can't get DSL installed

[laurel]

Hello, I would love your suggestions.

I have a 5 year old computer running Windows ME. Have never had Internet access on it before. Got Verizon DSL. Modem is installed correctly & they say the line is good but it will not connect. Have spent a couple of hours on the phone with their tech support.

1) 1st guy said it was somethiing about the "winsock", something is blocking the connection, I should call the computer manufacturer

2) 2nd guy said it was Norton AntiVirus. I disabled it but that didn't work. He said I should call Norton. Norton is always busy or you have to pay $3.50 per minute. I uninstalled it but still no joy. I might pay & see if they can do anything about, but thought I would do some research on my own first. (From my office computer!)

Any ideas? Thanks!

[KenJackson]

Windows ME is widely considered to be the worst Windows of them all. I read that Microsoft changed the driver specification between Win98 and WinME, but many third party developers ignored the changes, so there is a disproportionately higher number of bugs.

You may not want to hear it, but let me give you the sales pitch for Linux. Four years ago I got fed up with Windows and made the switch to Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva Linux (http://www.mandrivalinux.com/)) and I'm glad I did. I wrote a little more here (http://jackson.io/linux/#prefer_linux). And BTW, I use Verizon DSL at work from my Linux PC.

You can read up on the different distributions of Linux at DistroWatch (http://distrowatch.com/). Once you've picked a distro, you can either download the iso files and burn the CDs yourself or buy them. Buying direct from the company supports it, but you can (legally!) buy copies for less than $2/CD from third parties like CheapISO (http://www.cheapiso.com/), AllLinuxCD (http://www.alllinuxcd.com/), or OSDisc (http://www.osdisc.com/).

[wild_bill]

Windows ME sucks so bad I wouldn't bother with it any more.

1.) Revert computer to Windows 98 Second Edition. Crude but effective.
2.) Upgrade to Windows 2000. You should be able to find it real cheap.

I upgraded daughter's PC to Windows 2000 and all my problems went poof.
It runs OK. I got it real cheap at a computer show (like $20). I know its out of date, but so is your hardware. Daughter's was too. It was the best I could do with the $$ on hand.

ME is really bad. I would strongly suggest above 2 fixes. Worked for me.