Hi Guys, First of all, I'd like to extend my appreciation for all the hard work you all do in here helping everyone with the never ending problems that occur with our PCs. I applaud you for your time, efforts and your knowledge! Thank you! Now for another problem hopefully solved...I have a Nortel 100 cable modem that I lease from our local cable provider. I have had them out twice to check the connection problems that occur when I try to connect online. Not to mention that when I call their office they know me on a "it's her again" basis! I am having more problems connecting to the internet than anyone I know using this same provider. They have checked all the necessary issues and everything checks out "fine"..??..but as always, I can rarely get online without timing out. I have checked all I know to check with my PC, but am hoping there is someone here that may have a twak or solution to my problem? All of the known issues seem to be checking out ok..such as a good cable connection, the box is not broken, ect...but my ping rate has issues that no one seems to be able to figure out. The cable company has checked my ping rate, but cant seem to find a solution to the problem. I have no clue what else to check or do...so if anyone has any suggestion I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks again, Debbie

Hi Debbie, they actually know you by name? lol. Just kidding with you. Does all your friends use Win ME also? I don't think this really matters, but ME is not that stable. I believe 98SE is more stable than it. I would check out SpeedGuide to see if you can tweak any settings so that it doesn't cause you so much problems. Hope that helps. Kevin.

Other than the obvious checks (powering down the modem and PC, checking your connections, etc.), if you haven't done so, go do a TCP Analyzer test at www.speedguide.net and www.broadbandreports.com. The tests will give you some recommendations on what you need to tweak to optimize your connection. As far as "timing out", you can go into either of the above site's forums and post you problem. They're very helpful and experienced at diagnosing connection problems :). HTH ¤estatik¤

Kevin, By no means am I trying to get into a flaming war with you ;), but I run Windoze Me (duel booting with Mandrake Linux 9.1) and I haven't had any issues with Me for the longest I can remember(of course after all the tweaks needed to stabalize the damn O/S!). But with all the posts I have seen regarding issues with Me, yes, some can be blamed on the O/S, but more are due to the user running it straight out of the box with no optimizing. Micro$oft wants us the believe that we are in control of the O/S we use, yet it's the opposite way around. Now, with a few(or many) tweaks, you can take back some, if not all of that control. I do agree with you that 98 is more stable out of the box, yet there are still some issues without applying the performance/optimizing tweaks. I believe it doesn't matter what O/S you use, be it 95, 98, Me, 2K or XP, there will always be some stability problems that will surface. That's why I love using Linux;)(and my Windoze Me on occasion:P)! Just my 2˘. ¤estatik¤

I went to the sugested pages, i ran some tests, i even downloaded Cable Tweak just to see if there may be a difference. Sad to report that nothing I did seems to be working :( I (we) have been working on this for weeks...should I just get another OS? Is "WINME" an issue??..or should I try checking into another Cable provider? Perhaps a new modem would work? I am willing to try just about anything for a better internet connection...short of shooting my PC that is! I have done everything I know to do..upload, download, install, uninstall, tweak, untweak...you get the picture :)~ I love this place..I have learned sooooo much from you guys...thanks all..have a great day! I am going out of town so I am outta here...anyone want to work on my PC while I am gone?..lol Thanks Debbie

"...anyone want to work on my PC while I am gone?..lol" Hands on, is usually better :-) lol Throw it out there :) (813827) How to Change the Default Keep-Alive Time-Out Value in Internet Explorer