At 01:59 PM 12/9/98 -0800, Vadim Antonov wrote:
Don't let your ISP cut you off How to fight back when your ISP keeps kicking you off.
by Carla Thorton
(IDG) -- PROBLEM: Your Internet service provider kicks you offline when you're in the middle of important work.
SOLUTION: Install an anti-timer utility, reconfigure your e-mail package, or choose a regional ISP.
I bet Ms. Thorton never heard that TCP can preserve idle connections when dial-up link is down. Yeah, dial-on-demand is such a hard thing to do!
Am i paranoid, or is mass-media hell-bent on propaganda of antisocial behavior in the Internet?
Or are they just really clueless?
They may be clueless. They may be hell-bent on antisocial propaganda. But the fact of the matter is that some ISPs do actively kick people off (not just ppp idly dropping the line) when they are not doing stuff. Furthermore, AOL, which is sometimes considered an ISP (let's not get into that debate), kicks people off if they are idle for too long and _that_ causes all kinds of trouble because the AOL application throws fits if it can't get to the AOL servers.