No dial tone

I have a Creative Labs Modem Blaster USB, O/S is Win 98 FE.

I constantly get 'dial tone not detected' message. I have tested the line and cable using a handset, there is definitely a dialtone reaching the modem. I have tried disabling the wait for dial tone option, I have reinstalled the modem and drivers, used s10=50 string, toggled tone/pulse dialling and anything else I could think of. The diagnostics looks fine when I run it.

Any ideas would be much appreciated - thanks.

Sex is great but its no substitite for the real thing.....

is this in a residential building or an office type? some times office buildings use a different pin configuration that doesnt work with standard modems. or the line has one of them flashing dial tones, the modem doesnt detect that noise as a dial tone.

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Do you have another modem to try? I doubt very much that its a line problem.

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Why is my modem getting NO DIAL TONE?
The most obvious cause is that you've neglected to plug your telephone line into your modem. Double check to make sure. Or the telephone cable may be bad -- test it on a regular telephone.
A common problem is plugging your telephone line into the wrong jack on your modem. Many modems have two jacks, one for the telephone line and one for a telephone handset. On some of these modems (e.g., USRobotics), you won't be able to get a dial tone or otherwise use the modem if you plug the telephone line into the telephone handset jack. Double check to make sure.
Another common problem is that some other device on the same telephone line (e.g., a telephone answering machine) is off-hook. Double check to make sure that all other devices are on-hook.
There may be a problem on your telephone line. Make sure that you can get a dial tone on a telephone handset connected to and through your modem when the modem (or computer in the case of an internal modem) is turned off.
Many voicemail systems use a "stutter" dial tone or beeping when you pick up the phone to indicate that you have voicemail waiting. These unexpected sounds can make the modem think there is no dial tone. If you must use the modem on a line with these voicemail or similar sounds, you can try the following workarounds:
Increase the amount of time that the modem waits for dial tone by setting the number of seconds to wait in register S6 (e.g., S6=5).
Lower the Xn setting to an odd number value to make the modem ignore dial tone and dial blindly (e.g., X3 instead of X4, or even X1).
Your modem may not be designed for the phone system in the country in which you are trying to use it. As a workaround, try lowering the Xn setting as described above.


<font color=blue>The Hardware Junkie</font color=blue>

Finally figured it out.

I borrowed a laptop and tried to connect, again no dial tone. At this stage I've tried 3 different modems, 2 different cables, 2 different computers.

The problem is with the actual phone line, i.e. there is not enough gain or the signal is too degraded to be detected by the modem. If I could get it to connect the transfer rates would probably be lousy (yes, sour grapes).

I'm probably going to get a new telephone line connected, or at least I'll consider it. Broadband or satellite is not available in my area, which really sucks.

Sex is great but it's no substitute for the real thing.....