No internet!! Why won't it connect?

I'm not sure on which forum thisis best for and I posted this before hoping I might find someone knowledgable that could help but I think the post was pushed down the list from so many new ones so I'm trying again since I'm sure some of you know what it's like not to have it

A couple nights ago I was online and I lost my connection which wasn't so significant because I have dial up and it routinely does that after 2-3 hours. I was always able to simple dial back up without a problem but this time it said there was no dial tone. I was tired anyway so I just went to bed figuring it was a "brain fart" and it'd go back to normal the next time I started it up.

Well, it didn't. I went to Control Panel and it said the modem was operating properly so then I went to the telephone line connected to my comp. I switched it out for several others which didn't yield any success so I plugged the phone into the cords to make sure they worked...no problem there either.

I even did a did a system recovery to restore everything to factory condition thinking maybe there was a virus that may have done something...again no luck.

Is there anything else I may have missed? Considering what I tried the only thing I can think of is a hardware failure...

I'd appreciate any thoughts

 

when you've tried to sign on several times, do you still have a dial-tone in your home?

 

Yes, there's a dial tone still. If I try to log on it won't let me but if I pick up the phone 3 seconds later I can call out...

 

here's what i would do in your shoes:

1.) uninstall software and drivers completely.

2.) remove modem physically from computer.

3.) uninstall dialup software.

4.) run registry cleaner, spyware remover, antivirus, etc.

5.) install modem in a different pci slot than it was in originally. (one that is confirmed to work with another card, such as a sound card or tv tuner)

6.) let computer find modem and install drivers/software.

7.) install dialup software.

if you still get no connection, your modem is shot. this happened several times to my sister. the culprit was a short in the phone line.