I/O Magic 56k modem

[AMCRambler]

I got a 56k modem for Christmas last year and have been having a heck of a time with it. It is an I/O Magic 56k Magicsurfer. The problem I have with it is that I can connect to my ISP fine but after an indeterminable amount of time(anywhere from 10-25 min.) I get disconnected or it just stops communicating with the server. Is this related to the UART of of the modem? I did notice that it is only an 8250 as opposed to 16550. Is the UART on the modem itself or on the motherboard? I've tried playing with the settings switching PCI slots but have had no luck.

 

[hifimaster]

This could be your ISP,they could be overloaded.Try a different ISP with this modem.

$20 ISP charge,$20 extra phone line (if you want to make calls when you are online)real slow=$40

$40 FOR DSL (same phone line) hella fast

you do the math.

 

[Pakman]

Unless your one of the unfortunate (like me) that has no DSL or any other broadband options. And yes, I do pay $25 for the extra phone line and $20 for my ISP. And yes, I know it will cost the same (actually less) for broadband. I think I'll do my weekly call to my cable and phone company now. And get this... people across the street from where I live have had cable modem access for over a year. That's just not right!

 

[AMCRambler]

Dude, I'd have my ass up on that pole with a couple hundred feet of coax and string the sh*t to my house myself, lol! The Broadband market is totally there but these retards are sitting on their hands when they could be making serious dough!

 

[andrey]

Have you tried wireless network and splitting the cost of cable 50/50 with your buddy across the street

 

[WildDreamer]

The Magicsurfer is a winmodem based on the crappy PCTel chipset. That might be why it keeps disconnecting. If your phone lines are a little noisy, you might try and lower your connection speed to 38.4k and see if that helps. Another thing you can try is to deselect FIFO buffers, which is under modem properties - connection - port settings. You can also check PCTel's website for updated drivers, located here.

 

[Tranceformers]

maybe its just the brand sucks. i picked up a i/o magic 56x cd rom drive on sale at office max for 40.00. it installed win2k fine, then when i tried to install my games, it wouldn't read the cd's. returned it today.

hope you get broadband soon!

 

[Vyle]

I believe I/O Magic went out of business and that's why you see their products for sale cheap now.

 

[dieselstation]

Unfortunately, i WORK at iomagic. i'm a tech support rep for them and I/O Magic doesn't actually manufacture anything. all they do is relabel other products as their own and sells it under the iomagic name. and yeah.. all their products are crap. the only decent product they have, is the inferno 400 firewire card which i NEVER get a tech support call from (which is good to me). and NO, IOmagic is not out of business. by the way, HI-VAL and DRT stuff are also handled by us. someone kill me now.

Dieselstation

 

[Delusion2001]

Have you checked your ISP software or modem setting to make sure they dont' have a "auto logoff time"? (sometimes it isn't very easy to find)

 

[GregMal]

Do you have "call waiting" on your phone line???
If you do you have to temporarily turn it off for your modem
connections. If you don't, someone will call you when you're on
the modem and it will disconnect you. Try adding *70 to your
modem call string........Greg

 

[AMCRambler]

It's definitely not call waiting, we don't have that. Could very well be noise on the lines, however my 33.6 modem works with no problem which tells me it has to be that modem. I'm gonna agree with the dude who works for I/O Magic and say that it's a POS. As for the connection time out I haven't seen one anywhere and again, I have no problem with the same ISP on my 33.6 modem. I think I'm just gonna toss this I/O Magic one and buy a new one. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[billyjak]

I used to be on Prodigy with my US Robotics 56k and they kept disconnecting after 20 minutes to keep the time limit on.
It's your ISP that is doing this, unless enough people complain they will do nothing.
I would try a different provider.
Happily on Cable now.

 

[AMCRambler]

Hey guys, I was a little too quick to say I should just ditch it. I tried out WildDreamer's suggestions and went to the PC Tel site and downloaded a driver from them that looked promising and this did the trick! No more disconnects! I wish I had had known sooner that it wasn't actually an I/O Magic modem and that PC Tel would have better updated drivers for it. I think I/O Magic should let their consumers know this at the very least on their website since I had been there several times to look for updated drivers versions. The drivers I downloaded from I/O Magic still performed the same way. After this experience with I/o Magic I would not recommend buying their products to anybody. I was lucky that the company who made this particular product I got from I/O Magic was still in business and had drivers for the modem. But if they hadn't been I would have been out of luck. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Before you waste too much time... try a different dial up number and see if you still get the disconnect.