I have a rotary phone and would like to access the internet with it.
Can someone let me know if it is possible and anything else I might
need to know so that I'm not surprised.
Thanks,
mediatek01

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Request for Question Clarification by omnivorous-ga on 04 Aug 2004 07:40 PDT

Mediatek01 --

Do you intend to use the phone to dial, as we used to do in the good
old days with an acoustic modem or acoustic coupler (see picture):
http://british.nerp.net/80s/coupler.jpg

Virtually all PCs now have a modem built in, making that grey box in
the picture obsolete.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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Clarification of Question by mediatek01-ga on 05 Aug 2004 12:05 PDT

Omnivorous-GA

Actually, I posted this question for a friend so I don't know all of the details.

I at least know that she does not intend to use an acoustic modem or
acoustic coupler.

I assume that she has one line and that line is going to her rotary
dial phone and that she has a computer with a modem.

What I was thinking of doing was putting a splitter into the feed and
have one line go to her rotary phone and one go to the modem. Is this
going to work?

mediatek01

Hello mediatek01-ga,

Let's pull all of these comments and clarifications into an answer for you.

You stated she's using an internal modem. Yes, you can use the
splitter and run one line off it to ther phone, and one to her
computer. However, when she is online, people calling will get a busy
signal or go directly to her voicemail, if she has that.

If she has call waiting, you can ask the phone company she goes
through if there is a special code that your computer can dial before
her modem dials out for her internet service to shut off the call
waiting while she is online only. You would put this in the
modem/internet service settings to dial before the number.  Some
places just have a little box you can check that will find your code
and do it for you. Call waiting can sometimes mess up an internet
connection. For example, is she was on the internet, and someone
called, and her call waiting beeped, the tone can mess up the modem
transmission and disconnect you from the internet. Where I live, Quest
is one of our phone comapnies, and like it says in this article for
their company, you can put in *70 so the call waiting is off for that
call, or modem session only. It may be different for your phone
company, so call customer service and ask.
http://www.qwest.com/residential/pdf/user_guides/english/CallWaiting.pdf

Yes, you need to have tone dialing for a modem to work, pulse will
not. On some phones, you can switch the kind of dialing from P to T on
the phone itself, and  there is a setting in the dial-up networking
properties that will let you switch between pulse and tone dialing if
it is not located on your phone. More than likely though, you have
tone dialing by default.

Also, to help you out more, her ISP, which is who she gets the
internet through, can help you with set up and dialing in, if she's
having trouble. They should provide you with a technical support
number.

If this answer requires further explanation, please request
clarification before rating it, and I'll be happy to look into this
further.
Nenna-GA
Google Answers Researcher

Thanks!
mediatek01

The only thing you'll need to know is if you need to dial pulse or
tone. The modem generally doesn't care. The ISP doesn't care. If you
put a non-rotary phone on your phone line, and that phone dials,
you're fine. If you've told your phone company that you don't want
touch tone dialing, you're on pulse. By default, touch tone is given
to you on installation.

If you are on pulse dial only, you will need to change the dial string
from ATDT to ATDP.

The P is for pulse. Pulse dialing ONLY allows for numbers 0-9. This
prevents feature blocking like block call waiting, which can interrupt
an Internet connection.

Most likely, you won't need to worry about it. Depending on your
location, you probably have been forced to have touch tone service by
default, even if you use a rotary phone.

Interestingly, there may still be some communities out in the sticks
that are still on rotary lines. My mom's phone switch just got
switched over to touch-tone about two years ago. It was quite the
frustration to wait for all that dialing to happen when you were
dialing up. (Incidentally, when I was a kid (not that long ago in the
grand scheme of things), you only had to dial the last four digits if
you were calling within the exchange. It was notably old-school.)

If you're using a Windows computer with dial-up networking, and your
telephone lines only accept a pulse signal, there is a setting in the
dial-up networking properties that will let you switch between pulse
and tone dialing. As crythias says, just because there's a rotary
phone, it doesn't mean that you won't be able to dial touch-tone. The
modem takes care of all the dialing for you when you use dialup
service, so the phone itself doesn't even enter the picture.

Good luck,
smudgy.

crythias-ga 

What I was thinking of doing was putting a splitter into the feed and
have one line go to her rotary phone and one go to the modem. 

So what you are saying is that if the dial is pulse then I would have
to make a setting change to my modem. If it is tone then I don't have
to do anything. Is this right?

mediatek01

Mediatek01 --

Nenna's done a very complete job of answering your question.  However,
there's one thing that you need to know if you're going to use a
splitter: having two devices (PC and telephone) on the splitter MAY
reduce the voltage of the ring signal enough that the phone won't
ring; the modem won't auto-answer; or both.  Otherwise a modern modem
(built since 1990) will be equipped to handle both tone and pulse
dialing.

Note that there's one other possibility: her old phone is hard-wired. 
In this case you'll want to replace the existing telephone jack with
an RJ-11 modular phone jack.  But that's really another question . . .

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

I'm sorry to have to disagree with a Researcher, but there is no
reason pulse can't work.

Pulse can NOT *70 to prevent call waiting.

Also, you don't need a splitter. Modems have two ports: wall and phone. 

You asked: So what you are saying is that if the dial is pulse then I would have
to make a setting change to my modem. If it is tone then I don't have
to do anything. Is this right?

Yes.

> Pulse can NOT *70 to prevent call waiting.

For pulse dialing it's 1170 to block call-waiting.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

*smack forehead* I forgot about the 1170. Thanks for the reminder! :)

To all,

First of all Thanks to all who helped me understand this issue.
Second, I want to be as fair as possible - who do I pay the money to.
I know Nenna answered it but all of you guys shared in answering it.
Any suggestions?

Thanks,
mediatek01

Mediatek01,

You pay money to Nenna because Nenna provided an Answer. If a name is
underlined, that is a GA Researcher, only they can be paid, and only
they can post Answers.

It's automatic as soon as an Answer is posted. These comments don't
affect payment.

It's up to you to comment and rate the Official Answer given.