Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Recent MSN Upgrades Causing Modem Problems?

Posted by Cliff on from the here-there-be-gremlins dept.

swm asks: "My father-in-law runs Windows/XP on a low-end machine. He gets internet access through MSN over a 56K dialup. This worked OK for many months. Two or 3 weeks ago, MSN presented him with an auto-upgrade, and he clicked OK, and the system has been virtually unusable ever since. I booted the machine to see what it does. First, it thinks he is on a LAN (he isn't) and presents a window telling him it can't connect to the internet and he should disable his firewall. I dismiss that window. A few seconds later another window pops up and tries to dial out. I can cancel and close the dial-out window, but it just comes back in about 15 seconds and starts dialing out again. No matter how many times I cancel and close the dial-out window, it just keeps coming back. I reboot the machine and let it dial out. It connects to MSN. I click the 'Offline' button, but it doesn't drop carrier. I shut down the machine and it still doesn't drop carrier. Finally I pull the power cord out of the wall socket and it drops carrier. I've checked msn.com and Googled around a bit, and I can't find any mention of problems like this. Does anyone have any idea what is going on?" Have any MSN users experienced this problem? What have you done in your attempts to solve it?

4 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Have you called MSN? by Numeric · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If MSN created the problem, maybe they can also address it.

    --
    -- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
    1. Re:Have you called MSN? by Eagle7 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Right on.

      And if they can't/won't, drop thier asses for a worthwhile ISP like Earthlink, Worldnet, etc.

      --
      _sig_ is away
  2. Calling home by silicon_synapse · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most likely the MSN software is trying to call home for some reason. Take a look in your task manager and see what doesn't look right. You did memorize the normal processes and pids didn't you? It's probably something sitting in your startup folder or in one of the run keys in your registry.

    I've got a question though. Why are you even using MSN software? Why not just enter the phone number and create the connection yourself? Windows certainly doesn't need more software to establish a simple dialup connection. Get rid of the software and don't worry about it.

  3. WTF? by balog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Has ask slashdot turned into a fscking software problems/bug report board?

    Ask the fucking support department of MSN for god's sake.

    Please be a little more selective; job ads, hormones, wtf news for nerds? - you're better than this guys...