RE: [TCLUG:18170] why disconnects?

["Eric Hillman" <ehillman@cccu.com>]

> On Thu, May 25, 2000 at 03:33:20PM -0500, Ben Luey
> (lueyb@gridley.ACNS.Carleton.edu) wrote:
> > My housemate and I share a modem line between our computers. If he leaves
> > his computer connected and goes to sleep and I try to connect with my
> > computer, I can't dial in and his connection stays up. There is no way to
> > kill his connection short of going into his room and disconnecting his
> > computer. Yet if I'm online and he tries to dial in, my connection dies
> > and before it realizes it and redials, his computer has already dialed and
> > connected. This hardly sems fair. Is there an option in ppp for not
> > hanging up on line noise and just waiting it out? What causes a connection
> > to disconnect?
> >
> >
> Getting rid of your housemate might work. :P

So would getting a DSL line.  But that's not really helpful advice, I suppose.

I assume you're sharing a phone line, not a single modem...

If so, it might be more to do with the modem itself than software settings.
I've owned some modems that would "wait out" periods where the line was down, so
you could go so far as to unplug the cord and the thing would stay up.  Other
modems would get just drop carrier the moment anybody so much as touched a
telephone on the same line.  Same init string, software, everything.

You might want to investigate the init string (if any) you're sending to the
modem before dialing, and compare it to his, just to see if there's anything
interesting there.