He Ain't Heavy, He's My Buddy
Don't be fooled: AIM won't redial a hung-up modem connection.Gregg Keizer
America Online's Instant Messenger may be smart enough to sign on when it detects a live link to the Internet, but it's not bright enough to actually dial the connection (or redial it if the line drops). Many dial-up Internet service providers routinely break a connection after a set period of inactivity, usually 15 to 30 minutes.
AIM 3.0 and 3.5 both have a misleading menu option that could make you think that the application automatically re-establishes a dialup connection if your ISP drops it. The setting is in the Edit Preferences dialog box (click File, My Options, Edit Preferences in AIM 3.0 or My AIM, Edit Options, Edit Preferences in AIM 3.5). Click the Connection tab and check the box marked "Reconnect automatically," and all you've done is tell AIM to automatically reconnect with AOL's buddy servers--once you restore the dialup connection manually.
You can, of course, bring the connection back up by launching the ISP's dial-up applet. But you can also use any of the scads of utilities that keep you from disconnecting. Among the best is Stay Connected 2.5, a shareware utility that you can try for free for 21 days and register for $19.95.