Causes of cable disconnects???

I have been searching the TSG archives for answers to this but so far have not been able to find the answers I am looking for.
First of all,more out of curiosity what are all the possible causes of cable disconnections? If this is one of those subjects that could fill a book never mind and we will concentrate on the answers to my real problem which I believe is more in my system then with my provider.

My setup is this:
Celeron 500mhz
128MB RAM
ISP- Charter communications
Motorola Surfboard SB4100 external USB connected modem(supplied by Charter)

OS-Windows 98SE
IE-6
Panda Anti-Virus
Zone Alarm firewall(free version)

So my problem is occaisonal disconnects which I could live with and accept as a fact of life except for the fact that I have to reboot to regain my connection.This is what leads me to believe the problem lies in my system and could be corrected.

Now to explain.I can go days without a disconnect,some days I will have several.It is more frequent at idle times but does occur while I am in the middle of something.
This is the part that really confuses me.I went to cable about 6 monthes ago and the tech that installed said I could leave the modem on all the time if I wanted or turn it on as needed,basically a matter of personal preferance.He went on to say that anytime while I was on the computer all I had to do was turn the modem on to access the internet.Well,I can turn my modem on and off at anytime like he said to access or exit except in the cases of disconnect.If I am disconnected turning the modem off/on does not restore my connection.I have to shutdown and restart and poof,instant internet connection!!!!
Any thoughts,ideas,comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
I might also add that I first installed zonealarm a couple weeks back and had this problem prior to that so I have ruled out that the firewall has anything to do with it.

 

When you sign up for cable service you do not get a static IP address. You get a lease that must be refresshed. If your cable company has the lease set very short it will expire causing a disconnect. It should refresh automatically but, this is not always the case.
Go to start, run and type winipcfg ensure the clickdown box has your cable adapter card showing and click more info. This will show you your lease. Mine 24 hrs at a time. If they are setting it to a short period, you may want to give the cable co a call and complain.

Hope this helps

 

Thank you for the response Rugrat.This is interesting.I followed your directions and the lease obtained box and lease expires box showed up blank grey.I did a copy and paste and then they showed up.The time difference was 4 hours,5 minutes.I have been online all day with no problem so it must refresh,but if I understand you correctly at times it may not and that is causing me to reboot to force the refresh?? Like I said,I can live with it and just wanted to know why and make sure it wasn't a system settings problem(peace of mind).
Now I don't understand why the lines show blank but show up in the copy and paste.I would have posted the copy but not sure what all the information was and if it was safe to post.
Thanx

 

Next time it disconnects, do the same procedure with winipcfg and see if your lease has expired. If not, it could be a problem with the usb setup. I have no first hand experience with the USB modems but, have heard alot of complaints.

Good Luck

 

I was looking through tweaks for XP a few minutes ago, and remembered your post. I know you are running 98, but I thought that there might be a setting similar in 98. You might also want to check to see if the usb modem driver in the device manager has this problem.

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=421