WinXP (or maybe IE6) not realising I'm on the Internet

[Jerry Spence]

I have XP connected to an ADSL router to my ISP on my laptop via the LAN card.

I also have some dialup connections which are not normally used.

Very often, when browsing I get the "You are working offline" message with a couple of buttons. I press "Retry" and all is well for
a bit again.

It's as though either XP or IE doesn't realise I'm still connected. I think it's because XP doesn't see the LAN card as a dialup
connection. Therefore I can't configure IE to dial the default connection.

Speaking to a number of my laptop colleagues, there seems to be a general problem with IE when they switch from a dialup connection
at home/hotels and a LAN connection when they are at work. There are of
course profiles (under System) but these only change the hardware details of the current configuration. The LAN card is not
considered a connection as such. There doesn't seem to be an automatic way of telling IE to either "Never dial a connection", or
"Dial the default connection". I feel this should be automatic and part of the profile associated with the TCP properties of the
actual device (as is DNS, TCP address etc).

I've searched Google groups and this issue seems to come up quite a bit, but no real answers. I've logged a problem with Microsoft
On-line assistance, but they couldn't offer an explanation!

Thanks for any observations

Jerry

 

[Malke]

I have XP connected to an ADSL router to my ISP on my laptop via the
LAN card.

I also have some dialup connections which are not normally used.

Very often, when browsing I get the "You are working offline" message
with a couple of buttons. I press "Retry" and all is well for a bit
again.

It's as though either XP or IE doesn't realise I'm still connected. I
think it's because XP doesn't see the LAN card as a dialup connection.
Therefore I can't configure IE to dial the default connection.

Speaking to a number of my laptop colleagues, there seems to be a
general problem with IE when they switch from a dialup connection at
home/hotels and a LAN connection when they are at work. There are of
course profiles (under System) but these only change the hardware
details of the current configuration. The LAN card is not considered a
connection as such. There doesn't seem to be an automatic way of
telling IE to either "Never dial a connection", or "Dial the default
connection". I feel this should be automatic and part of the profile
associated with the TCP properties of the actual device (as is DNS,
TCP address etc).

I've searched Google groups and this issue seems to come up quite a
bit, but no real answers. I've logged a problem with Microsoft On-line
assistance, but they couldn't offer an explanation!

I believe XP has the ability to set up networking profiles. Perhaps you
could try that. If that doesn't work well enough, there is third-party
network switching software. One company that makes this is GlobeSoft,
but there are others. Google for "netswitcher", etc.

Malke

 

[Jerry Spence]

I believe XP has the ability to set up networking profiles. Perhaps you
could try that. If that doesn't work well enough, there is third-party
network switching software. One company that makes this is GlobeSoft,
but there are others. Google for "netswitcher", etc.

Malke

Thanks Malke. I have had a look at netswitcher and it does look useful. I actually take my laptop to various customers sites and I
could find this very handy!

However it still doesn't seem to alter the fact that IE/XP can't seem to detect the presence of the Internet via it's LAN Card and a
router.

Jerry