Do you have call waiting enabled on your phone line? If you do (and you may have even if you don’t know it!), and somebody tries to phone you, that will disconnect your modem. Before you dial with your modem, disable call waiting (using your normal phone) with #43#. To re-enable call waiting again later on, use *43#. Refer to the current Telstra White Pages for more information.

The cable from your modem to the telephone plug or the cable from your modem to your computer (if you have an external modem) may be unplugged or faulty. Check for signs of wear, broken pins in the plugs or damaged connectors. Try replacing these with spares if you have them available.

Your modem may be faulty. Intermittent performance is a sign that it may be time to upgrade to a newer, faster modem.  

Some devices connected to the same phone line can cause your modem to disconnect. Try disconnecting any fax machines, answering machines, cordless phones, other phones from the line and see if that helps. Long telephone extension leads between your modem and phone connector can also cause problems. Of particular note is the Telecom T200 Touchphone, if you have one of these phones, disconnect it – they are well known for causing problems.

The software your computer uses to dial up and communicate on the internet is Dial-Up Networking and TCP/IP. Check via the control panel that you have both these installed and correctly configured. Our support staff can advise you on the correct settings if need be.

Every modem has an associated piece of software needed to run it, called a driver. You should always load the correct driver for your modem when installing. Modem manufactures often release updated driver files for their modems which can significantly improve their performance. Check the home page of you modem manufacturer to see if there is a new driver available. Manufacturers also release what are known as Firmware upgrades which load new code into your modem chip. Be sure to follow the manufacturers instructions very carefully when upgrading your firmware, you can damage your modem if you are not careful!

Although everyone wants the fastest connection to the Internet they can get, sometimes this can work against you. Any network connection is a trade-off between speed and stability. Many users of 56k modems experience some problems either connecting, or maintaining decent speeds while connected. This is more often than not caused by your modem trying to connect and ‘talk’ at a speed too fast for your phone line to handle. If your modem is communicating too fast for your computer to handle, it may spend so long waiting to deliver the data it has that it will disconnect the call. Telstra say their phone lines are only rated to carry data at 4800bps (bits per second). It’s not surprising that phone lines can cause problems when data speeds reaching 56000bps are attempted! Initialisation strings (see below) can reduce the speed of your connection thus delivering greater stability (and less phone calls!). Fortunately, most phone lines are capable of carrying data at speeds of 33600bps, and some people are even able to maintain stable connections up to 46000bps. What we can do is ‘lock’ the modem to a speed that your phone line can handle. Determining what speed your phone line can handle is a ‘trial-and-error’ process, and is set via an initialisation string to your modem. You can also try setting an initialisation string for your modem that includes a longer lost carrier to hang up delay. Information on how to do this should be included in your modem instruction manual, however the setting of s10=200 should work for most.

Setting an initialisation string

You should see your modem listed within the modem screen.

Make sure your modem is highlighted and click on Properties

Select the Connection tab up the top

Click the Advanced button down the bottom

Down the bottom of the advanced screen is a space labeled ‘Extra Settings’. This is where we set the initialisation string.

Which initialisation string we use is dependent on your particular brand and model of modem, however the following generic initialisation string combination works for most modems:

To connect at (older) K56Flex protocol:

s10=200+ms=56,1,300,xxxxx

Or for V.90 modems:

s10=200+ms=12,1,300,xxxxx

Where xxxxx is the speed you wish to lock the modem at – this has to be multiple of 2000 for K56Flex, or 1333 for V.90.

Eg: s10=200+ms=56,1,300,42000

s10=200+ms=12,1,300,41333

If you have tried down to 34000 and you are still having problems, try the following:

s10=200+ms=11,1,300,33600

This last string will turn off the 56k protocols altogether, and leave you with the more stable V.34 protocol.

Whenever you try a new string, be sure to OK your way out of all the configuration screens, and log off from Starwon and reconnect again for the change to take effect.