Q. I'm getting drop-outs, what could be causing it?

A. Diagnosing drop-outs is extremely difficult. Typically, drop outs can become worse after heavy periods of rain when water can enter into telecommunication pits in the street or other parts of the infrastructure. Drop outs also can occur if you're not using the correct initialization string for your modem, have poor phone lines in your area or are using a 'softmodem'.

Always ensure that your modem drivers and firmware are up to date with the manufacturer's latest version.

Drop outs could also occur if you have a 'call waiting' service enabled on your phone line. The 'beeps' that occur when an incoming call occurs introduce noise onto the line that the modem is incapable of tolerating. You can disable call waiting while calling Beagle Internet by prefixing our dial-in number with *44. That is, the dial-in number becomes *440198333743.

Finally, you might not actually be experiencing drop outs but rather your PC is closing your connection when it thinks you do not need it. In order to verify this, you can check your disconnection settings in Outlook Express by:

    Click Tools -> Options -> Connection (tab)

    Ensure the 'Hang up after sending and receiving' check box is unticked.

You can check your disconnection settings in Internet Explorer by:

    Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel

    From the Control Panel, select Internet Options.

    From Internet Options choose the Connections Tab. From there, select the dial-up profile you created for Beagle Internet and click Settings.

    From the Settings dialog box, click Advanced.

    Please make sure that the 'Disconnect if idle' box is unchecked and that 'Disconnect when connection may no longer be needed' is also unchecked.