stoping internet drop out

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were you file-sharing. if not i would think you should scan for virii. often-times a, sometimes unnoticeable when your on dial-up and used to slow loading, inordinate amount of bandwidth, once identified by the ISP manually or automatically will cause your connection to be killed. It happens with my cable modem, I don't know how it works with dial-up.

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I used to have the same problem, the reason for the problem is that your ISP is sending status packets to your computer, your firewall may be stopping your comp from responding, so your ISP is detecting your connection as active but not in use by a comp and shuts down the connection.

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If you are running XP SP2, disable the firewall and see if it helps.

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SO it is the SP2 firewall that is blocking the packets from being returned and causing your ISP to see your conenction as dead, leave the firewall off and it should be ok.

let me know if the problem starts up again.

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if it disconnects like clockwork(every 4 hours) call your ISP... seems like it's their fault.

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It also may be a preset time limit on connection via your ISP, I recommend sending them an email and seeing if they are responsible. I can't think of any software that would want you to stay offline, even viruses want you to stay online to spread.

i think i beat you guys to that conclusion

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when I had MSN dialup, then would send packets to test for connections, if the response was not sent then they disconnected, I know that for earthlink and some others that it is a strict time shutdown, but I prefer to beleive that there may be something that can be done.

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There is a way, you just have to get the right software to do it.
Norton system works has a feature under web tools called connection keep alive.
what it does is simulate user activity, how ever often you set it to, so when you are away from your pc your isp still sees you as active.

Im sure there must be a feeeware app that would do the same thing.