Quick explanation:
Dial tone broken up with modem, but using the phone for voice the
dfial tone is ok (& phone line runs through the modem). Using a
different phone line (different number), the modem works fine (rained,
new phone line, water must be shorting something out).

Expanded explanation:
Weird situation. New phone line in for a week. Working wonderfully
with a dial-up account. It rains for a few hours, & when I go to use
the computer to log into the internet, the dial tone is broken up, &
also the dialing beeps that represent the numbers called are broken up
too. (So I hear a dial tone for a split second, then static off, then
on again, like that - incomplete tone & dialing sequence.

Ok, I pick up the phone, in which the line runs through the modem, &
the dial tone is ok - I can call out fine. & recieve fine.

So I try the modem again & the same broken up dial tone - I cannot
dial out succesfully.

So I switch phone lines into the modem from my other phone line, & the
modem works just fine. So it isn't the modem, right? I go through
this a couple of times. Same thing.

That evening the suspect phone line was ok again for the modem & dial
tone & dialing, & I was online for 8 hours straight with no problems.

Next day (yesterday) it rains again, & again I can't dial out with the
modem on that suspect line, & again I can use the phone voice fine.

So I am now using the other phone line as I write this online. The
SBC guy who installed the new line is coming out later today (I know
it's Sunday, but he's working). I hope the problem still exists so he
can track it down, but I am pretty sure water is getting in somewhere
& shorting something out (all new line in from pole to house & no
interior wiring involved).

*** What I want to know is:

Has anyone ever heard of this happening?

Why would a modem require a better connection than voice?

How could a dial tone be broken up with the modem but not on the
regular phone? You'd think a dial tone is a dial tone, wouldn't you?

Thanks for any replies.