Have 56k modem that worked then suddenly gives error message about no dial tone and make sure your modem is connected to a phone line? Also, I have a COM ports 1,2,3 and tried to add a COM port 4 but it says Com 5 instead with an exclamation point beside it. There is no COM 4 listed at all. Why did is skip one? My modem properties say it is on COM 4 though, and there is no problem. What is going on?

The same thing happened to my friend. You have missing drivers somewhere. Try reinstalling the modem drivers and see what happens.

The reason you don't see a COM4 listed is BECAUSE your modem is assigned to it! That's just the way the system works... There are two immediate possibilities about the loss of dial tone. (Assuming this happened without you having done anything inside the case, and assuming that the phone line is firmly connected to both the computer and the wall phone jacks.) One, the modem driver may have somehow gotten corrupted, and two, the modem itself may have given up the ghost (they do that, you know). (I also assume that you have shut down and rebooted your PC since this first occurred, and it still won't work.) So, try removing the modem in Control Panel /Modems, and then reboot and reinstall.

OK, I just saw this with a Win5602 Motorola modem and COM5, say what?. Use device manager to remove all modems listed and remove that COM5 as well. The make sure you have a COM3 and COM4. Use the modem driver disk if you have it or go to http://e-www.motorola.com/products/softmodem/support/software.html and download the drivers for an SM56 modem. read the install instructions carefully. It only WORKS ONE WAY. I know from experience, I used to have hair, LOL. Good luck and ciao for now

Here's another possibility: On two occasions I was confronted with the same "no dialtone" error and eventually found out that the modem was never hanging up (presumably a bad relay or such). Since in both cases the modems were on their own lines, nobody would know that the phone was always off the hook had long since quit giving a dial tone! You can check this out by listening on a phone plugged into an extension (not into the modem). Of course if you do find that this is the problem then this sort of fits into Rac's "Cause #2 - dead modem." Len

Another idea, in my area we have had some bad storms. I know of at least 4 computers that the modem has been destroyed by lighting. A quick test is to plug in a phone into the other port on the modem. If you don't have a dial tone the modem is probaly bad and needs to be replaced.