Can you please post with more detail than a external modem via serial port. Can
you please give name, make, or model number. IS this a DSL or dial up modem?

Does the modem actually pick up the line?
Turn the speaker on in the modem and listen for the dial-tone.
Does it capture the dial-tone?
After a couple of seconds does it then dial the number?
Do you hear the other modem pick-up?

Do they hand-shake?
If it fails here, tough to say whats going on at the OS level of either side.
Could be a bad password, or even login in name.

Or give up trying?
If all that happens, then you have the modems set to incompatible set-ups.

From time to time I experience a similar problem on dialup. It dials,
then the handshake begins for about 1 or 2 seconds and then quits. And
this will repeat until I plug into another phone line. Then my problem
stops. So plug a phone in and see what you get. I eventually found out
the phone company had a almost severed wire which caused a great amount
of static on the line. To compound my problem is I live out in the
country with a not so hot phone company.

I'm was trying to have one good constant in the troubleshooting equation. You
can most definetly have bad lines that you can't even detect by haning a
hand-set on them. You might want to have your local phone company trouble shoot
the lines. They will not guarantee band width on voice lines. That went away
years ago.

Okay,I'm gonna test your hypothesis about bad lines, so tonight I will
swap out my Windoze cable and plug it into my Linux box, and vice
versa, and I will see if that makes a difference. My gut feeling is
that it won't help, but it's worth a shot, anyway. I'm using the
Windoze box to log-on to my ISP, but I prefer Ubuntu these days.

can i suggest something... because i think its maybe
in the modem setup commands... you have 2 pc's why not
monitor with hyperterminal of windows, what ubuntu is
sending to the modem until it dails..simply the TD of
the linux serial port to the RD pin of the windows com
port and on the windows com port you also connect RTS
and CTS together....simply like a "null modem cable"
make sure the baudrates,start,stop bits and parity are
the same for both computers you have to see things as
"AAA"..."AT...." those ATxxx are commands for the
modem AT DTphone number... and so on

Already I'm back on Breezy Badger but I've noticed some loss of
control of when I want to log-in. There are some settings in the
networking. I'm trying to track down the problem.

On my external modem, I can see all the lights come on, CD, TR, CS,
ARQ/FAX. I don't think it's a modem hardware problem, again, I'm sure
it's software.

I would like to go into Ubie and look at the modem settings but I
don't know how to do this. I can only see a few things to do in
Networking, but that doesn't allow control over most of modem settings.

I'll look over your suggestions and try to implement them to see if
there is a difference.

I've noticed after I tried playing around with some settings in Breezy
Badger Ubuntu, it's starting to act up again like before. Such as,
logging onto a network on its own. I would prefer to control this
action, but hey, I usually am on the internet when I flip on my
computer so it's no biggie.

Besides, if I want to be a meanie, I can just flip the power switch on
my external modem and Breezy isn't going anywhere.

Sometimes you have to be smarter than the machine.

I don't believe my line from the outside of my house is bad(from the
green Telephone Network Interface box, i.e. ATT/Bell hardware that
brings in my phone line to my house). I've worked as a cable
installer/tech for a few years, I have all the cable tools, BTW I have
one of those security keys to open the box, basically a 5/32" allen
wrench with a hole in the middle, you can make one by cutting halfway
into a allen wrench but you can get them on ebay relatively cheap, too.

I ran in all the cat5 cable from the interface box into my room,
terminated everything and also I share the line with my phone and my
phone works okay when I'm not on the internet. So basically the
wiring is new and the connections are good, to the best of my knowledge.

I have a Windoze box and I don't have any problems, and I use the same
external modem and I use some of the same cable, albeit on the other
side of the room. Of course, if nothing else can solve it, I will
swap out the phone lines from the 2 computers to see if there is a
difference. I doubt it, as I have one of those cheap Cat5 cable
testers you can get on ebay for a few bucks, and my connections are okay.

I'm back on my external serial modem with Ubie again. Reinstalled
Ubuntu 5.04 Breezy Badger this time instead of Feisty Fawn.

I printed some relevant documention about dialup modems and
configuring them. I note one reference to " a problem with the modem
dialing during bootup". I think it is related to setting the modem as
the default route to internet.

I think I can pretty much rule out any problems with cable and wiring
connections. IOW, we're talking a software problem not a hardware
problem. You should always try to pinpoint networking problems as
being either a hardware or software problem and work from there. At
least you can eliminate some unknowns that way.

What I need is a "rollback" feature so I can lock all my software
settings at this point and when this problem re-surfaces, I just wish
I could do the 'system restore' thing, like you can do it in XP.

Other than that, I'll keep my fingers crossed for good luck and I will
avoid upgrading to Fiesty for the time being.

What happens with the external modem, well, first I should say that
Linux will automatically boot up and dial-in to my ISP as I am logging
on the computer. That is normal. I hear the dial tones and the
buzzing sounds, like the dial-ups make, when connecting to the internet.

The dial tone comes on for a second, and it acts like it wants to
dial, then it drops the connection before it follows up with the
numbers to dial-in to my ISP.

It doesn't handshake because I don't get that far into the log-on
process. The signal is dropped after the first number or two is dialed.

I've tried to go into Network settings but so far no luck.

At this point I'm realtively convinced that your lines are OK.
Any of you modem guru's can now jump in. It's been only 7 or 8 years since I
ran a modem bank. I'm sitting on an 8MB pipe and use VOIP for my phone. I
remember looking at the dia strings and such in my SCO box, but that's about it.

Yeah, I'm reasonably sure I'm dealing with a software problem, not a
hardware problem.

I need to be able to exercise more control in the software settings of
the modem and the log-in sequence, but Networking settings in Ubie
don't give me that much options.

I wouldn't think an external serial-port modem would NOT give any
problems. You don't need to set anything except use the default
switches on the back of the modem. The same switches are used on my
Windoze box.

I think I need to be able to go into a "control panel' in Ubie and
look at modem properties, similar to what you can do in Windoze to try
and track the problem down.

I always use and highly recommend a US Robotics external modem for my
dial-ups. For one thing, my US Robotics external modem can be swapped
out from my Linux box to my Windoze box and of course you can plug it
in to a Mac (you need the Mac cable, though).

Currently on the Linux Ubuntu Fiesty box, I am using the US Robotics
33.6k Sportster external fax/modem, model 0413, manufacture date 1995.

My other one which my Windoze box is running, it is a US Robotics 56k
V92 Sportster external fax/modem, model 5686manufacture date 2002.

I believe they are both doing the same thing with the Linux machine.

These modems plug into the serial port of the PC computer. I am using
a dial-up connection.

I can usually get Linux to log-in after a fresh install, but that is a
30-min. chore or so.

Question: Does Linux have something like "Norton Rollback" or that
useful feature in XP, "System Restore"? Maybe I could 'rollback' to a
previous setting?

The problem typically occurs if I have to shut down inadventently, or
if I keep my modem turned off when I turn on the Linux box, and I
guess that confuses its settings or parameters.