I got DSL and low my computer locks up?

Factual Questions
1

Yesterday, after DSL finally became availiable in my area, we got ours installed. But now my computer seems to lock up whenever it tries to use a lot of bandwidth.

I am running Windows 98, so my ISP said that that could be the problem. But since the service is working properly, they said that the problem is more likely on my end.

My system:

Win98
P3-933
288 Mb RAM

Any ideas?

2

Are you connected through an ethernet card or through the USB port? USB ports are notoriously unreliable for broadband connections under 98.

3

If you haven’t done so already, run, don’t walk, and get yourself a broadband router such as the Linksys BEFSR41. This will do two things:

  • It provides a layer of security by “hiding” your PC from the outside world.

  • It also does something called DHCP in hardware, which means you’ll no longer need the software from your ISP to make the connection work. (I’ll bet they’ve got you set up running something called Enternet. It’s awful, and more than likely is the cause of your problems.)

The router can be had for $40-60, depending on where you buy it and who’s got rebates going. (It’s $35 after rebate right now at Amazon)

The router will also make it trivial to share the broadband connection with more PCs - just plug them into the router and off you go.

4

hightechburrito I see that you hail from Cambell and if you have SBC/Yahoo and use Connection Manager that they sent me then the best thing you can do is take the advice of gotpasswords. Connection Manager is not good, annoying and is very capable of locking up a computer.

5

I took some DSL and now i’m lisdexic.

6

The modem that the installer gave us was the 2wire Home Portal 1000sw.

It is wireless ready but my computer is plugged in with regular ethernet cable.

And not, I actually didn’t need to install any software other than the drivers for the ethernet card. All I did was set up the ethernet card and it connects without using SBC’s software. I am using the Netgear FA311
And if it turns out that the modem we have is crappy, there’s not really anything we can do about it, as it was free and I can’t afford anything else.

Yesterday it seemed to lock up all the time, but it hasn’t done it once today. Oh well