Providing onsite computer care for metro-west "495" area of Massachusetts

Are you looking for someone you can trust to come into your home or business?
A mature individual trusted by police departments to handle their servers and data?
A former Army captain with a top-secret clearance who worked for the NSA?
Please consider the services of PC Doctor Ed Sterling

Help! I can't get on the Internet with my dial-up connection!

While it seems so obvious, the first thing to check is that the telephone line is actually connected to both the computer modem (usually built-in, and almost always on the back end of the computer down towards the base) and to the telephone connection (box) in the wall or on the floor moulding.

You might try to plug in an old telephone just to make sure you hear a dial-tone. You must hear a dial-tone in order for the computer to dial-up the Internet provider.

It is very common for the internal modem in a computer to be damaged by a lightening strike or even a build-up of static electricity. The overload can damage the sensitive computer chip that does the telephone dialing. The damage is typically invisible. The modem will usually pass all the computer's internal tests without any problem, but, the computer will be never be able to dial out. The easiest way to fix this is to purchase a new internal modem; there is no way to repair a broken modem. The cost is typically $30 to $40, and you want to find a "56K V.92 PCI internal modem" when you go shopping for the replacement.

If you happen to be the last person in Massachusetts to have the old "rotary" (non-touch-tone) dialing (to save 50 cents a month), I urge you to change that and join the rest of the world to have tone-dialing for your computer connection. It will be much easier to use the Internet if you have touch-tone dialing.

Call Ed Sterling at 978-779-6058 from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. 
Or Email: ed@EdSterling.com
(There is no charge for a brief assessment of your computer problem)

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