How do I get past the sonic wall on work computer?

Why doesn't my dial up work on my new computer?

• I had dial up service on the old computer, yes it's slow and not ideal,but I need to save money, and it worked. I bought a new computer, got a great deal on it. It's a Dell Inspiron 570, it has Windows7. I bought a 56k external modem recommended by Dell for dial-up. I plugged the 56k modem into the USB port and the phone line into one end, and the other end of the phone line into the phone wall jack. And it does not work at all. I tried technical assistance through Dell and they were no help at all. I've tried 3 different dial up service providers and none seem to work. Dell says there is no driver for the modem, that it's plug n play and I have not been able to find a driver. I get all kinds of error messages when I try to "dial up", like your modem software isn't right, the line is busy, you need new access numbers, etc. I have analyzed these things to no end it seems and cannot figure out what's wrong. Ideas? Please don't tell me to switch to high speed it's not an option right now. I've also tried tech. support through the different dial up companies and they too don't know what's wrong.

• Answer:

  Did you look in your Device Manager (in your control panel > system) to see if the modem shows up properly? It really does sound like a driver issue..you may want to go to the modems manufacturer site and see if they have a driver section (most companies do). You could always take the USB one back and get an internal one. Those should be dirt cheap and tend to work better than USB ones.