Can't connect to internet

Help,

I use a dial up facility to connect to the internet. Everything worked fine until approx a week ago. Since then the number dials on the computer and after a few minutes I get a message saying "No Answer"

I contacted the service provider they said everything was fine at their end. They walked me through setting up a new connection. They said that I should hear the number dialing which I do and also hear the line schearching as though it is a fax line which I don't. They suggested I contact the line provider Eircom to chech the line for any faults. I did this and they said there is nothing wrong with the line. For what its worth I also rang the number and I get the screachig sounds.

Anyone know what happened and more importantly what I can do to fix the problem.

What changed (e.g. hardware or software added, removed or reconfigured) between it working and not working?

I may have deleted a number of hardware files that I no longer use i.e. scanner etc. and files relating to software from magazines etc
In addition I also deleted a number of excel & word doc only.

The only other thing I recall doing was plug in the the subwoofter system to allow me to attach the speakers which were not attached for some time. I removed this and it makes no difference.

Are you sure that you didn't delete anything that might affect the dial-up capabilities? Any reason you deleted files rather than using a normal uninstallation program?

Not that I'm aware of. Sorry I should have said I used the uninstallation program.

If you are using XP perhaps using System Restore to revert to a previous working setup would help?

Can you use the phone dialler application to say dial your mobile?,
Would an IRQ setting have changed ?