Hey Duck,

I have cable DSL and run XP. I can
leave my pewter on indefinitly. However,
there was a window in the XP program that
would pop up periodically and tell me I had
been idle for too long and it was going to
close my internet connection. I clicked on
the block in the window that said "Do Not
Disconnect" and after a couple of times, it
quit trying to disconnect me.

Also, you might want to read the following:
"Idle timeouts are another cause of disconnection. This is when the computer detects the connection is not being used, so disconnects it. To turn this function off in Windows 95, 98 and ME double click on My Computer on your desktop, then Control Panel , then Modems. Under the General tab, click where your modem is indicated (usually by brand name), then Properties. Under the Connection tab, untick the box that says ? Disconnect a call if idle for more than ## mins?. Windows XP users should open the connection window and click Properties , then click the Options tab and scroll the idle timeout list to Never". Warm regards, Jim

[This message has been edited by Jim Hatch (edited 18 February 2006).]