Help with NetZero!!!

[rfflash]

Hi all
I was just wondering, my dial up internet is very sluggish connecting at about 30k on average. When I connect, the connection has to be good, or it will just disconnect on me. If I leave it on over night to download something, it will disconnect about half hour after i've gone to sleep. My internet service provider is Netzero. I run the Hispeed. I run Smart Link 56k Modem. I run Ver.00.01. 4But, I think the modem is the problem because I haven't updated it for a long time. Because when I try to go to Smart Link website, it says it doesn't exist. Maybe someone knows of a place to update it? just checking. does anyone know any ideas in how to fix this kind of stuff?

Also: I was wondering if I could use a flash drive for downloading things onto it. Mainly because I can't download those World of Warcraft patches, so I was wondering if I could bring the flash drive to a Library or something and download the patches onto it and then put those patches onto my computer? Is that possible? If so, is that the way to go or not?

Your help is much appreciated.
Thanks

[mommabear]

Most ISP's will automatically disconnect you after a period of "inactivity". They don't count downloading as activity. It wants to see the clicking of websites...browsing. I haven't used NetZero, but I had a similar problem years ago with Juno. I'd get disconnected while using Instant Message. Their "solution" was to periodically click (refresh) a website at random to keep my connection alive.

There are utilities you can install that will do that for you in the background. Here's a Google search link to get you started.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

Hope that helps. I can't help with your second question, but someone else probably can.

PS. 30k is probably average for dial up. You will seldom (if ever) see the full 56k.

[johnwill]

The connection speed is highly dependent on your local phone lines as previously indicated. When I used dial-up here, I would get either 28kbit connections or when the moon was full, I'd sometimes get 40-44kbit connections. I think I saw a 50kbit connection once. The FCC in the United States has a regulation that data speeds over telephone lines cannot exceed 53K, so that's as good as it ever gets here.