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"URGENT HELP - MODEM PROBLEM"

My parents have bought a second hand pc with no paperwork, I have been trying to get them on the internet, but it keeps coming up modem not detected, how do I find out what modem is installed on their system. cant download anything as I cannot get internet access.

I think the honest to god solution is to open the PC case and look and see if there is a modem there in the first place !

hhmm ok, is the machine a new or old one?
heres what u wanna do.

Open machine, remove the modem from the PCI slot(have turned off Obviously)

clean the card of dust and see if any info is on the card telling u if it is a modem/network card etc and model number, if like US robotics, Compaq etc etc..

boot PC up without card in, then turn off.

(PC off) place card in the first PCI slot, then reboot, depending on which windows u have if may auto add hardware, now u know the type try to choose correct one and if not use standard one 28K,56K depending which it is?

you should then see in the modem, in control panel, if u dont, then until you do and you followed the above, it maybe a problem, wiv PC or the Card and is faulty. If it did work and u added, you can test the modem by using phone dialer on start menu somewhere, then you will have to setup an ISP, get a CD from dixions(freeserve) to start you off?, or BT CD

Ah, the phone goes dead. Well then, I haven't got a clue.

*runs*

spanners wrote:
> how would I know if it was a modem or network card, it did come from
> an office which was linked to a central server?

After what Adrian pointed out, I think if your phone line fitted into it, it's a modem.

So I suppose you just need the drivers. Have you been to the device manager? Even if there's a big list of drivers it recommends, you could just try any of them see if it works. If not, just uninstall them.

how would I know if it was a modem or network card, it did come from an office which was linked to a central server?

Assuming that this is a modem and not a network card, the problem of the phone going dead when you plug everything in is likely to be because of either:

1) Faulty modem. It could be "chattery", just like when network cards go on the blink, they flood the line with endless packets of data. Maybe the modem is doing something similar?
2) Faulty cables and/or connectors.

If it is a network card and not a modem (hard to belive, connectors are different), then you will definitely need to buy a new modem.

now I am getting totally confused?????? all I wanted was to get the pc hooked up to the internet thought it was gonna be a 5 minute exercise, trust parents to get second-hand pc with no paperwork

Tóm wrote:
> So is there a chance it could be a NIC instead of a modem?

No chance of that as they use different connectors. Phone line is RJ11 and Ethernet is RJ45.

what is a NIC????????

So is there a chance it could be a NIC instead of a modem?