Dear computer experts (help needed)

Sarcasmo

A Taste Of Honey Fluff Boy
Mar 28, 2005
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When my dad turns his computer on, he has a window of about 10-15 minutes wherein he can access the internet and check email. After that his computer's internet connection is lost and he has to reboot to start the process over again.

The thing is, he has DSL and the connection doesn't appear to really be "lost". If I check his network properties the DSL still reads that it's connected and everything is a-okay.

This problem first began to occur (as far as I can tell) soon after he added a POP3 account to Outlook so he could check his work email at home. I've gone through all details for both, and they are set up correctly with the appropriate SMTP and POP server info, etc. And during that 10-15 minute window following reboot when everything works just fine he is able to receive messages on both email accounts with no problem. So this might be completely unrelated. It's just the only event that really corresponds with the connectivity issue.

Does this sound like a Windows problem, DSL/telco problem, Outlook-caused problem, spyware/virus problem, or what? I am totally at a loss and would greatly appreciate any help or pointers given, additional things to check, etc.
 
There's a automatic disconnect when idle for 10 minutes setting somewhere. This affected a lot of people when I did phone tech support.

Also under Outlook, check to make sure the box that says automatically disconnect after checking email is not checked.
 
Coqui said:
There's a automatic disconnect when idle for 10 minutes setting somewhere. This affected a lot of people when I did phone tech support


Yeah that was it
when I had dsl I used raspppoe and theres a setting in it someplace to keep the connection alive.

edit - IIRC that is, its been a long time ago
 
I don't know if he's PPPoE or not. I'm going to go over there later to do a full scan for spyware and viruses. I guess I'll check that out too.

But it doesn't explain why the connection would be active for 10-15 minutes after every reboot and then be inaccesible after that. It wouldn't just disconnect from the ISP by itself would it? And like I said, network properties shows the dsl connection to still be established and active.
 
Coqui said:
There's a automatic disconnect when idle for 10 minutes setting somewhere. This affected a lot of people when I did phone tech support.

Also under Outlook, check to make sure the box that says automatically disconnect after checking email is not checked.

Roger. Will check both.
 
Coqui said:
There's a automatic disconnect when idle for 10 minutes setting somewhere. This affected a lot of people when I did phone tech support.

Also under Outlook, check to make sure the box that says automatically disconnect after checking email is not checked.

Does it try and disconnect your DSL connection or just a dialup one?
 
Sarcasmo said:
I don't know if he's PPPoE or not. I'm going to go over there later to do a full scan for spyware and viruses. I guess I'll check that out too.

But it doesn't explain why the connection would be active for 10-15 minutes after every reboot and then be inaccesible after that. It wouldn't just disconnect from the ISP by itself would it? And like I said, network properties shows the dsl connection to still be established and active.
Get a router and set it up to keep connections alive. Plugging straight in from the DSL modem is ghetto.
 
theacoustician said:
Get a router and set it up to keep connections alive. Plugging straight in from the DSL modem is ghetto.

Who does that?
 
Coqui said:
Then you wouldn't have to worry. Some DSL connections are software based and have that option

I have software on my computer.