Any possibility of modems disabling whole phone lines?

WantlessPower · 06-13-2006, 05:21 PM

Hey,
My girlfriend called Dell Tech Support the other day because she was having problems connecting through dial-up. Now I know, these days no one uses dial-up, but she lives in the middle of nowhere and the only way to get cable is buy running a cable for about 4 miles and would cost nearly 20 grand. And they don't have a clear view of the southern sky so satellite won't do it. And i'm sure there are other ways to get broadband, but that isn't my question. After she got off the phone with tech support, they told her that her modem card actually disabled her phone lines which also resulted in their telephones going down as well. Her and I both are very skeptical and I was wondering if this was actually possible, or the tech support guy just doesn't know what he's talking about.

In case it really matters, she's on a Dell Inspiron 600M

**Terrister** · 06-13-2006, 06:48 PM

Yes a modem can fail in such a way as to mess up the phone circuit. When you get the modem replaced, look into a telephone line surge protector. Might keep the modem from failing again.

06-13-2006, 05:21 PM	#1 (permalink)
WantlessPower Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 1 OS: Windows XP Media Center Edition	Any possibility of modems disabling whole phone lines? Hey, My girlfriend called Dell Tech Support the other day because she was having problems connecting through dial-up. Now I know, these days no one uses dial-up, but she lives in the middle of nowhere and the only way to get cable is buy running a cable for about 4 miles and would cost nearly 20 grand. And they don't have a clear view of the southern sky so satellite won't do it. And i'm sure there are other ways to get broadband, but that isn't my question. After she got off the phone with tech support, they told her that her modem card actually disabled her phone lines which also resulted in their telephones going down as well. Her and I both are very skeptical and I was wondering if this was actually possible, or the tech support guy just doesn't know what he's talking about. In case it really matters, she's on a Dell Inspiron 600M

06-13-2006, 06:48 PM	#2 (permalink)
Terrister Moderator Hardware Forum Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: West Georgia, USA Posts: 6,898 OS: Xp	Yes a modem can fail in such a way as to mess up the phone circuit. When you get the modem replaced, look into a telephone line surge protector. Might keep the modem from failing again. __________________