modem connection problems

[dd1946]

The scenario: I have a new Acer desktop w/ WinXP Pro and with DSL through Embarq (formerly known as Sprint)/Earthlink. The DSL was down yesterday and I tried to set up the provided Earthlink dial up connection. When I did the wizard it asked me to set up the modem and gave a choice of com1 or com2. I picked com1. The modem set up OK (it seemed) and the device manager says installed and working properly, but... then when I set up the Earthlink connection and tried to connect the modem would not dial out. The message was something like the "modem could not be detected". Why not if it is installed and working properly???

One other curious thing is that what I type in as my password won't stay. My PW is 8 characters, but when I look at settings after set up the PW square has many more than 8 dots...of course, I don't know what the extra dots represent. I just know it's more than my 8 characters. I keep trying to change it, but it goes back to the strange PW. However, I don't think this is why I can't connect. I took out the long PW and put in the correct before trying to connect.

Dorothy