Dial-up: No Dial Tone

The problem is that your modem is unable to detect the dial tone of your phone line and so cannot make a connection. There are several reasons why this may happen:

• The modem may not be properly connected to the telephone socket. Check that all leads are securely fastened into their sockets, and that the lead is in the correct modem socket
• The total REN (Ringer Equivalence Number) value of the devices on your phone line exceeds 4 (usually a phone or modem has a REN value of 1). The REN value can be found on the underside of your phone (eg, REN=1). If this is the case try removing all other devices and attempt to connect to the internet again. If you can, plug each devise back in, one by one to see if you connection is impaired.
• You may have a service such as BT 1571 enabled. If you have any messages the dial tone will change from a continuous tone to a stuttered tone. This 'confuses' the modem and causes the error message. The solution is to retrieve all your messages before you connect to the internet. You can force the modem to dial without a dial tone - to see how to do this, please see the 'I use BT's messaging service BT Answer 1571 - how does this affect me?' question

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