Stupid Question Of The Week

[<SparTacuS>]

Yea I know sounds dumb. But is there any way to get a Broadband/ADSL modem to make a dial-up connection.

The reason - my daughter is waiting for her ISP to connect her BB connection and has the appropriate gear ready and waiting. Whilst waiting they have allocated her a (FREE) dial-up account, but she does not have an old school modem.

[gamehead200]

Are you asking if she could connect to her free dial-up account using her broadband modem that still hasn't been activated? If so, then I'm pretty sure (99.99999%) that this is not possible.

[ColdFusion200]

Are you asking if she could connect to her free dial-up account using her broadband modem that still hasn't been activated? If so, then I'm pretty sure (99.99999%) that this is not possible.

id say the same

[trickytwista]

broadband line gottta be activated at first anyway to make it broadband capable

[<SparTacuS>]

What I'm really saying is that, since the broadband signal only travels via @normal@ phone lines, can't we persuade a BB modem to dial a telephone number rather than a network address.

BTW - it's the BB line at the exchange that gets activated not the modem.

[DonDamm]

Umm, at the risk of being somewhat technically wrong, I believe that the typical cable/ADSL "modem" isn't a true modem in the first place, but really is a kind of bridge. The electronics are different to that in a telephone modem which modulates and demodulates the analog phone signal to represent digital ones and zeros.

So, in short your daughter's broadband /ADSL modem not only will not modulate or demodulate a telephone signal, there isn't even a connecter port for the RJ-45 telephone connector (I have a cable modem so I'm not sure about this, but I think the connector for ADSL is different and has a couple more pins) and the typical serial COM connector on telephone modems is certainly lacking (though USB connectors might lead one to think it's possible).

If there is a computer store nearby or a local buy and sell type newpapaer you should be able to find a modem for relatively little money - $10 or so. I still have an old internal 28Kb US Robotics that came on my first Micron computer in 1995 you can have if you want, but I don't believe it's worth the postage from Vienna!! :^)

[gamehead200]

What I'm really saying is that, since the broadband signal only travels via @normal@ phone lines, can't we persuade a BB modem to dial a telephone number rather than a network address.

BTW - it's the BB line at the exchange that gets activated not the modem.

Still not possible. Broadband modems connect to servers using a digital signal, whereas dial-up modems do not (analog). The two are completely different. You can't interchange the two.

[<SparTacuS>]

Yea I thought the idea was kinda long shot but thanks anyway - it's not really worth even a few poundsto buy gear as she will be hooked up in just a few days anyway.