Did you plug in the modem to the outside jack, and your laptop into the modem? You said you plugged your laptop into the outside jack. You have to use the modem.
If you used the modem and still cannot get a connection, you have isolated any house wiring. Call SBC back and pitch a fit. Demand that they send someone out.
I'm trying to setup a 2Wire Homeportal 1000wh DSL modem on a friend's computer with Win ME on it and getting nowhere. She has no NIC so I'm using the USB connection on the modem and their software. The filters are on all phones, the antivirus and firewall are disabled, the wiring is connected properly, and the phone lines were checked out.
To avoid any internal phone wiring problems (there were some that got fixed) I plugged my laptop into the phone connection outside the house. It has XP and both a USB and a NIC for the modem's ethernet connection. I couldn?t get a connection using either connection.
Customer service tries to tell me they have run a test and found that the house phone wires have a problem. The installation instructions are easy to follow and the wiring is simple but I can never establish a connection. Customer service is worse than useless and I need some guidance. I suspect a bad modem, bad outside line, or that I?m missing something simple or very secret. It galls me to think they charge $200 to follow a simple setup program and plug in some wires, and I can?t do this. Thanks in advance for any help.

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