Modem damage

[catgate]

I have just done a swap to Tiscali from Onetel. During the messing about,(a long sad story of bad/non-communication on the part of Tiscali) we were off line for a couple of days. Instead of the usual non performance, due to "an issue" on the part of Onetel, I finally discovered that we had been semi switched "seamlessly" by a Big Mac. I could "browse" using Tiscali on my linux/Firefox/router-modem machine but emails were impossible (that problem now has been solved). I could still browse through Ontel & IO and send and receive emails (via Onetel/OE/USB modem) on my 98SE machine. I decided to leave this machine well alone until I had solved the silliness on the Linux box and hope it stayed as it was just in case I needed emails.

Yesterday, after I had sorted out the problem on the Linux box., I decided to switch on the 98SE machine and put the Tiscali BB installation disc in. I used the newly supplied modem and I followed the instructions to the letter. I did everything in the prescribed sequence. Having been up this path previously with a previous Speedtouch USB modem installation, when I first went onto BB, I know how quirky it can be.

The end result was a message that said it could not connect because there was "No dialing tone". Well there should not have been of course. But for some reason the icon that the Tiscali/Speedtouch installation put on the screen activates the dial up connection box. Another few "Removes" followed by "Installs" resulted in the status doggedly remaining quo.

So I dug out the old Speedtouch USB modem, which had been working fine only a few days ago, and tried again, thinking that possibly, like everything else in this switch over, the new Speedtouch was seriously flawed. Identical result. So I dug out an old Netgear router modem that I got when I first started playing with Linux. That too seemed not to recognise a signal from the 'phone line so I got no further with that.

The purpose of this long rambling tale is to give some background to my question:-

"Is it possible for damage to be caused to a modem by a computer? If so how?"

Ok. So its two questions.

[Irene]

Have you used the 'connector' from your analogue telephone line to your modem line correctly?

In spite of a protected power source, I had a modem 'blow', maybe due to a spike from either the phone line or the power. I was never certain. The outcome was that I had to buy a replacement modem/router!

[catgate]

Have you used the 'connector' from your analogue telephone line to your modem line correctly?

In spite of a protected power source, I had a modem 'blow', maybe due to a spike from either the phone line or the power. I was never certain. The outcome was that I had to buy a replacement modem/router!

Yes I should have said in my original post that my first thought was a duff filter, but I tried two or three different ones, with no difference to the outcome.

[catgate]

Meanwhile...back at the ranch:-

So I got a BT Voyager 220V router modem given. I thought maybe it would work on my 98SE better than the disinterested USB modems were doing. But it wouldn't. I could not even get into the router,despite it's being supposed to be "unlocked". So I bought a Voyager 2500V, allegedly unlocked. That let me get in and give it the 192.168.1.1 business but, just as the USBs, when it was given the opportunity to "fully display its function" it returned the same message as the others, which was basically that there is no signal.

So I'm thinking duff motherboard, because just occasionally I have had the feeling that one of the USB ports was not really reliable and the ethernet connection is right next to it. Could it be creeping electronic lurgy? Or prolapse of the electrons?