Internet says I'm offline but I'm connected!

[MachineGunKelly]

I don't know exactly where to post this thread so move it to the appropriate spot if you want to...

Help me! This is friggin killin me man. I have a US Robotics 5610B modem that connects at 19 to 24 kps and when I go to refresh or change threads or even post a reply I get a windows screen that tells me that 'this page cannot be displayed offline' or "I may need to adjust my browser settings' crap.
I have D/L'd and installed the latest drivers and V92 flashes for the modem, flashed to the latest bios for the mobo, checked and re-checked the settings for my ISP, modem, mobo, search engine, etc.

WTF is going on here? I KNOW I am connected, why does it tell me I am not? It is a bandwidth issue? Are all the peeps with the big fat pipes driving a wedge betwen me and my provider/the web?

I am hoping this will get posted b4 the 'net' tells me I am 'not connected' or some other bogus crap.

Plesase help me sort this insane prob out guys........Thanks! MGK

[Shorty]

Dan!

Call your ISP. I used to get this on dialup all the time. It could be one of two things...

1) Your connection speed is low for 56k. Even with a basic phoneline, you should be getting 30k+. That could be caused by noise on your line or bad routing to your ISP.. your phone company will be able to advise you :)

2) DNS is flaky on your ISP side. Report it to them, saying you are getting alot of "dead" pages and have a terrible connection speed for 56k.

That's the first places to start. Normally with 56k, if your line speed is that slow, Id say call the phone company and ask them to up the line gain. It will make the voice calls the tiniest bit more raspy.. but it will help with stability.. as It sounds like you are bordering on the edge :(

[Geeky1]

Using IE?

Go to the File menu, make sure "work offline" is unchecked.

Beyond that, what else might you do to fix it?

Get Cable/DSL :D

[Dexter]

Or possibly your ISP has a low time-out value, and you need to do something more often to keep your connection alive, like click a page and close it, etc. Or download one of those "keep-alive" progs which run in the background when you are connected, and basically send out a ping once every minute or so to a server, so that your connection stays active while you browse pages at your leisure.

Dexter...

[MachineGunKelly]

Phone call made. They said there is alot of noise in the line but that they can't fix it till spring. They 'say' they are going to run me a new line. Great, I'll have satellite by then...
I had 'connection keep alive' with Norton borks but for some reason it would not work. Probably my old ISP would not allow it I'm guessing.
The stinkin thing is working fine this morning! Figures it would after I freak out.....

Thanks all! Gotta go to court today for the comp thing, maybe satellite sooner than I thought!

[MachineGunKelly]

The wife got the phone company out here today and the dude was real good at actually finding the problem. Spent two hours in the cold and wet wind using all kinds of groovy looking stuff! He found a bad splice in the cable with all sorts of ground faults. He replaced the cable while I watched and fixed the grounds and it seems fine now. Still a crummy 24, but it was only 14.4 before he fixed it this morning.

Dan, he said he couldn't increase the gain for some reason that I forget. Something about a trunk line or whatever...We are WAY out of town on some really OLD pots cable. Anyway, problem fixed as far as I can tell! Keep fingers crossed bro... MGK