Some days, the modem doesn't want to stay connected ...unlike other days when I can connect & stay connected for days. The message the kernel drops which indicates a problem is as follows (right from the logs): "Aug 9 23:19:07 linux pppd[2117]: No response to 4 echo-requests" ...and I have only had limited success greping for the statement. Either I get every statement in the log or I get nothing. I seem unable to check for & isolate the latest. When I fool w/the `date` command I can't seem to get anywhere because of the month/day preceeding, not to mention the seconds. I am attempting to grep the latest "No response to 4 echo-requests" out of the log & immediately shut down pppd rather than waiting for ugly things to happen --up to & including having to do a modem reset ...which takes quite a bit of time. Ideas welcome! If you wish, I don't object to private contact to avoid clogging the list. Thanks! -- ..."Yogi" CH Namaste Yoga Studio