# Annoying dialup ISP problem



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Anymore when I am surfing, my connection "withers on the vine" so to speak. Puppy Linux still shows me connected but I cant surf until I manually disconnect and then reconnect. This can occur from almost immediately to maybe 15 or 20 minutes of use. More and more this is happening after only minute or two of use, load one webpage and its dead. Forcing me to manually cut the "connection" then reconnect is far more annoying than just having clean dropped connection. A clean drop would let me set things to auto reconnect.

It must be some sort of idle cutoff as I dont have this problem when downloading a file. Also can surf while downloading a file without this problem, though with such small bandwidth that dialup affords, surfing while downloading file is pretty slow.

I guess next test is to set up some sort of constant pinging. I swear this sort of annoying stuff just loses an isp their customers. But I guess if thats the way they want to save bandwidth.... I'd personally rather an isp be upfront and say you bought this much use per month then you are disabled until nextmonth rather than claim unlimited use then play games.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Usually, that indicates poor telephone line quality. When you're connected and your modem encounters difficulty communicating, the connection is renegotiated at a slightly lower speed. At the next difficulty, it lowers the speed a little more. In time, your connection may have dropped to a terribly low rate while still reporting the initial connection speed.

Phone line quality comes and goes with the weather. It's difficult to get phonecos to clean up phone lines because having their installers don't generate any revenue when they do that.

Be patient, it will probably get better in a few days on its own.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

If phone line quality, why can I download files at full speed (such as it is for my dialup in the boonies)???? It doesnt quit on me downloading files until the 5 hr hard cutoff. As I say its just my surfing that is affected and then not if I am downloading file at same time.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

HermitJohn said:


> If phone line quality, why can I download files at full speed (such as it is for my dialup in the boonies)???? It doesnt quit on me downloading files until the 5 hr hard cutoff. As I say its just my surfing that is affected and then not if I am downloading file at same time.


If you can download files at full dialup speed then it probably isn't a line quality issue. 

It could be that your ISP has installed an idle time cut-off, where you would be disconnected after very little data was moved over a certain period of time. People normally leave an IM application open or check email automatically at some time interval to defeat idle time cut-offs.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

So how do they make connection become useless without causing a clean drop? I simply get to point it wont surf and I have to manually drop the connection and then reconnect. Much easier if it would just cleanly drop my connection.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

duplicate


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Ok, confirmed its my isp. Connected using my ex's AOL account via Penggy on linux. No problems, no slow down, no lag. If AOL wasnt such an A-'OLe to deal with, the connection is very good and as I say I dont need their silly software thanks to penggy and they now offer their dialup connection for $9.95.


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## Nature_Lover (Feb 6, 2005)

I pay $8.95 a month for my dial up account with isp.com, they would cut me off at ten minutes idle if I didn't load this page and minimize it, it refreshes every five minutes. Still disconnects at 5 hours, though.

I always get 45k with isp.com and I'm happy with that.

Try going to PCPitstop and select full tests (in the left menu) to check your actual upload and download speeds.

You could also connect with aol, minimize it, open IE and browse with that.
My husband pays $25.00 a month for his AOL 'internet with training wheels' and he's happy with that, LOL.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Nature_Lover said:


> You could also connect with aol, minimize it, open IE and browse with that.
> My husband pays $25.00 a month for his AOL 'internet with training wheels' and he's happy with that, LOL.


As I mentioned I use linux. AOL software doesnt run on linux. (And I dont have IE either!) There is a small 3rd party program called Penggy that will let one connect to an existing AOL account with linux with no AOL software needed. Works great if you just want an internet connection. True AOL afficienados, like my ex, want AOL for its "content" so wouldnt like it. She actually got a new computer just cause her old one wouldnt run the latest and greatest AOL software. Sorry but thats just nuts. So was paying $25 a month for dialup which she did for many years.

If your husband has AOL dialup, he better check if he is paying $25. Last summer, AOL changed their marketing strategy. You can download and use their software for free with any isp and if you want to buy dialup from them, its now $9.95. Now if your husband has AOL broadband, it may well be $25.


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