56K dial up as back up

[Trevor Appleton]

I have ADSL and wish to install 56K dial up modem back up.

I have been told by the PC Manufacturer Medion that 56K dial up is
incompatible with ADSL and won't work - is this correct?

I have tried installing connections to 2 different ISP's and get an engaged
tone each time.

If I dial the same number I get a computer/modem answer.

I have the PC's modem connected to a telephone socket in a BT Digital Access
ISDN socket, whilst the ADSL comes through a wireless router connected to a
different phone line.

 

[Jeff Gaines]

I have ADSL and wish to install 56K dial up modem back up.

I have been told by the PC Manufacturer Medion that 56K dial up is
incompatible with ADSL and won't work - is this correct?

It has worked for me, when I made the switch from ISDN to ADSL I found
I had to dial in to do something to the settings. I connected my dusted
off old Courier via a filter to the ADSL line and it was fine. Just
treat it as if it is a 'phone on an ADSL line. The same principle must
apply to ISDN - plug it into a POTS socket.

 

[Mike Tullett]

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 15:44:34 +0100, Trevor Appleton wrote in

I have ADSL and wish to install 56K dial up modem back up.

I have been told by the PC Manufacturer Medion that 56K dial up is
incompatible with ADSL and won't work - is this correct?

No - it is totally incorrect. Mine is simply plugged in to a normal phone
socket when I need to use dial up.

I have tried installing connections to 2 different ISP's and get an engaged
tone each time.

I have no idea why that may be, but I have no problems dialling other ISPs
even when ADSL is still conected. The second (dial up conection) takes
precedence over ADSL while it is still in operation.

If I dial the same number I get a computer/modem answer.

I have the PC's modem connected to a telephone socket in a BT Digital Access
ISDN socket, whilst the ADSL comes through a wireless router connected to a
different phone line.

I have no idea about ISDN connections, never having used that system, but
if you dial up using the different phone line ADSL is on, there should be
no problems. The worst that might happen is the 56k conection speed may
drop a bit from a non ADSL line - mine used to be 48k before ADSL but now
is about 45k after.

 

[philo]

I have ADSL and wish to install 56K dial up modem back up.

I have been told by the PC Manufacturer Medion that 56K dial up is
incompatible with ADSL and won't work - is this correct?

<snip>

incorrect.
i also use dial-up as a backup

sounds like you have just entered the wrong phone #.
you need to check with your ISP

 

[Trev]

I have ADSL and wish to install 56K dial up modem back up.

I have been told by the PC Manufacturer Medion that 56K dial up is
incompatible with ADSL and won't work - is this correct?

I have tried installing connections to 2 different ISP's and get an
engaged tone each time.

If I dial the same number I get a computer/modem answer.

I have the PC's modem connected to a telephone socket in a BT Digital
Access ISDN socket, whilst the ADSL comes through a wireless router
connected to a different phone line.

As long as its plugged in to the telephone part of the filter It should work

 

[MrGrumpy]

If your connecting to the ISDN line of your BT socket you require an ISDN
modem and its drivers installed

If however your connecting to a seperate std line there should be no
problem.
I have had both Cable/ISDN/StdTel connections all functioning correctly on
the same pc

 

[Trevor Appleton]

<snip>

incorrect.
i also use dial-up as a backup

sounds like you have just entered the wrong phone #.
you need to check with your ISP

No I've tried three differnent ISP's and all get the engaged tone from the
PC but not when using a phone.

 

[Martin Underwood]

No I've tried three differnent ISP's and all get the engaged tone from the
PC but not when using a phone.

And you're connecting the modem and the phone (though maybe not at the same
time) to the same line?

Given that (IIRC) you said that it's an ISDN line, I'm not sure a) how the
phone works on this line, and b) why ADSL is implicated since you're not
trying to dial in on the ADSL-enabled line.

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?


What happens if you connect the phone and the modem at the same time (if
you've got a splitter) and listen to the phone while the modem dials? Is the
modem definitely making the DTMF tones that dial the number? And you're
getting the BT engaged tone, as opposed to something else which the modem is
incorrectly interpreting as "engaged" as seen in the status window for the
dial-up connection app?

 

[Conor]

I have ADSL and wish to install 56K dial up modem back up.

I have been told by the PC Manufacturer Medion that 56K dial up is
incompatible with ADSL and won't work - is this correct?
No.

I have tried installing connections to 2 different ISP's and get an engaged
tone each time.

Have you got the "Country" set up as United Kingdom in the modem
properties?

I have the PC's modem connected to a telephone socket in a BT Digital Access
ISDN socket,

Is this the same socket you used to phone the number with a normal
phone?

 

[Trevor Appleton]

Have you got the "Country" set up as United Kingdom in the modem
properties?



Is this the same socket you used to phone the number with a normal
phone?

No but just swopped them over and still the same, phone works.

 

[John Fryatt]

I have ADSL and wish to install 56K dial up modem back up.

I have been told by the PC Manufacturer Medion that 56K dial up is
incompatible with ADSL and won't work - is this correct?

I have tried installing connections to 2 different ISP's and get an engaged
tone each time.

If I dial the same number I get a computer/modem answer.

I have the PC's modem connected to a telephone socket in a BT Digital Access
ISDN socket, whilst the ADSL comes through a wireless router connected to a
different phone line.

This is very confusing, and I think maybe you need to lay out what you
are doing more clearly.

You apparently want to connect a 'normal' dial-up modem to an ISDN line.
That won't work. To connect to ISDN you need a Terminal Adapter (which
is technically different from a modem, but functionally does a similar job).

Why don't you try connecting the modem to the ADSL line, after the
filter, like a phone would be. That should work, according to what
others have said. Might not be the answer you want but at least would
show the modem works etc.

The phone you are using to test - is it a 'normal' phone? How are you
connecting it to ISDN? Is there some kind of device that allows use of a
normal phone or is it an ISDN phone.

I found this which might help...
http://www.aaisp.net.uk/aa/isdnintro.html

 

[Trevor Appleton]

This is very confusing, and I think maybe you need to lay out what you are
doing more clearly.

You apparently want to connect a 'normal' dial-up modem to an ISDN line.
That won't work. To connect to ISDN you need a Terminal Adapter (which is
technically different from a modem, but functionally does a similar job).

I'm not using the blue computer sockets on the ISDN box I'm trying to use
the normal telephone socket on the ISDN box. I can connect a PC fine through
the normnal blue socket.

Why don't you try connecting the modem to the ADSL line, after the filter,
like a phone would be. That should work, according to what others have
said. Might not be the answer you want but at least would show the modem
works etc.

I have and it works

The phone you are using to test - is it a 'normal' phone? How are you
connecting it to ISDN? Is there some kind of device that allows use of a
normal phone or is it an ISDN phone.

Its a normal phone connected to the phone socket on the ISDN box.


What I basically want is to be able to connet two PC's when ADSL goes down
(which is a rare event with PlusNet).

I use a wireless router to supply 4 PC's with internet acces via ADSL. I
could in theory use the router as its ISDN as well as ADSL. However, the
ISDN box is upstairs in my office whilst the router is downstairs which
allows a wireless signal in the garden - I couildn't get this when the rouer
was near the ISDN box.

Two differnt PC's and modems both behave the same way wjhen trying the ISDN
line, so the problem if there is one is with the line. At around 90 quid a
call out with BT I'm very wary of asking them.

 

[Tiscali Tim]

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,

I use a wireless router to supply 4 PC's with internet acces via
ADSL. I could in theory use the router as its ISDN as well as ADSL.
However, the ISDN box is upstairs in my office whilst the router is
downstairs which allows a wireless signal in the garden - I couildn't
get this when the rouer was near the ISDN box.

So why not wire up an ISDN extension socket near to the router?

[I know that doesn't answer the question as to why your analog modem doesn't
work in a HH POTS socket - it *should* work! But connecting the router to
ISDN would be a *much* better backup solution.]

 

[poster]

I'm not using the blue computer sockets on the ISDN box I'm trying to use
the normal telephone socket on the ISDN box. I can connect a PC fine
through the normnal blue socket.

I am guessing here (because my Home highway was installed a month before they
started offering USB on the HH box, so is the "blue socket" ISDN, or USB,
and if your PC connects fine, what cable connects the BT end to the PC,
and what is the PC end (a PCI ISDN card, perhaps) ?

From memory, the dial tone which you hear from a HH box is locally generated
(there is no dialtone on ISDN, and if you have a PCI card with a PSTN socket
as an option, you have to dial on the expectation the digits will be handled
by the exchange... they are, but it is odd not to hear anything until their
entry is complete and ringing is heard).

For what you want, I'd seriously consider plugging an ISDN router into the
data connection of the Highway box, and linking it into your LAN, so you'd
be able to have the primary routing of connection via ADSL with a fallback
that if nothing is getting through, to trigger the ISDN router. But there
may be a benefit in using some timer to block the ISDN router during quite
a lot of the day, as you might only notice a drop in speed if you were not
able to download something very fast (so ADSL might have been off, and the
router could be triggered into making lots of short, but chargeable calls).

If you are really keen, get in touch... It has been over a year since my
Highway was in regular use (I still have routers and PCI cards, etc, just
to support clients, if theirs go down) but at that time I had 3 ISP links
with ISDN as the 'reserve' Good luck. Peter Morgan.