Pardon me while I kick my computer. There, I feel a lot better now!
There is nothing more frustrating for us computer geeks than to be in the middle of a Web search and lose our connection to the Internet. I've found this to be the case - more often than not - with my cable modem service.

I've reset the modem.

I've rebooted my computer.

I've reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled all my software.

I've fed it milk and cookies.

Nothing seems to work!

The technonerds at the cable company don't know the answer, although I have to admit I'm not the easiest person in the world to deal with when things don't work the way they're supposed to.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am able to get on line after doing all these things. But my time on the Internet can range from only a few minutes to several hours before I get cut off.

Of course I wouldn't even have broached the subject if I didn't have a few ideas on how this problem could be solved.

First, it's best if we examine the nature of the service. What makes it tick?

Basically cable modem service is provided by the cable company in your area using the same dedicated lines that bring cable television to your house. This is known as a "broadband" service where "bandwidth" is shared and your connection speed is determined by how many people in your area are using the service at the same time. The more folks there are on line, the slower your connection.

The cable companies deny that this is a problem, claiming that every house in your neighborhood has "simultaneous high-speed Internet access" and bandwidth is not shared. Explain that to the person who suddenly discovers he's connecting at 100 kilobytes per second when he's paying for 2 megabytes per second.

That said, let's look at what's installed on your computer that may be interfering with your connection.

I've found that the biggest culprit is America Online 6.0. I have no idea what it does to your Windows registry or how it's supposed to interact with your connection, but it apparently overwrites several key files, even though you tell it not to. Many of the problems I cited above disappeared as soon as I uninstalled this culprit using Add/Remove Programs in the Windows control panel. I also found it ironic that AOL doesn't come with its own uninstallation utility.

Check to make sure you meet the minimum requirements for using a cable modem. You should be running Windows 95, 98 or NT (notice ME and Windows 2000 aren't listed, but I haven't had any problems with either of them), at least a Pentium 166 mhz machine with 16 megabytes of RAM and a slot open for either an internal cable modem or an Ethernet card. There are also modems that will connect to a USB port on your computer, but that won't work with Windows 95, early versions of Windows 98 or NT. Mac users need either a 68040 or PowerPC processor, 16 megabytes of RAM, Macintosh Open Transport 1.1 the capability to support an Ethernet connection.

Did you recently "fix" problems on your computer using Norton System Works or some other utility program? I've discovered that more often than not, what these programs tag as problems may be necessary to the efficient operation of your computer, including files needed by Internet Explorer and Netscape. Arbitrarily telling one of these programs to fix all the problems it finds can often result in Excedrin headache number 21 - seeing red and attacking your computer with a sledgehammer.

If all else fails, call your cable company. They'll insist on trying to solve the problem while you're on the phone, but if you insist, cajole and threaten them, they may agree to send a technician out to check your connection.