topic Re: PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone. in PCs & Accessories

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

kyeo — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 06:49:09 GMT

Hello

I am giving my RX1 to my mother (I'm a good boy I am) because I have moved on to a VAIO notebook. I delivered it to her house and set it up. To make sure all was okay I connected her telephone cable to the RX1 and double clicked on AOL...Nothing at all, not even a dial tone. I did the usual things of adding a new location to AOL, selecting the best local telephone numbers and all that. But just nothing. AOL after about 30 seconds tries to dial anyway, but fails.

So I re-set up her old PC (an PII 450 MHz thing), pluggd her telephone cable in that, double clicked on AOL and whoosh, off we went, no problem, instant dial tone, dial up and access to all that the www has to offer.

So I setup my RX1 AGAIN and still nothing. Perplexed I went into settings and took a look at the Modem (lucent) info and it told me that it was working correctly. I looked in the Modem log and saw nothing untoward.

So angry and sweaty (it was during our heatwave) I took it the 75 miles back to my house. Un packed it, set it up again, plugged in my telephone cable, double clicked on AOL and off it went, dial tone and everything. No problems!

Does anyone have any ideas as to what the problem might be? Cos I don't.

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

stevep-4 — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 10:00:52 GMT

!:/ Try a different telephone cable (I have the same problem with 1of my phone extension cables when using my laptop..no problem using this cable anywhere else!!)

2:/ Try connecting to a different socket in the house, The primary socket is preferrable

3:/ Check how many phones and fax machines etc she has connected.if it is more than 4 devices, there may be a problem...

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

kyeo — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 11:17:17 GMT

Thanks for your ideas.

I will take my telephone cable with me the next time I take the PC, this is in fact the only idea that I have had myself.

She only has one telephone in the house (no faxes etc). So that shouldn't be an issue.

I did have the cable plugged into the main phone socket. With her current PC she uses one of those adapters that allows two cables into one phone socket, i.e. the cable to the PC and her telephone. But I did remove this so that I was plugged straight into the main socket. It made no difference.

Thanks for your ideas.

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

William — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 12:27:55 GMT

I recently took my laptop to Cornwall, whilst there I asked a friend if I could use her phone line to check my emails.

She agreed, I plugged in and tried to connect. Absolutely nothing.

Accessed my emails through her computer (same phone line) with no problem whatsoever.

As soon as I got home I plugged into my phone line and everthing worked.

I wondered sometime afterwards whether it was to do with tone and pulse dialling?

William

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

kyeo — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 12:57:00 GMT

Thats interesting, I always like to know that I am not alone! Makes me think that someone out there must know the answer.

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

kee-lo_ — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 13:05:41 GMT

Yes, that's a strange thing. Wonder why?

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

kyeo — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 13:34:03 GMT

Question for william:

Are you using AOL or somone else?

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

William — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 13:51:33 GMT

I actually use Freeserve but I do not think that this would make a difference.

That is why I decided that the difference must be tone versus pulse dialling.

I have not tested this theory but there must have been a fundamental difference between my phone line and my friends.

She could connect first time every time yet all I could get was strange noises coming out of my speaker when I attempted to connect with my laptop.

If there is another explanation I would also like to know, so I can avoid this problem if I venture to Cornwall again.

William

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

kee-lo_ — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 14:00:49 GMT

Try changing the type of dialing, I'm sure this will fix it.

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

Stephanius — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 12:05:07 GMT

NO DIALTONE usually means that the line from modem to phone connection is not ok.

This here is an old but good solution, you just need to find your way to the options in XP, the description is still for W98.

:arrow: http://www.vaio-link.com/uk/kb/3000_0/3143.html

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

kee-lo_ — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 13:25:06 GMT

Looks like the line they are trying to use doesn't have much gain then.

Re: PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

William — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 14:53:37 GMT

 To make sure all was okay I connected her telephone cable to the RX1 and double clicked on AOL...Nothing at all, not even a dial tone.

Did you use her modem cable rather than your own? This may be the answer as they are not all the same?

William

PS this does not answer my Cornwall problem as I diid use my own modem cable.

The solution (for me anyway)

kyeo — Mon, 25 Aug 2003 17:53:18 GMT

It is the cable. A very knowledgeable chap at work said it would almost certainly be the cable (no William, I was not using my cable, but my mothers), since there are two types, which look identical. So, I returned triumphant from my mothers house yesterday, without my VAIO in the boot this time!

Thanks for all your thoughts and comments on this, much appreciated.

KYEO

PCV-RX1: Trying to dial into AOL, no dial tone.

kee-lo_ — Mon, 25 Aug 2003 18:38:37 GMT

Try asking BT to raise the gain for your telephone line, you never know it's helped a lot of people in the past.