Quite a while ago, I wrote about various settings you can change in the Windows 98 Control Panel, including modem settings. (If you missed it, see www.cc-tips.com for the Tales from the Mousepad archive). After that article appeared, a reader wrote in and said, "I checked out all the stuff you mentioned. This question is in regard to the modem properties. I hate that annoying sound when I’m connected to my server. The volume control doesn’t affect it at all and I thought that your reference to adjusting (or turning off) the modem speaker volume would eliminate it. But it hasn’t changed a thing. How do I get rid of that irritating dial-up noise?"
This questions is a good one and (to use a term from the movie Tron) forced me to set the "way-back machine" to around 1990, when I had to pass modem parameters using the old Hayes AT command set. Most modems still understand these cryptic parameters. So, to turn off sound, go into the Control Panel, go to Modems, select your modem and click the Properties button. Click the Connection tab and click the Advanced button.
You see a fill-in box called "Extra Settings." This box is where you can include any modem initiation commands you want to include. In your case, you want the speaker turned off, so add ATM0 (that’s a zero, not an o). Click OK twice, then Close.
Adding the AT command generally shuts up the modem. Note that there are other AT commands that can be used to change how your modem works. For example, for many years, I used ATM1 (as opposed to zero) which caused that modem to connect quietly, but didn’t completely turn it off. Folks who like to tinker with this type of stuff can find lists of the AT command set online if you do a simple search in your favorite search engine.