Modem or Dialer Foul-Up

[TheAsterisk!]

I recently loaded an unmodified copy of Puppy Linux 4.1.2 retro onto an IBM ThinkPad T22 2647-8EU laptop. It's a modest affair, with a 900MHz PIII and 128MB of RAM. I'd already installed the more current 4.1.2 on an old desktop my younger brother now uses, and I've come to like the distro. Both computers use full HDD installations, mostly because we tend to abuse optical discs.
The only problem I have is that I cannot use dial-up on the laptop, prefferably to access NetZero (but I can change if I have to!). I have tried PupDial, Gkdial, Xeznet, and wvdial on its own without PupDial, but the same problem repeats under each and every circumstance. I've even tried just booting from the CD but the same problem occurs.
The computer has no trouble recognizing and communicating with the modem, which wvdial describes as "LT V.92 Data+Fax Modem Version 8.30" when I enter "wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf".
The whole block of text looks like this:


# wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf
Scanning your serial ports for a modem.

Port Scan<*1>: Scanning ttySLTM0 first, /dev/modem is a link to it.
ttySLTM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 Z -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: Modem Identifier: ATI -- LT V.92 Data+Fax Modem Version 8.30
ttySLTM0<*1>: Speed 4800: AT -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: Speed 9600: AT -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: Speed 19200: AT -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: Speed 38400: AT -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: Speed 57600: AT -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: Speed 115200: AT -- OK
ttySLTM0<*1>: Max speed is 115200; that should be safe.
ttySLTM0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 -- OK

Found a modem on /dev/ttySLTM0, using link /dev/modem in config.
Modem configuration written to /etc/wvdial.conf.


The whole assembly even dials fine. Immediately after that, right after dialing and before NetZero's end can pick things up with my username and password, the entire system freezes up, and the only way out (that I know of, anyway) is to turn off the power and reboot. Sadly, this means I can't get another bunch o' text from during the actual dialing to include with the first, but no error messages or warnings are displayed. Everything just becomes unresponsive.

I'm not foreign to Linux, but I'm no seasoned veteran either.

If switching to an earlier version of Puppy Linux might remedy this situation, I'd gladly do it, but ideally I'd like to stay with 4.1.2 retro. Any thoughts?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh! I forgot to mention it at first, but I've also already tried installing the Linspire dialer (netzero.deb, I think - I already use it in my desktop running Ubuntu) NetZero has on their site, through various methods, but it won't work in any way I know. Dead end.