Win98SE and Comcast Hi Speed Internet (cable)?

Bill Blanton wrote:
On 6/24/2010 17:20, FromTheRafters wrote:
"Bill in wrote in message
...
OK, I finally got the Comcast Cable Internet connection set up and
working, by using the USB port. (I tried installing several a few
PCI network cards as suggested, and couldn't get any of them to work
(even had a few blue screens along the way, relating to some VFAT
issues, and perhaps some IRQ conflicts, but I'm very OK with just
using the USB method to get hi speed access, at least for now).

But - I have a slightly annoying residual problem here on my Win98SE
computer (and only on that one), which I haven't been able to resolve:

I have both Comcast Cable (for hi-speed) AND dial-up as a fallback
(using Earthlink, since my email account is with Earthlink, and is a
POP3 email account), without any major problems. (I have an account
with Earthlink, which is noth my email and Usenet provider).

However, whenever I'm connected using Comcast on the Win98SE computer,
and initially try to read email in OE (clicking Send and Receive), it
always *initiates* a dial-up connection, even though the USB Comcast
cable connection is connected and is working for IE, which is a bit
annoying.

I've checked all my connection settings in OE and IE, and can't find
anything wrong in my settings. This problem doesn't happen with the
XP computer and Comcast, which has similar settings (although it uses
an Ethernet card, not USB).

Interestingly enough, after OE *initially* connects via dial-up and
reads the mail, OE promptly disconnects the dial-up connection
afterwards, and everything is fine from that point onward (meaning, if
I click Send and Receive again, it does not reconnect via dial-up,
which is good!). But when I close OE, and then reopen OE again, I
have to go through this whole thing again (always initially connects
through the dial-up modem to read the mail the first time).

Does anybody have a clue as to why it does this?

IIRC somewhere in your dial-up networking settings is a box to uncheck
about dialing up when no other network is detected.

Settings are ok there. (I've tried it both ways ("never dial a
connection", or "dial whenever a network connection is not required" -
didn't solve it).

Been so long since I used Win98.

Or possibly the connection setting under OE for the specific account.
Account Properties Connection (tab). Uncheck "Always connect using"

No, those settings are ok (checked those before).

Maybe it has something to do with using a USB pseudo LAN connection, and OE
isn't smart enough to recognize it's already connected when first invoked,
even though it's sharing settings with IE.

Although that doesn't really explain it, either, since after the initial
connection, it never dials-up again, unless - and until - I close OE, and
start OE again. (again, all of this is happening while I am connected to
cable internet)

"98 Guy" wrote in message ...
FromTheRafters wrote:

Been so long since I used Win98.

Then why are you reading and posting to this group?

Because I want to.

"98 Guy" wrote in message ...
FromTheRafters wrote:

Been so long since I used Win98.

Then why are you reading and posting to this group?

Because I want to.

On 6/24/2010 19:28, Bill in Co. wrote:
Bill Blanton wrote:
On 6/24/2010 17:20, FromTheRafters wrote:
"Bill in wrote in message
...


I have both Comcast Cable (for hi-speed) AND dial-up as a fallback
(using Earthlink, since my email account is with Earthlink, and is a
POP3 email account), without any major problems. (I have an account
with Earthlink, which is noth my email and Usenet provider).

However, whenever I'm connected using Comcast on the Win98SE computer,
and initially try to read email in OE (clicking Send and Receive), it
always *initiates* a dial-up connection, even though the USB Comcast
cable connection is connected and is working for IE, which is a bit
annoying.

Interestingly enough, after OE *initially* connects via dial-up and
reads the mail, OE promptly disconnects the dial-up connection
afterwards, and everything is fine from that point onward (meaning, if
I click Send and Receive again, it does not reconnect via dial-up,
which is good!). But when I close OE, and then reopen OE again, I
have to go through this whole thing again (always initially connects
through the dial-up modem to read the mail the first time).

Does anybody have a clue as to why it does this?

IIRC somewhere in your dial-up networking settings is a box to uncheck
about dialing up when no other network is detected.

Settings are ok there. (I've tried it both ways ("never dial a
connection", or "dial whenever a network connection is not required" -
didn't solve it).



Or possibly the connection setting under OE for the specific account.
Account Properties Connection (tab). Uncheck "Always connect using"

No, those settings are ok (checked those before).

Maybe it has something to do with using a USB pseudo LAN connection, and OE
isn't smart enough to recognize it's already connected when first invoked,
even though it's sharing settings with IE.

Although that doesn't really explain it, either, since after the initial
connection, it never dials-up again, unless - and until - I close OE, and
start OE again. (again, all of this is happening while I am connected to
cable internet)

I had the same problem when I first got cable , and still had my modem
and phone line connected (though not USB, I'd think that wouldn't be a
factor) . I can't remember exactly how I resolved it. But, you might try
"Always connect ... using" Local Area Network if you haven't already.

On 6/24/2010 19:28, Bill in Co. wrote:
Bill Blanton wrote:
On 6/24/2010 17:20, FromTheRafters wrote:
"Bill in wrote in message
...


I have both Comcast Cable (for hi-speed) AND dial-up as a fallback
(using Earthlink, since my email account is with Earthlink, and is a
POP3 email account), without any major problems. (I have an account
with Earthlink, which is noth my email and Usenet provider).

However, whenever I'm connected using Comcast on the Win98SE computer,
and initially try to read email in OE (clicking Send and Receive), it
always *initiates* a dial-up connection, even though the USB Comcast
cable connection is connected and is working for IE, which is a bit
annoying.

Interestingly enough, after OE *initially* connects via dial-up and
reads the mail, OE promptly disconnects the dial-up connection
afterwards, and everything is fine from that point onward (meaning, if
I click Send and Receive again, it does not reconnect via dial-up,
which is good!). But when I close OE, and then reopen OE again, I
have to go through this whole thing again (always initially connects
through the dial-up modem to read the mail the first time).

Does anybody have a clue as to why it does this?

IIRC somewhere in your dial-up networking settings is a box to uncheck
about dialing up when no other network is detected.

Settings are ok there. (I've tried it both ways ("never dial a
connection", or "dial whenever a network connection is not required" -
didn't solve it).



Or possibly the connection setting under OE for the specific account.
Account Properties Connection (tab). Uncheck "Always connect using"

No, those settings are ok (checked those before).

Maybe it has something to do with using a USB pseudo LAN connection, and OE
isn't smart enough to recognize it's already connected when first invoked,
even though it's sharing settings with IE.

Although that doesn't really explain it, either, since after the initial
connection, it never dials-up again, unless - and until - I close OE, and
start OE again. (again, all of this is happening while I am connected to
cable internet)

I had the same problem when I first got cable , and still had my modem
and phone line connected (though not USB, I'd think that wouldn't be a
factor) . I can't remember exactly how I resolved it. But, you might try
"Always connect ... using" Local Area Network if you haven't already.

Bill Blanton wrote:
On 6/24/2010 19:28, Bill in Co. wrote:
Bill Blanton wrote:
On 6/24/2010 17:20, FromTheRafters wrote:
"Bill in wrote in message
...


I have both Comcast Cable (for hi-speed) AND dial-up as a fallback
(using Earthlink, since my email account is with Earthlink, and is a
POP3 email account), without any major problems. (I have an account
with Earthlink, which is noth my email and Usenet provider).

However, whenever I'm connected using Comcast on the Win98SE computer,
and initially try to read email in OE (clicking Send and Receive), it
always *initiates* a dial-up connection, even though the USB Comcast
cable connection is connected and is working for IE, which is a bit
annoying.

Interestingly enough, after OE *initially* connects via dial-up and
reads the mail, OE promptly disconnects the dial-up connection
afterwards, and everything is fine from that point onward (meaning, if
I click Send and Receive again, it does not reconnect via dial-up,
which is good!). But when I close OE, and then reopen OE again, I
have to go through this whole thing again (always initially connects
through the dial-up modem to read the mail the first time).

Does anybody have a clue as to why it does this?

IIRC somewhere in your dial-up networking settings is a box to uncheck
about dialing up when no other network is detected.

Settings are ok there. (I've tried it both ways ("never dial a
connection", or "dial whenever a network connection is not required" -
didn't solve it).



Or possibly the connection setting under OE for the specific account.
Account Properties Connection (tab). Uncheck "Always connect using"

No, those settings are ok (checked those before).

Maybe it has something to do with using a USB pseudo LAN connection, and
OE
isn't smart enough to recognize it's already connected when first
invoked,
even though it's sharing settings with IE.

Although that doesn't really explain it, either, since after the initial
connection, it never dials-up again, unless - and until - I close OE, and
start OE again. (again, all of this is happening while I am connected to
cable internet)

I had the same problem when I first got cable , and still had my modem
and phone line connected (though not USB, I'd think that wouldn't be a
factor) . I can't remember exactly how I resolved it. But, you might try
"Always connect ... using" Local Area Network if you haven't already.

OK, I did some more tests, and FINALLY found the problem. I can't believe
it - "always expect the unexpected" comes to mind. The problem was due to
AVG Free Edition - by disabling the email plug-in in AVG, the problem of
initially dialing up for email was resolved.

Also, I tried one other Ethernet network card that I had (an oldie but
goodie, as recommended by someone here - the Network Everywhere NC100), and
was able to get that one card to work without too much fuss (but with some
yellow exclamation points in Device Manager, though). It seems the newer
Ethernet cards can be problematic for some older (e.g: 2000) Dell Win98SE
machines, due to either hardware or software issues. However, since I only
use the Win98SE computer as a backup, I'm probably just going to use it
without the Ethernet card installed and fully debugged until the need
arises.

Interestingly, when testing out the Internet connection, it seemed the
Ethernet connection was a bit faster than when using the alternate USB2
connection, which you might expect. BUT from what I had read, you
shouldn't be seeing much, if any, noticeable difference. Presumably the
typical Internet cable transfer rates (in Mbps) are still below the max USB2
transfer speeds, but I don't have the specs on that. I'm on the Economy
Comcast Internet plan (which is only a 1 Mbps max transfer rate, but which
is fine by me, coming from dial-up all these years :-).

Bill Blanton wrote:
On 6/24/2010 19:28, Bill in Co. wrote:
Bill Blanton wrote:
On 6/24/2010 17:20, FromTheRafters wrote:
"Bill in wrote in message
...


I have both Comcast Cable (for hi-speed) AND dial-up as a fallback
(using Earthlink, since my email account is with Earthlink, and is a
POP3 email account), without any major problems. (I have an account
with Earthlink, which is noth my email and Usenet provider).

However, whenever I'm connected using Comcast on the Win98SE computer,
and initially try to read email in OE (clicking Send and Receive), it
always *initiates* a dial-up connection, even though the USB Comcast
cable connection is connected and is working for IE, which is a bit
annoying.

Interestingly enough, after OE *initially* connects via dial-up and
reads the mail, OE promptly disconnects the dial-up connection
afterwards, and everything is fine from that point onward (meaning, if
I click Send and Receive again, it does not reconnect via dial-up,
which is good!). But when I close OE, and then reopen OE again, I
have to go through this whole thing again (always initially connects
through the dial-up modem to read the mail the first time).

Does anybody have a clue as to why it does this?

IIRC somewhere in your dial-up networking settings is a box to uncheck
about dialing up when no other network is detected.

Settings are ok there. (I've tried it both ways ("never dial a
connection", or "dial whenever a network connection is not required" -
didn't solve it).



Or possibly the connection setting under OE for the specific account.
Account Properties Connection (tab). Uncheck "Always connect using"

No, those settings are ok (checked those before).

Maybe it has something to do with using a USB pseudo LAN connection, and
OE
isn't smart enough to recognize it's already connected when first
invoked,
even though it's sharing settings with IE.

Although that doesn't really explain it, either, since after the initial
connection, it never dials-up again, unless - and until - I close OE, and
start OE again. (again, all of this is happening while I am connected to
cable internet)

I had the same problem when I first got cable , and still had my modem
and phone line connected (though not USB, I'd think that wouldn't be a
factor) . I can't remember exactly how I resolved it. But, you might try
"Always connect ... using" Local Area Network if you haven't already.

OK, I did some more tests, and FINALLY found the problem. I can't believe
it - "always expect the unexpected" comes to mind. The problem was due to
AVG Free Edition - by disabling the email plug-in in AVG, the problem of
initially dialing up for email was resolved.

Also, I tried one other Ethernet network card that I had (an oldie but
goodie, as recommended by someone here - the Network Everywhere NC100), and
was able to get that one card to work without too much fuss (but with some
yellow exclamation points in Device Manager, though). It seems the newer
Ethernet cards can be problematic for some older (e.g: 2000) Dell Win98SE
machines, due to either hardware or software issues. However, since I only
use the Win98SE computer as a backup, I'm probably just going to use it
without the Ethernet card installed and fully debugged until the need
arises.

Interestingly, when testing out the Internet connection, it seemed the
Ethernet connection was a bit faster than when using the alternate USB2
connection, which you might expect. BUT from what I had read, you
shouldn't be seeing much, if any, noticeable difference. Presumably the
typical Internet cable transfer rates (in Mbps) are still below the max USB2
transfer speeds, but I don't have the specs on that. I'm on the Economy
Comcast Internet plan (which is only a 1 Mbps max transfer rate, but which
is fine by me, coming from dial-up all these years :-).

In message , Bill in Co.
writes:
[]
Interestingly, when testing out the Internet connection, it seemed the
Ethernet connection was a bit faster than when using the alternate USB2
connection, which you might expect. BUT from what I had read, you
shouldn't be seeing much, if any, noticeable difference. Presumably the
typical Internet cable transfer rates (in Mbps) are still below the max USB2
transfer speeds, but I don't have the specs on that. I'm on the Economy
Comcast Internet plan (which is only a 1 Mbps max transfer rate, but which
is fine by me, coming from dial-up all these years :-).


Are both ends of your USB2 connection - the device and the port it's
connected to - definitely USB2?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

"Who came first? Adam or Eve?" "Adam of course; men always do."
Victoria Wood (via Peter Hesketh)

In message , Bill in Co.
writes:
[]
Interestingly, when testing out the Internet connection, it seemed the
Ethernet connection was a bit faster than when using the alternate USB2
connection, which you might expect. BUT from what I had read, you
shouldn't be seeing much, if any, noticeable difference. Presumably the
typical Internet cable transfer rates (in Mbps) are still below the max USB2
transfer speeds, but I don't have the specs on that. I'm on the Economy
Comcast Internet plan (which is only a 1 Mbps max transfer rate, but which
is fine by me, coming from dial-up all these years :-).


Are both ends of your USB2 connection - the device and the port it's
connected to - definitely USB2?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

"Who came first? Adam or Eve?" "Adam of course; men always do."
Victoria Wood (via Peter Hesketh)

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Bill in Co.
writes:
[]
Interestingly, when testing out the Internet connection, it seemed the
Ethernet connection was a bit faster than when using the alternate USB2
connection, which you might expect. BUT from what I had read, you
shouldn't be seeing much, if any, noticeable difference. Presumably the
typical Internet cable transfer rates (in Mbps) are still below the max
USB2
transfer speeds, but I don't have the specs on that. I'm on the Economy
Comcast Internet plan (which is only a 1 Mbps max transfer rate, but
which is fine by me, coming from dial-up all these years :-).


Are both ends of your USB2 connection - the device and the port it's
connected to - definitely USB2?
--

Pretty certain! I'm using a PCI USB2 card which I added to my PC some
time ago, and the USB cable then goes to a relatively new Comcast hi speed
modem that has both USB and Ethernet sockets (a nice feature, I might add,
because you can use either one or even both (to two separate computers
simultaneously).

=====

What I don't quite understand is why ICS (Internet Connection Sharing)
seemed to get installed (or at least part of it did). ICS showed up in
Device Manager (under Network or Modem - can't recall).

But I'm not sharing that computer with anyone else (I am not connected to a
network to any other computers here), so go figure. Hmmm, maybe just
plugging in an Ethernet card means ICS should be installed by default (just
in case, for that possibility?).

When I tried installing the Ethernet Card, I had some residual yellow
exclamation point issues there (in reference to some ICS driver issues
relating to NDIS or NDIS2 that I couldn't really resolve), but it at least
worked ok).