I’m operating Win98 on a Celeron 300 with 64mgs RAM. I’m also using a 56k modem. In order for me to be able to connect to my ISP, I have to unplug the phone (at home) and the fax (at work) because If I don’t, I either cannot connect at all, or I keep getting thrown off every 10 minutes. Is there anything else I can do about this? I’m sick of having to unplug the phone at home - half the time I forget to plug it back in, which means I’m missing out on calls. Can I buy any software or hardware to fix it - or can I demand Telstra give me a better/different connection…?

The most likely cause of this problem is that you have Telstra features enabled on your phone line (eg. call waiting, message bank, etc’¦). Make sure all of these are off because these can interrupt the data flow and force your computer to log off the internet. If this doesn’t help, I suggest you talk it over with Telstra in case the problem is with the physical phone line. If you use the internet a lot, it is best to have a separate phone line installed for the internet.