Howie Carr live thread 5/9/07

HowieCarr.com ^ | 5/9/07 | raccoonradio

[Cheapskate]

Is that a specific program,or just a genre?<p.I could also be the old dial-up bugaboo too.

[Calvin Locke]

I think what some fw's do is insert virtual drivers as the hardware (modem, network card) interface drivers.

I'm guessing that they are not all that robust in handling the typical line noise if it comes across as suspicious info.

In my case, my isp connection program doesn't always talk to the USB modem. I use to be able to unplug the usb cable, then kill the isp programs, and wait a few seconds for XP to acknowledge and release the usb port, and terminate the isp program.

Then I could plug the usb back in, and try again.

With the virtual drivers, I still have the same problem, but worse. I can't stop the hung usb, or kill one of the isp programs. Unplugging the usb causes a fatal error in the modem driver now.

Any way, I think I'm going to eat the cost of the package, and look for a new one. Even though it's highly rated by commercial reviewers, checking the message boards, there are general complaints.

My specific complaints are 1.) their online help system requires MS iexplorer, 2.) their ICS work around doesn't, and 3.) while wrestling with it, I disabled the fw at boot (and those damn virtual drivers are still loaded), and now it won't remember me re-enabling it, requiring me to remember to enable it, and 4.) it defaults back to the XP theming after most reboots.

My other thought is that if you know someone in your area has dsl, that might be causing problems. RS sells a filter for that.

Or, there's work being done in your area, and they screwed something up.