Alright guys, help here. We have a pc running XP (firewall is not on). Hooked via USB into a dual way Satellite connection to provide internet. The reason we went with satellite is location..nothing else is available where we are. At any rate, we were running with a dynamic ip address and used a small reporting program and DYNDNS.org to provide a report of a constant correct ip so that our pcanywhere program offsite could access this computer. This worked just fine for about a month. Then all of a sudden, we couldn't ping the ip anymore even if we knew it and pcanywhere wouldn't connect. I called direcpc and was told that dynamic ips in their system couldn't be pinged at all. When I explained what we had been doing ..they said it was a fluke and should have never worked. They checked and said no ports were blocked and nothing had changed on their end. They insisted that we must purchase a static IP from them. Well we upgraded to a static ip. Now, here is the issue. WE occasionally can ping..other times we can't. I thought it was a latency issue because of the satellite system. So I added the -w 5000 and -t commands to the end of the ping command at dos prompt. This gave me a added time on the ping. What happens is you have about 20 to 30 pings that come back as no response. After that all of a sudden we get a response with around 900milisecond times and it will consistantly ping from that point on. Once we get a ping, we can log into PC Anywhere just fine. I have called direcway and they swear I am crazy. They claim they can ping everytime. I have tried on 4 different machines using three different providers with the same result. Can anyone provide some knowledge on how to get a consistant ping or connection. I have even debated just starting a ping with the -t command and let it just ping forever. Is there any disadvantage to this? This whole mess is getting really annoying so anything would be appreciated.