poltr1 | A bad case of the "drop-carriers"......

It's been one of those days, folks.

While trying to download my email today, I received the dreaded "Connection to [ISP] terminated. Would you like to reconnect?" pop-up window. I had 5 drops the first time I checked today, between noon and 1 pm. I had 2 drops between 4 and 5 pm. Add I've had 2 more drops so far between 11pm and midnight. That's a total of 9 today -- a new record.

When I do log in again, the POP server has a 10-minute inactivity timeout, so I have to wait for 10 minutes while the terminated session expires.

What can the ISP do? Probably nothing; their equipment will check out OK. And tell me "It's not our problem."

What can the phone company do? Probably nothing; they only certify residential lines up to 9600 bps. And say "It's not our problem."

What can I do? Check the ISP's website for their recommended solutions, and follow them. I know that my phone line doesn't "lock in" to the modem and there's nothing I could do about that, other than disfigure the back of the case with a pair of metal snips, which I don't want to do. I've already replaced the phone line. And I've already enabled software flow control.

Is it the cheap allegedly-category-1 phone line in the wall, which I suspect? Is it my phone cord? Is it my modem? And if I got DSL or broadband, would I still get these damned conenction drops?

As my late friend and fraternity brother Rob Sweeney used to say, "Line noise can kill!"