error message 797 with dial up

[konfused]

i was trying to connect to the internet then it said "error 797: a connection to the remote computer could not be established because the modem is missing or busy" the internet was working earlier, could you all help me out please? thanks

[pcpalct]

A pretty reputable support site claims:

797 - The modem could not be found.

This error occurs only in Windows 2000 and XP. The error can occur if the modem is no longer visible to the system, and may be a problem related to the modem driver, or system conflicts that cause the modem to work only some of the time.

In some cases, rebooting the machine may "solve" the problem.

If the modem is an external and is not powered on when the system is booted this error may occur: shut-down, power on the modem & re-boot the system.

If the error persists, check to see if there is an updated driver for your modem.

[fangnyang]

Win XP requires that you must have the following virtual hardwares installed in your system in order to connect to the internet using adsl or modems:
(1) WAN miniport(IP)
(2) WAN miniport(PPTP)
(3) WAN miniport(L2TP)

usually they were installed automatcially along with the dirver for the NIC the system detected for the first time. But viruses or inappropriate operations may make them disappear. So first, please make sure that all the above 3 virtual hardwares are there:

go to the device manager and click "view" and click "show hidden devices".

If any of them is missing, you may need to uninstall the rest and reinstall them again:

run regedit ( don't forget to save your registry.
)and locate and clik the item HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-
BFC1-08002BE10318}. For each subitem, check if the "DriverDesc" in the data column has the value " WAN miniport(IP) or
WAN miniport(PPTP) or WAN miniport(L2TP). If it has, delete the whole subitem ( eg., 007, which is machine-dependent).

Goto the device manager again, and uninstall the 3 virtual hardwares if any. Now reinstall them again:
click control panel–>add hardware–>next–>select "Yes, I have already connected
hardware(next)–>add a new hardware device(at the bottom)–>select install the hardware that
i manually select from a list–>network
adapters–>select microsoft from left and select WAN miniport(IP) from right;
... do the similar for PPTP and L2TP.

Restart the machine. Hopefully everything is okay now.