have a d-link 56k modem running on ME. when i connect to my dial-up ISP i can hear the dial tone in the tower, i can hear its dialing.when it fails to connect because the remote computer is bussy it gave a countdown time and attempts to dial again but i cannot hear a dial tone anymore.it went to a bussy tone.i still have to wait for the next countdown and rehook the telephone line from the wall in order to get a dial tone.and then on few attempts going back & fort to the wall and to my PC i can successfully connect to the internet.Already uninstall/reinstalled modem driver.Even reformated the system.But still does the same thing. Is there a way i can set the modem to get its own dial tone when connection fails.????? 1 more strange thing is when the computer is turned off,the surge protector is on & the telephone line is unplugged to the modem.And then i hook up the telephone line to the modem without pushing the power button to the tower, the PC wakes up.quite nice!!!! no need to push the power button.It autmoatically boots to windows.no telephone is connected on the output terminal of the modem.why does it do such strange thing.??? Is there somebody here who has the same problem as mine or has an idea for a solution? pls share your talent with us. Thanks a lot!!!

Sure sounds like your modem was zapped by a lighting hit on the phone line. But do some checking first. Power off system. Unplug any surge protector from the system and phone line. Then directly connect the modem to the phone line. And pick up the phone and make sure it works. Now power on the system. Go to the phone and pick it up several times and make sure it works OK. If not, the modem is bad (shorted). Now try to dial out with the modem and see if it connects. If it fails, then you know the modem is blown. The problem being, it can not correctly hang up the phone line requiring you to do it with the phone. This is one of the most common types of lightning damage to cheap solid state DAA modems. To help avoid this type of problem you need a cheap replacement modem like this decent cheap modem with a relay type DAA. Takes about a week to get one through the mail (I just received two yesterday.) If it works without the surge protector plugged in, then the surge protector is blown. But it is most likely blown anyway if the modem is also bad. So count on replacing it also, and there is usually no way to test them.

Thanx JackG! Here's what i did: 1.Computer is "OFF",telephone line is connected to the input terminal on the modem. i hook a phone on the output terminal on the modem,Dialed my friends phone number then my friend answered the phone.Put the phone on hang and redialed a different number,i still got a dial tone,still worked 2.Computer is "ON",telephone line is connected to the input terminal on the modem. i hook a phone on the output terminal on the modem,Dialed my friends phone number then my friend answered the phone.Put the phone on hang and redialed a different number,i cannot get a dial tone anymore. Our telephone line and the phone has no surge protector.We just use an old rotary type of phone.I asked my fellow who also uses a d-link but they dont have any problem on the dial tone.now i know that theres a shortcircuit.Let me find out what causing the problem. Thanks for the idea buddy!!