Frequently Asked Questions Q: Does Stay Connected work with AOL? A: Yes! To "Stay Connected" with AOL, bring up the menu item "Options" and select the tabbed dialog box labeled "America Online." Simply check the option and you are all set! Q: Why do I get a "No Service Available" status or "2 Red Icons"? A: There are a few steps to remedy this situation. Please take the following steps: 1. Check that you have set to a valid host. Setting your default host to your local ISP domain name is highly recommended, e.g. www.xyz.com. Please refrain yourself from using the default host provided as it may increase the network load on the default host. 2. If you still get the red bar icon, it's recommended that you turn on ALL available services to facilitate debugging. We provide 7 different services, namely, HTTP, Echo, Discard, SMTP, FTP, Telnet & Time Server. Simply check "All Services" in the "Advanced" tabbed dialog box. Now try again. We highly do NOT recommend that you leave the option "All Services" on as it may put unncessary load on the designated host. We advice you to set your tag service to HTTP as we found that this is the most reliable protocol thus far. By now you should get a green light. If not, read on: 3. It is not important to obtain a perfect connection with a green light icon. Stay Connected! will attempt to keep your connection alive by sending out signals periodically. In such case, you'll still be able to stay connected even though the tray bar icon shows red. Q: Why do I see a few auto-connect dialog boxes popping up asking me to connect to my ISP? A: This is a feature with Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking (DUN). You should disable the option for auto-connecting to your ISP. Alternatively, you should only check for one particular tag service (one of the following: HTTP, Echo, Discard, FTP, Telnet, SMTP, Time Server, Special Port) rather than selecting "All Services" under Stay Connected! Options dialog box. The problem is that you have selected the option to "connect to the Internet as needed" under Windows 95 option. Also, you have specified more than 1 tag service under Stay Connected! option. As such, multiple dial-up windows will popup. To solve this problem, please following the instructions below: 1. Go to your desktop icon "My Computer" to bring up the "Control Panel" 2. Look for the icon labeled "Internet" and double-click on it 3. Go to the tabbed option labeled "Connection" 4. Uncheck the option labeled "Connect to the Internet as needed" This will avoid those unnecessary dial-up windows from popping up. If you absolutely must have this automatic dial-up window popup whenever some programs request for an Internet connection, you'll have to work on Stay Connected. The solution is simple, check one and only one tag service, do not check more than one. Our suggestion is to check on the HTTP option since it's the most reliable protocol. Q: Sometimes I still get disconnected. Why? A: Two most common problems are: 1. Bad phone line. Make sure you clean your phone jack when you start to encounter frequent disconnection. Dust may cause slow modem connection (e.g. connecting at 24000 bps rather than 28800 bps), and sometimes disconnects your active connection. Contact your local phone company if the problem persists. 2. ISP disconnects you manually. This situation may happen when your ISP is overloaded with users contesting for modem lines. We cannot do anything about this as sometimes your ISP might run low on modem resources, especially during peak hours. Approach your ISP for a solution. Q: What is a timeout situation and how can I avoid the problem? When a signal is sent to a remote host at any given time, a response from the remote host is expected. Sometimes due to overloaded traffic on the Internet or the remote host is down for service, a timeout situation occurs. In order to avoid the problem, set your host to other sites. Q: Is a 16-bit version available in the near future? We're using advanced technologies like multithreading and Windows 95/NT 4.0 user interface in our code. Windows 3.11 does not have multi-threaded operation and Windows 95/NT 4.0 user interface. A down-port to 16-bit is not possible. However, we are currently planning for a 16-bit implementation with a different interface and will be releasing it in the near future. Q: How can I uninstall Stay Connected? A: Before you uninstall, make sure that Stay Connected is not running. Simply check for the icon with 2 bars at your Tray Notification Area (sometimes called Tool Tray) and make sure it's not present before proceeding with uninstallation. Select "My Computer", "Control Panel", "Add/Remove Programs", and look for the text "Stay Connected! for Windows 95/NT" and double-click. A step-by-step guide uninstallation procedure will guide you through. If uninstallation still fails, you will have to manually delete the executable. Simply search your hard drive exhaustively for the filename "StayCon.exe" and delete it.