Disconnections by Dialup ISP? Can one mitigate? 6

[richardhot]

Hello, all

I have used various ISPs for logon in my time and find that all of them either:

1. disconnect me fairly often "just like that", whereby i have to reconnect and lose either the work or train of thought..

2. force me to resart/shutdown because logon icon in Systray somehow won't let me kill connection...unresponsive to normal logoff.

Is there any way to mitigate this annoying pattern, short of upgrading to DSL/online DSL,etc?

Thanks.
richardhot

 

[angerdriven]

ever have your lines checked? maybe there is noise on the line at your end that's killing the connection.

 

[richardhot]

Hello...
How would one do that? To my knowledge, there's nothing special happening there. (I have no special telephony knowledge)
thanks
richardhot

 

[browolf]

if you're in the uk, phone up bt and ask em to turn up the gain on the line. << it's like boosting the signal.
56k modems are quite susceptible to line noise.


===============
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[richardhot]

Hello...
Thanks...I'm USA-based..

If ISP disconnects are fundamentally &quot;non-local&quot; ie the ISP is having problems (or trying perhaps to implement usage algorithms or something to lower costs?) then, fundamentally, it would seem like there's nothing i can do...
Was hoping the problem might be remediable at my box but i guess not...I guess this is partly what motivates people to leave dial up for various DSL variants
Best
richardhot

 

[browolf]

i'd be lost without dsl now having had it for
15mnths ;-)

what's the price of dsl like over there? ===============
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[Crustyoldbloke]

Hello Richard

Most ISP's use &quot;heartbeat&quot; responses to ascertain whether one of their links is live. If they do not receive a response to their &quot;hearbeat&quot; quest, then they assume the line to be unattended and allocate its resource to ANother waiting to get connected. The heavier the traffic and requests for connections, the more frequent the &quot;heartbeat&quot; requests.

One way around this problem is to write a string command in your modem setup and keep the connection alive for a further five seconds, which takes away any argument about whether the connection was unattended or not.

If you get disconnected frequently, try this extra modem setting:
1. Go to Modems in Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel)
2. From Modems select Properties, select the Connection Tab, click the Advanced button
3. In the Extra settings dialogue box, enter S10=50
This will force the modem to stay connected without a carrier, up to 5 seconds.

Hope this works for you Richard and anyone else suffereing the same.
Regards
Phil

 

[richardhot]

Hello Crustyoldbloke and thread

Have done what you suggested in Control panel/Modems. Entered S10=50 in Extra Settings field.

Let's see what happens...will report back in time..

many sincere thanks!!!
richardhot

 

[WheeDoggy]

Browolf - approx $28-$38 Sterling 1.5Mbps

Rich - If your problem is your ISP kicking you off for being idle, there are some freewares on this page to fake 'em out.

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Network_and_Internet/Keep_Alive_Tools/index2.html

Regards to all

 

[richardhot]

Professor WheeDoggy

Please team up with some other Tek-Tips sages and publish
&quot;Dummies&quot;-style Q & A books...it's an unbelievable waste to let this advice from you and the others disappear into Archives forever...
thanks
richardhot

 

[gorga]

Can anyone tell me why i am unable to log on when outgoing calls are barred on my line. This usally never happen before.

 

[richardhot]

Hello to all

Starnge point: find that ISP &quot;throws&quot; me off not when the mouse is unattended but when I'm in the middle of things such as browsing or typing...in other words, it's not only &quot;mouse neglect&quot; but something more!
thanks
richardhot

 

[dompros]

Set your email program to check for email every 3 minutes.
This will act as pinging the server every three mins.
This will tell the host server that your PC is active and it will not be disconnected.

Go online with your email program opened.

That's it...
visit:

http://www.chinaadviser.com

 

[richardhot]

DOMPROS, hello...

Right now my Eudora Lite e-mail setup is set for check &quot;every 0 minutes&quot; )&quot;Don't check without a network connection&quot; is left unchecked

You're saying I should change the zero to three? Yes?

Thanks
richardhot

 

[WheeDoggy]

Rich,

I do not know which ISP you are using however a simple periodic POP3 check may not be enough to keep the connection alive.

The &quot;keep alive&quot; programs should be checking webpages which simulates web surfing to the ISP's server and would more likely be successful in maintaining the connection.

Rgds

 

[richardhot]

Hi, WheeDoggy

Perhaps I should make the pop3 change and combine that with one of the freeware utilities you pointed out to me in recent days...

Situation: there are some days where I'm thrown off by ISP frequently, while I'm at the mouse, so it's not mouse &quot;neglect&quot;...

I hope various tweaks and your freeware stuff will get me a more serene experience!

I did do the Control Panel/Modems/Extra Settings S10=50 change this morning (as recommended by one of the participants) and things seem calmer...not a very scientific answer.

Thanks to all
richardhot
(ps. WheeDoggy: thanks again for helping to extricate me from goofy recent plugin problem...(Adobe Acrobat Reader download was buggy and caused me endless confusion but now is all fixed...)

 

[WheeDoggy]

Hi Rich,

You're welcome for the help.

As for the moving the mouse or typing on the keyboard to keep the connection, it's probably better that this doesn't work.
The only ISP that I know of where this may work is AOL and that is due to a SysHook on the mouse & keyboard. We all know that an individual's personal privacy rights are of no concern to them!

The POP3 (mailcheck interval) idea cannot hurt, I just wanted to explain that it is unlikely to be effective. You could try that one first.

As for the S10=50 modem setting, if you would like to read more on modem optimizing, here is some reading you may enjoy:

http://www.frugalsworld.com/tweaking/modem.shtml

Finally, (I think it was you who asked), regarding the desktop icon problems, I thought of something recently that may help (worked on another system) if you are still having problems.
Copy and paste below into Notepad and save as ICache.reg
Right-click ICache.reg & select Merge.

Regards

-------------------------------------------------------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer]
&quot;Max Cached Icons&quot;=&quot;2048&quot;

 

[richardhot]

Hi, WheeDoggy

Update:

1. Desktop icons seem stable. Think it was your idea of getting rod of old shelliconexe..perhaps it was screwy.
Icons seem fine now.

2. will read article you recommend in your post in this thread.

3. IE 5.5 not acting up as of late.(Repair=effective?)

4. my ISP=not AOL, but local smalltime place.

Basically I seem to be emerging from the cyber-woods.

Thanks
richardhot

 

[dompros]

Pinging the server with a mail program is in common usage world wide.

Guessing that it won't work, is not practical...
The empirical approach is down to earth, and the way to get reality into focus...
Email program settings don't cause PC crashes and can be changed easily...
Don't guess, do it, if it does not work, change it back to original settings. visit:

http://www.chinaadviser.com

 

[richardhot]

Hello dompros/thread,

Have changed my Eudora Lite e-mail setting from check every zero minutes to three.

My whole system seems much calmer on all fronts.

Thanks to all for ingenious points and tips.
richardhot