I already have at least two strikes against me — Verizon land-line phone service and Earthlink as my dial-up ISP.

For the past week I've noticed an audible interference when placing phone calls that also limits my dial-up sessions (on average) to 3-9 minutes. Verizon has diagnosed the interference as external (there are no problems with the phone lines either inside or outside my house) and is, therefore, unwilling to do anything more. Earthlink has suggested a modification to my modem's Init setting but it had no noticeable effect.

Have I struck out? Or is there a filter, settings tweak, or magic/voodoo/wiccan spell that I can cast that will solve this problem?

Hi

Have you bought any large electrical consumers in your house lately? It's a long shot but it's really the only possibility in the given circumstances - copper wiring can be affected by interferences from electromagnetic fields.

Thanks, YounGun.

Verizon and I are both sure the interference is neither in my house nor in the phone line, but due to arcing between an electric fence and nearby fallen debris. I don't know where the fence is and Verizon doesn't seem interested in helping me locate it.