Internet Troubleshooting Guide

[/QUOTE]Hi Nick!

The Lucient modem you are using has changed hands/names/brands a few times. Companies lose interest in keeping old inherited hardware up to date when they are trying to sell new hardware. A newer, 7 compatible, modem should be an easy, not very expensive fix. When I reviewed (briefly) the modem compatibility page, I saw some 30 internal and external modems to choose from.

Happy surfing!
Robert[/QUOTE]

Thanks Robert,
Yes oon my travells i found it had changed around a fair bit and as it worked fine on my old XP system i believe this is the problem. Thanks for all your help with this :)

Nick

My connection problems are "semi-solved" but I have to say I'm not impressed with the entire setup of the Windows 7 networking.

I'm not a fan of the whole Network and sharing center and I'd recommend the first thing anybody do is manually check you're connected to the correct workgroup and you create a shortcut to your "Local Area Connection"

Also disabling IPv6 when it's not needed is really recommended. Reinstalling an entire OS because you can't connect to the net properly...mmm....

*sry forgot*

Thanks everybody for all the input. Thanks Dinesh for the tutorial.

Have a great new year everybody

Slightly different problem for me. No trouble setting up a Dialup connection with a USB Modem. Works as well as Dialup ever does. However, when the computer is either put to Sleep or goes to Sleep when not used, the Modem has to be removed from the USB slot and replaced before it will work. This does not happen when the machine is either Shut Down or Restarted. Any ideas?

Have you checked that the modem or network card is not going to sleep or automatically shutting off?

right click My Computer-->Properties-->Device manager-->
-->Open Network adapters-->right click your network card-->properties-->

Check under the advanced menu and the Power Management menu

Make sure that your network card isn't going to sleep automatically.
Alternatively, you said you were on dial-up, maybe check the properties for your modem driver also in Device manager.

Do you have any yellow exclamation marks in Device Manager?

There was a Tick in the box Allow the computer to shut this device to save power. Should I remove this tick?
I cannot find any Yellow exclamation marks anywhere!
Thank you.

Tried this, no effect. Odd.

Leave that tick off "Allow the computer to turn off this device so save power"
Remember that if it's a Laptop / notebook then that setting will drain your battery.

Can I ask how old is the modem?
Is the modem Windows 7 compatible? You can check at the link below
Windows 7 Compatibility Center home

*edit*
sorry I just thought of something else you could try (maybe you have already?)
In Control Panel under the search field just type "Power" and it should bring up an option "change power-saving settings"

Under "preferred plans" click "change plan settings" then click "change advanced power settings"
Under "USB settings" try changing "USB selective suspend setting to disabled"

I know this isn't a solution but let's first try and identify where the problem lies. The fact that the modem is switching off / not working when the computer "Sleeps" but works upon restart is probably either

A faulty driver or setting in the driver
A setting somewhere in windows switching the modem off
The modem is faulty

I'm assuming your other USB ports work just fine when the computer comes out of sleep mode (pen drives / flash drives / printer)