Common problem with Outlook Express and Internet Explorer in a Windows Environment

Symptom: When already connected to the Internet, launching Internet Explorer or Outlook Express causes the computer to attempt to disconnect from the current connection and reconnect to another one.

This is caused by a "feature" in those programs that is designed to allow you to connect to the Internet automatically by just opening IE or OE. While this may sound more convenient, it can cause major headaches if you have more than one Dialup Networking connection configured in your system.

The easiest and best way to eliminate this problem is to stop IE and OE from trying to connect by themselves, and connect "manually" by using a shortcut to the Dialup Networking Connection on your desktop each time you want to connect to the Internet.

To disable this tendancy in Internet Explorer, open it and go to the "Tools" menu and select "Internet Options", then "Connections". Here, just check the box that's labeled: "Never Dial a Connection".

With Outlook Express, it's quite similar, depending on which version you are running. Open OE, then go to the "Tools" menu and select "Accounts", then "mail" then, from the list of mail accounts, whichever one is used for your PlantageNet account, usually labeled "mail.pil.net", then click "Properties", then "Connection", then check "Always Connect to This Account Using:", then select "Local Area Network (LAN)" from the pull-down menu next to it.

After making these changes, you will have to connect using your shorcut to PIL on your desktop before using IE or OE, but you should never have the problem of these programs taking over your connection again. If you really enjoy the automatic dial feature, you can simply choose to have them automatically dial your new connection instead of requiring a manual connection, but you will occasionally see the programs (particularly OE) get confused about whether you're already connected or not, and will have to change it again if you switch to a different DialUp Networking connection.