I Haven't Had To Do This Since The Early Days!

[Doc Tinker]

Yeah, since the early online services!



Remember when the ISPs would put timeouts on your connection, if you were inactive for a while? We used to use programs that would ping every minute to fool the ISP server into thinking we were still sitting there searching the Internet.



Now that @Home has died and went to where-ever ISPs go when they die, and Comcast has taken over the service, in my area, I have been plagued with interuptions in my service. Every time I stop to compose a post to the forums, if it takes me a while to put it all together, I loose my connection and have to copy my post to notepad, so I don't lose it all while I re-establish my connection, which usually requires a reboot.



What's worse, is the fact the Comcast sent me a letter saying to "ensure connectivity" "if at any time you experience disruption of you Internet connectivity, please shut down and reboot your computer. " So they know that people are going to experience problems.



I think they have set their servers to kick off anyone who leaves their computer idle in hopes to conserve band width.



Too bad I've been required to reboot several times an hour, because I've decided to do something about it... like setting up Outlook Express to check my mail ever minute, instead of every ten minutes. Seems to be working so far



Doc

 

[Doc Tinker]

DagNabIt



That's not working either. Anyone got any ideas on how to keep my connection alive?



Doc

 

[Mark_Kendrick]

I set mine to every minute anyway. . I want it NOW not ten minutes from now.



But I also almost never get booted off because of it.

 

[RHARVEY]

We use Excel as our ISP and also our long distance provider. I have seen our connection sit idle for as long as 3 hours and we were still connected. .



Rick





www.myexcel.com

 

[barryg41]

Pinging servers

I use to do that also. Back in 87', I started to use the ping thing. Having the email program checking mail was the easiest trick.



The @home problem has been a god send to me. Access and data transfer is much better with Cox's own system. We went (every body who has Cox) throught a growing period, but it is much better now.



Outlook is set to two minutes only because it has been that for many years.



One thing about bandwidth, you share bandwidth with about 30 other folks in your area. That is, if you have cable access. DSL, I dont think you do. If it is slow, your neighborhood friends might be making your connection slow.



The only reason to reboot everytime THEY shut down, is because you probably have to get a new dynamic address and they wont or cant give you one on the fly. Before it was static. That didnt happen with me (Cox Cable) but every system can be different.



Hope this eases your little brain, Doc!

 

[Todd G]

If you release, then renew your IP configuration, you shouldn't have to reboot every time. With 2000 and XP just type at the command prompt:



ipconfig /release [enter]

ipconfig /renew [enter]

 

[barryg41]

And just to help the guys less than 2000 or XP.



You can start by clicking on the Start button, click Run, two steps up from the bottom. Type winipcfg. Click OK, Click release all and then click renew all. It takes a couple of seconds to do the reconnection. That should do it for the less than 2000 and XP guys.



This should work for guys hooked up directly to the internet by an ethernet card (LAN) and cable modem.



If you have a router in your house (multiple computers on the internet) you have to use the software that you got with your router to release and renew IP address'. At least I have to with mine. BUT just unplug the router and then plug it back in and let it do all of the work.

 

[illflem]

Doc, I assume you are on a telephone line. I was going though the same thing for a month, ended up being a phone line that was nicked by a backhoe 2 miles from my house and corrosion had set in. There was no noise on the telephone but enough to boot me off the net. Checked with my ISP and even bought a new modem to no avail. Several calls to the phone company before a tech finally appeared who actually cared, traced down the problem and doubled my bps. I have remained inactive for up to three hours now without getting booted, before it was sometimes every 2 minutes. Just make sure the problem isn't in your house wiring first so you don't have to pay, i. e. disconnect all phones or connect your modem to the outside jack solo if possible and see if it stops.

 

[barryg41]

Bill, I had my house ground clamp break one time at the rod. And I lost half my throughput. The only reason I saw it was I went out to check the telephone connection and it was just below the telephone box. Makes me wonder what the grounding system in my house is really like. I would guess that it sucks! :{



I really think Doc is using a cable modem, BUT my cable provider does allow me to log on with a telephone conneciton also. But it costs lots more money.

 

[Doc Tinker]

Thanks guys - I've tried winipcfg. exe and it works great.



illflem - I have cable and all of these problem started after Comcast took over for @home. There were three pages of Comcast articles in Sundays paper and all of it was not good. Hopefully they will get their act together or get out of Dodge.



Doc

 

[RonaldLarson]

If all else

fails, dial up the NRA. They are now an ISP, and may solve your problem. Sure rather see them as a provider than AOL or ATT, who are very anti-gun.

Ron

 

[klenger]

The fix is DSL!

 

[barryg41]

Ken, I would if I could.



But the local phone company (BellSouth) still doesnt provide it in my neighborhood.



I'll just keep waiting.....

 

[joel]

Doc, we went thru this when ATT had to switch over

Once @home went belly up, ATT was one of the first to go. We had some growing pains with the migration but now everything's fine. ATT was pretty good, too, sending everyone an email saying we'd get 2 days credit for every day we were down. I had both DNS problems (theirs hadn't built up a very extensive databse early on) and DHCP problems - my connection would just stop working every now and then. I did the ipconfig /renew - you don't have to do the release first, actually - and would be on my way. I finally called tech support and they modified some settings and I haven't had the problem since.



Give it a couple of weeks for the growing pains and see what happens. It's frustrating, I know, but working just fine now with speeds from a low of 200K up to close to 2. 0M. Good luck.