Travelling Modem

[IHCH]

A guy asked me for help with this senario:

He's Japanese.
He bought a new laptop from Japan.
He uses the laptop to use the Internet in Japan with no problems.

The problem begins when he moved.
He now lives in Australia.
He can now no longer connect to the Internet.

FYI: His keyboard is both Japanese, but Windows is the Japanese version. EVERYTHING on-screen is written in Japanese. Very fun!!!

Symptom:
When he tries to connect the Internet, he doesn't get the that soothing (if your a net junkie) screeching noice that's all to associated with connecting the Internet. He only gets one beep. That's it. Then the error message saying that the other computer (that's his translation from Japanese) is not responding.

What I've done.
1. Checked all drivers in Device Manager. Pass.
2. Checked region. Pass.
3. Checked DUN. Pass.
4. Checked Ph Line. Pass.
5. Checked Network option. TCP/IP, DUN, Client for MS Networks. Pass.
6. Checked with my own personal account. Fail. Same symptons as mentoined above.


To confuse things even more.
1. I re-installed DUN then restarted. It worked!!! I then went to Hotmail just to check if it really worked. I noticed though that his speed was 33,000bps. Very poor by my standard (52k) so I decided to try my account.

I then disconnected so that I could try my own account. Then without changing ANYTHING I tried to connect to my account that I had setup previously. No go. I then tried to connect back to his account. No go.... what gives??? No setting where changed. Nothing was added. Nothing was deleted.

I am going back to see him tomorrow with my trusty SwannSmart (best modem on earth) External. That way, I can eliminate whether it because he has a Japanese modem that's not compatible with Aust's phone system.

Sorry for the length... I will keep you all posted.

Thanks to all that try to help!

Kevin...*

[mosquito]

Maybe it's a bad phone line. Check if it works when you set it to 14400bps. If that works, move it up step by step until it fails.
If that is the problem, call the phone company to check the line for noise. I had the same problem (before I had Cable), they fixed the line, and everything was ok.

[IHCH]

Thanks mosquito... but would that stop the modem from dialling fullstop?

I've just read another post with a simialar problem, so I'll try to see if I can get an Aust. modem driver for it.

With a bit of luck, that should work!

[mosquito]

It's worth giving a try.

[IHCH]

For sure... I will give it a go!

Thanks for your help Moz...

Ps... Ever been to Cairns? They are the size of small cessna's! I kid you not...

[mosquito]

Over here in Belgium they are very small, but I hate the suckers

[IHCH]

Hi all,

Thanks to all that helped!

I tried Mozz's solution of turing the modem speed down. No go.

I then installed my own personal external modem and it worked first go. I am positive the problem was caused by using a modem that was to be in a different country.

Kevin...*

[glc]

He needs to buy a "global modem" PC Card if he needs to travel to different countries. 3Com has good ones, so does Xircom.

[IHCH]

Does anyone have a technical reason as to why this would happen?

[glc]

Phone system compatibility.