Dial-up connection breaks if I step away for a few minutes

Question: I have dial-up service and have a problem with the connection hanging up by itself at times. I will be looking at a web page, step away from the computer for 5 or 10 minutes and when I come back to the computer, I have to redial to get back on-line. What can I do to keep this from happening?

Answer: You may have the idle disconnect setting enabled. To disable this in Windows 98/ME, go to the Start menu, go to Settings and open Control Panel. Open Internet Options and click on the tab marked Connections, then highlight your connection and click the box marked Settings. In this panel find Advanced near the bottom , open that and take the check mark out of “Disconnect if idle…” if it is so marked. In Win2000/XP, select Start menu, then find Control Panel and open that. Open Network Connections and find the icon for your internet service provider, right click on the icon and select Properties. Select the second tab on the Properties page, which is Options and here, in the middle of the page, you will see the idle disconnect setting. Windows default sets this at 20 minutes. Click on the drop-down menu where 20 minutes is displayed and select something longer, typically 4 or 8 hours. In Windows Vista, select Start menu, then find Control Panel and open that. Open Network and Sharing and look for the “Manage network Connections” option in the column on the left hand side. Find the dial-up connection icon and right click on the icon and select Properties. Select the second tab on the Properties page, which is Options and here, in the middle of the page, you will see the idle disconnect setting. Windows default sets this at 20 minutes. Click on the drop-down menu where 20 minutes is displayed and select something longer, typically 4 or 8 hours.

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