Modem is acting weird

[Erdrick Holmes]

Usually when there's a thunderstorm here my dialup conection crawls at about 12kbps for a few hours after it stops storming, but now it's doing something weird.

When I try to make a connection with my dialup modem it won't detect a dialtone unless I leave one of the phones in my house off the hook while my modem dials up. What the hell is going on with my modem?

[Samuraid]

Well, first off, I would suggest not using your modem during a thunderstorm unless you have a good surge protector on the phone line.

Do you ever notice crackling or a rough dialtone on the phone right after a storm/rain? Perhaps the phone system suffers from a lack of necessary insulation from the elements. (The phone system at my house did such things for a while until we got it fixed.)

[Erdrick Holmes]

Hmm, well I heard static in the phone's dialtone after the storm ended but it went away after awhile. The phone calls made in my house are clear as a bell now but my modem is still not detecting a dialtone.

[starseeker]

Check the modem connection, it sounds as if it can't connect to the phone line by itself and needs the line to be activated by a phone.