Here's an interesting tip for

Here's an interesting tip for folks using DSL with PPPoE. If you have an Ethernet card in your machine, you should give it a static IP address. If you set it to get its IP address from the server it will search in vain for a DHCP server, hanging up your system every few minutes. (Windows is not a very good multi-tasker, as you may have noticed.) To prevent this assign a dummy static IP address to the NIC (e.g., 192.168.0.1, with a Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0) Under Windows 95/98/Me, go to Control Panel - Network - TCP/IP pointing to something other than Dial-Up Adapter - Properties - IP Address. You can find more information on this subject at the Navas Guide to DSL and Cable modems and DSL Reports. Thanks to George Crowe, my line producer on Call for Help, for telling me about this tip. Very handy. Got to tell Scott Herriott about it - he's had all sorts of trouble with his DSL.