Along these lines, I've got a friend who has the old Sony S1. She started getting "no dialtone" messages. I took it to my house and tried it, and sometimes it would be okay, and sometimes not. I did listen in and it would send the dial tones. So does this mean the modem is "going"? I turned off dial tone detection and we're going to try that for a few days to see how it goes. Luckily, I do have an old USR modem we can use if we have to.
She has lifetime so she's not eager to upgrade her hardware. The current $299 deal is outrageous, and I'd tell her to go for the $199 --> S3 deal (if it's still available) but she is not going to be interested in digital and/or HD (she's not a spring chicken).
So thoughts about the modem? Why would it start having this behavior, and is there anything else you can recommend?