CONNECTING TO INTERNET SHOWS "LINE IN USE" AT COMPLEX'S PHONE ENTRY SYSTEM

[jpanighetti]

Dear Community,

I live in a gated community that has a phone entry system which calls our phone when someone at the gate selects our unit on the phone entry system.  It then rings our phone and we push a button to open the gate for them to enter.

I find that when I'm connected to the internet we can use the phones to call out and receive calls, but the phone entry system at the gate shows that our line is in use.  So, anyone coming to the gate when I'm on the internet cannot contact us to let them in.

I suspect that the entry system is somehow connected directly to our physical phone line and has no filter on that connection and so is being "interfered with" by my use of the internet.  Since the system looks almost as old as I am, I'm sure that it's not "up-to-date" with technical advances.

Anyway, I'm going to call around and see if I can contact the property management company about this and see if they've resolved this problem for anyone else in the complex.  With hundreds of units here, I'm sure I'm not the only person who has experienced this.... or maybe others just have not noticed it.

The only reason I'm posting here is because I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this problem and maybe has some technical tips I can pass on to "whomever" when I talk to them.

Happy 4th to you all! 🙂

Thank you,

Janet

[dslr595148 · Accepted solution]

Are you using DSL or Dial-up networking?

If you have DSL, perhaps your computer is dialing out and using the dial-up connection...

If you use Internet Explorer, with IE running, go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections.

Make sure that Never Dial a connection is selected.

If you desire to, go to Google and type in Never Dial a connection , then select images...

^^

[jpanighetti]

Thanks!  🙂  I'll try this and let you know! 😄

[jpanighetti]

I am using DSL with XP.  I went to IE and saw that (although greyed out) the connection tab is indeed set to "Never Dial A Connection".

Well, darn! 😞

Anyway, if it was indeed dialing up wouldn't that block calls coming in or going out from the phone?  The way it is working now (as I stated above) we can indeed call out and receive calls on the phone when I'm online.. It's just the gate phone entry system that's showing "line in use".  The gate phone entry system is on the outside of the complex.

If you still think it's simply a configuration issue, I would still like to hear your ideas.

[BrianMcD]

Do you have access to the location where the Verizon Phone Lines enter your unit ?

If the Gate System is hardwired to your unit perhaps a DSL Filter could be placed  at this location.

[jpanighetti]

As it turns out, the mystery is indeed solved.  It was a setting to use dialup, but only in my Outlook Express.  So, the gate access was blocked only when I was reading my email. 🙂

I haven't quite yet figured out how to reconfigure Outlook Express but I keep my email reading to a minimum during the day.

Thank you for pointing this out! 🙂

Janet

[dslr595148]

In OE:

#1 go to Tools.

#2 Then to Accounts.

#3 At Accounts, select the the correct, e-mail account, and click properties.

#4 In My case, I do not have any since I do not use OE to send/receive e-mail. But no matter..

In there, there will be different tabs. Go to the Connection tab.

What you need to make sure of is that either:

a) Always connect to this account using - is NOT Checked

b) OR always use Local Area Network is selected.

Here is a sample screen shot..

http://i30.tinypic.com/2ptqzol.jpg

^^^

Message Edited by dslr595148 on 08-22-2009 02:47 PM