Then again . . .

The very next day I logged on and guess what happened - AGAIN! @#%^&

I have now spent two hours going through all of the options that are required for logging on to the network and also some time checking every darned setting that exists for the modem and the connections. I have put the modem through diagnostic tests, I have checked the line quality, I have managed to finally read all of the pages of the 'troubleshooting guide' that seems to exist and then thought of something else.

If the phone line is the problem then I should be able to test for this by using the other (much older) PC in the house. Sure enough it fired up OK and connected OK and had no line drop outs. So it was NOT the modem, it was not the line it therefore had to be some differences in the settings.

A line by line comparison was done and I found only two discrepancies. One was the phone number which was being used for the connection - this was no problem either would and did work. Then I came to MICROSOFT.

I am delighted to be able to report that my friendly young tech adviser from the help desk had indicated that one of my 'problems' was disabling the Microsoft Firewall from functioning in Windows XP. Alas I followed his advice and engaged the firewall - against my better judgement I might add since I already had another firewall engaged. When I finally turned this off my machine once again began to function normally.

So much for the help desk!

By the way the service provider is OZEMAIL - I think I will have to change my subscription.