Unexplainable boot up procedure

[RAClarke]

I was recently asked a question that I could not answer concerning XP. A colleague claims that his computer boots up when he lifts up his telephone. Does anybody know why?

 

[xyrx]

My best guess is that the modem may interpret the person picking up a phone as a 'ring' (the current passing through the modem to the phone starts when he picks up the receiver.. although a ring actually constitutes an alternating current, the modem may be just recoginizing any change in current as a 'ring'), and the computer may have an option in the bios called "Wake-on-Ring". This was designed a few years ago to be much like "Wake-on-Lan". Wake-on-Lan was meant for system administrators that manage many workstations to remotely power on a workstation, so that new programs or maintenance on that workstation could be done through their network connection in the wee hours of the morning, or when no one was around. It was never really widely used, but most modern machines have a "wake-on-lan" option built into the BIOS. Now, Wake-on-Ring is pretty much the same thing. If you were travelling, and wanted to access your computer remotely, you could call your phone line (or a dedicated line) to your computer, and it would power on or "wake up". This would power on the machine, and load any remote control software, such as pcAnywhere or LapLink, allowing a person to dial into their home computer and get what they need.

I just think it's plain wierd that a computer would wake up after picking up a handset. The modem must be kinda stupid to interpret THAT as a ring.

... and again, this is a guess.

 

[RAClarke]

Thank you for your explanation, I'll pass these details on.

 

[hodgesj]

I had a compaq that would reboot everytime the phone would ring,.whether online or not turned out to be a modem driver problem ,......so that it is probably in your modem