Kill the Connection Dialog Box

I have cable access to the Internet, but on those occasions when it becomes unavailable, I use a dial-up ISP as an alternate. My problem is that when I check for e-mail using Outlook Express over the cable connection, I also get a pop-up window giving me an option to connect using dial-up. This is somewhat annoying. Is there a way to leave the dial-up option dormant until I really need it? I'm using Windows XP.

Sergio Calderon, Miami

This happens to me, too. Even when my cable modem connection is present and accounted for, slow Web sites can sometimes trigger the Dial-Up Connection dialog box that you describe. To banish it, open Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections (if you're using Windows XP's Category view), open Internet Options, click the Connections tab, select Never dial a connection, and click OK. When you're away from your cable modem, return to the same dialog box and instead choose Always dial my default connection.

• See more like this:
• Spanbauer,
• Internet,
• tips,
• how-to,
• Net,
• Web,
• AOL,
• MSN,
• America Online,
• Microsoft Network,
• dial-up,
• privacy,
• security,
• spam,
• junk mail,
• e-mail,
• connection,
• dialog,
• dialog box,
• Kerio,
• firewall