modem sends but not receiving

I am working on a unit for a friend and it connects to the net but all it does is send info and doesn't receive any. The connection icon on the screen only lights up the bottom computer.
it is a Dell Optiplex GTx with Win98SE. Not sure if the kids downloaded anything or they got anything but it comes up looking for a newdotnet dll and they said they kept up on dl'ing anitvirus updates but their norton files are a year old.
Now the question is what things do i look at for the connection problem? there is only one modem installed, connects no problem just doesn't go anywhere. Any ideas would be welcome

thanks
Brent

You might want to take a look at this

thanks, I saw that before I did it but not knowing whether they had tried deleting it before i never went further. will try the LSP fix.

Just something else for you to check out. I have 3 phones hanging on the same line as my computer. One of the phones went bad about a month ago and I replaced it with a new unit.

I then began to notice intermittent sign on and periodic dropouts. Thinking about the phone load on this line, I disconnected the new phone and everything was OK again.

Within the week, a telephone tech was outside working on a phone junction box for this area. While talking to him, he said he was renewing all the connection in this area because of frequent complaints. He said many of the terminals were oxidized. Also said my line would be out for just a few seconds when ho got to it.

Later that day I went back online with all inhouse phones connected, and have not had a problem since.

Bumps

Hello,

I test and sell quite a few modems a month. The problem your describing I have seen before. Your modem is defective. I have seen modems that report no dial tone, I have seen them connect to a isp but not be able to browse the internet, I have seen various error codes pop up, and all modems reported good using built in windows dianostics. I usually buy used modems around 15 dollars for 10 of them. I go through about 100 used modems a month. I even had one conextant modem from a compaq....when I put it in a Test Machine it heats up at the bus connection (internaly shorted). When I pulled the modem from the test machine it was hot on the bottom where it goes into the PCI slot. The bottom Line is your modem is probably not any good and needs replacement, unless your ISP I having problems.
Since I test and sell a lot of modems might I suggest the Lucent/Agere Win modem as a cheap and affordable solution. I have noticed the Lucent ones connect more consistantly at the same speeds and have good stable connections. The Pc Tel based ones seem to be reliable as far as Long Lasting but they connect all over the place and seem to have more trouble with noisy lines. The Conextant/Rockwells seem to be a lesser quality construction over all but unlike the Pc Tel ones they connect at stable conections almost the same as the Lucent ones.
By the way I also deal in very high end USR Courier Modems. They run at 250.00 dollars each and are without a doubt the kings of the modem world. To tell you all the benifits would take quite a lot of typing! I always have about 40 Couriers in stock at all times! The test that i put the couriers through requires a lot of time as the expense of these modems requires that they be perfect in function before they can leave the shop! After flashing them to the V.90 standard they are tested by a actual Live connection through a local isp, where I begin a 100 meg test file download overnight. Unless the Isp or the phone line goes down at night the courier will never lose connection period!! The External Courier can survive Brownouts without dropping a connection! It can handshake up and down while connected! This is what USR calls Line Leveling. Without a doubt This modem is the top of the hill. BTW (by the way) Did you know the USR Courier Modem is the only modem in the world that was capable of being flashed to the new V.92 Standard from a V.90 Standard?? All the other modems I have seen require new hardware to Accomplish this! The Lucent modem is the next closest to being able to do this. It required a newer type Digital Signal Processor onboard that many Lucent V.90's didn't have but some of the newer ones did, which allowed you to just upgrade your Modems Driver to change to the V.92 standard. All other modems that were V. 90 originally were never able to be upgraded to the V .92 standard! Note also that the Courier Modem Has It's own Processor on board and the External USR Couriers use 0% Cpu resourses for your connection! This Allows all your proceesing power of the cpu to work for your applications and not your connection to the internet!

If your going to use Dial up and want a good reliable Modem for little dollars. Buy a Lucent Modem (around 12 dollars). If you want to get the best there is, get a USR Courier External (we sell em for $75.00 to $100.00 Dollars used). Use the dollar amount as a point of refference as The AUP policy won't allow me to list here who we are and where our store is.

Good Luck to ya :D

Thanks for the idea J A L but the problem appeared to be in the stack setup messed up by new.net.
did a virus scan and it found a trojan SP.DLL which Norton quaranteened. Everything was fine but it all came back later. did a search and found a registry item called sp under c:\windows so I am assuming it reloaded all the items I unchecked under msconfig. am going to do a double check at lunch

thanks for the ideas folks