re. Connection is Lost

[Irena and Richard Jenkins]

Thanks to all those who replied.  Some clarification of my situation:

1.  I threw out all windows software last year and run a Mac.

2.  The linux is a YellowDogLinux ... a port of RedHat.  Mine is about RH 
7.0/7.1

3.   For those that don't know the Mac has an excellent internal modem (56k). 
The modem doesn't give me disconnect problems when I connect using MacOS 
tools.

4.   I can keep the connection going by doing things so there are no silent 
periods on the connection ... by overlapping downloads with mail collection I 
can keep the connection up for more than an hour (easily).  Lots of stress 
however ... and I cannot leave the keyboard...

5.  I did set up Kmail for checking my mail every 10 minutes ... but this is 
not fast enough ... 'coz I do get disconnected.  Maybe I should shorten this 
to every 2 minutes??  This does seem wasteful though!!

6.   With YDL I use standard tools to connect to the net ... KPPP and a 
dialer to manage the connection.  I know these are just front-ends for the 
wvdial program ... but they seem to work well in this distribution.

7.  I have fitted one of those Telstra phones ... but I dread to think that 
call-waiting has been enabled.  I absolutely hate it when people put me on 
hold to speak to their girlfriends!!  Can I rip it out of this phone ... and 
why does it cause zero difficulty under MacOS??  Is there another setting 
which I have to change to keep the connection up without continually typing 
new URL's??

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Richard