* This is the VOP Radius mailing list *
Thanks -- I bet you are right -- the users do say theyve never checked the
box in tools- connection but I wouldn't be suprised that they could be doing
what you are saying.
Van
Howdy....
This is what we send out to our users. Feel free to cut and paste and use any of this you like.
Larry
Connections: Reliability - Unexplained hang ups
First thing to do is check your settings. We have people call every day and say they
haven't changed their settings or that they checked the settings and they are correct.
When we have them tell us the values for their settings they are not correct.
These settings can be changed by a virus, worm, trojan, hacker, software application,
another family member, or simply by mistake.
So the first thing we will ask you is did you do all that we suggested. That includes checking your settings.
Connection Reliability - Less first determine if you are really having a problem.
There are connection timers that all ISPs run. This includes inactivity, session, and daily timers
INACTIVITY timer is 15 minutes. You must be moving some data over your connection every 15
minutes or we will kill the connection thinking that you have left the room and no longer need it.
If you are reading mail, composing mail, reading a page on a web site that is already loaded
then you are NOT moving data actively. Sending email to or receiving email from the mail server.
IS activity. Changing web pages (that are not already cached up on your browser) IS moving data
Participating in online games or chat IS moving data
SESSION timer is 4 hours. You can stay connected to our system for up to 4 hours at a time (session).
This is done because people can by accident or by intent have their computer doing certain functions
that will move data simply to avoid the inactivity timer. Those people may have gone shopping and not
even be at home. Those people are the ones that help generate busy signals for other users.
DAILY timer - Based on your class of service you can be connected for a maximum of so many
hours per day. Once you hit the daily limit for your class of access one of two things will happen.
Either you have prepaid for extra hours and you will be put in to a "pay per hour" mode or you will
be unable to log back on until midnight. If this happens you will not get an error msgs that says
you are out of time but a msgs that says you have a bad user name or password. That incorrect
msg is due to your browser not knowing the difference. You will also get the same bad user name
or password msg if your account has expired.
SOFTWARE CAUSES - If you are getting disconnected at times and for reasons that do not appear
to be associated with any sort of timer you need to look at a couple of more places. Windows as well
as most mail clients can de set to kill your connection immediately after sending or receiving email or
if your connection is no longer needed. You need to check your particular email client and your version
of Windows to see if those features are set to kill your connection. You may say you did not check your
mail but you may have the setting turned on that checks mail every so many minutes.
Here is an example for Windows 98SE and one for Outlook Express
Instructions on how to find and disable the 5 minute timer
within Windows. This is the one that opens a msg window that
says something like "click the button below to stay connected
otherwise your connection will end in X seconds"
Go To: Start
Click: Settings
Click: Control Panel
Double Click on " Internet Options " Icon
Go To: Connections
Click: Settings
Click: Advanced
Remove Check from " Disconnect if idle for [xx] minutes
Remove Check from " Disconnect when connection may no longer be needed
Click: OK
Click: OK again
Click: OK 1 more time
You are done
Now for the one in Outlook Express that says
"hang up immediately after checking (upload/download) email".
Open Outlook Express
Go To: " Tools "
Go To: " Options "
Go To: " Connections "
Remove Check from " Hang up after sending and receiving "
Click: OK
Your are done
