Strange Internet Conection Problem

[BoilerMan]

O.K. This is a new one on me, maby some body here has had a simlier problem. My frend's computer (Dell, XP Professional, SP1, microwave internet conection, IE-6) is doing a strang thing. This is hard to explane so pleas bear with me. His internet conection only stays active when he moves the mouse around or there is a program runing that keeps the cpu working all the time (eg-Windows Media Player). When thers no cpu activety the conection drops out and web pages stop loading, it's like the thing just go's to sleep. But when the mouse is moved around the conection go's active again and the web pages finish loading quikly as they should? I would not beleve this if I had not seen it for my self but I did see it happen. Could this be caused by some program conflick? Is this an SP1 isue? Maby an IE isue? This thing has baffeld me. The system seems to be free of virus and spyware. Any ideas are wellcome, thanks for any help, BoilerMan

[BipolarBill]

How is the modem connected to the PC?

[BoilerMan]

I'm not sure what it's called, but I think it's called an air card, It slides into a rack that sits in a pci slot and it uses a usb driver. I know air card is not the corect name but thats all I can come up with at the moment. Pleas forgive me for the using the wrong term, but I just got up and am not awake yet...lol

[Midknyte]

microwave? do you mean wifi or 802.11x?

you need to give system specs and more accurate information if you expect anyone to help you.

pci slot with usb drivers? that just sounds weird.

[rraehal]

I have seen two different wireless setups. In either case, the internet connection was always active regardless of what the user was doing.

Look in Device Manager to see if the system can put the "Air Card" into sleep mode to save power. If this is the case try disabling the power save feature for the card. That may prevent the problem.

If not, he pays his ISP for his connection and Support. You could call them to check for updated drivers or software. It could be a known issue.

[BoilerMan]

These are the best I can do on the specs The computer is not in my possesion at the moment and I don't know them off the top of my head but here is what I can tell ya.Dell, Pintum 4, 256 mb ram, XP Professional, SP1, microwave internet conection, IE-6 and yes it is the wifi, it uses a 2.4 ghz antena conected to the card via coaxel and his antena must be in the line of site to the isp's antena to have a good strong, consestant signal.

rraehal is corect when he says that the connection should allways be avtive. I will have him check the power setings for the card. That seams like a good posability, thank you.

As far as calling his ISP, he has done that and that is a story all of its owne, but to make a long story short, they are not much help, they just run some test and tell him the connection is good and the problem is on his end.

Thank guys, for the help and i'm sorry for the scetchy details. I will try to get more details the next time I talk with him. Unfortunatly he lives some distance from me and his ISPwill not work in my erea, there for I can't take the computer to my home an trouble shoot connection problems. So as you can see I am faced with the challenge finding time to travel to his house to work on this thing or try to resolve this isue via telephone and speaking at work.

Thanks for the help,