within a second or
so, but there is always the odd occasions when it takes a whole lot longer.

[Paul Komski]

My guess is that it is due either to your new ISP's server or its bandwidth being constricted at certain times.

On a similar note: I use two different dial-up ISPs; A always had better connections than B. I recently installed a new V.92 pci modem and had an even better connection with A but couldn't connect at all to B!!

Fiddled with the settings, (reducing both the FIFO buffers and the COM port speeds), and could then get good connections to both.

Don't ask me exactly why two ISPs, with the same hardware and software settings on my pc (AND with the same ping results), should affect things so much but "slowing down the connection" has been the most consistent way of improving communication between me and my ISPs. Updating drivers, excluding line noise and installing a NIC have been the other things which have helped me in the past