Server not found

jburns203,

Next time you connect to your ISP, click on Start|Control Panel|Network Connections.  Right click on your Internet Dialup Connection.  Left click Status. Click on Support tab. Click on Details.  Write down the IP addresses for the Primary and Secondary DNS servers.  Now, click on Close. Click on General tab. Click on Properties.  Click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Click on Properties. Click on "Use the following DNS server addresses". Enter the Primary and Secondary DNS server addresses you obtained earlier.  Apply your changes.  Sometimes this helps. Sometimes it doesn't.  If your ISP is routing your connection to a remote server or to a leased server, your connection may be timing out on the first try. Once the connection is made, a different set of parameters come into play.

If you only have dial up service available, and you wish to have more than one computer on the Internet, you might want to consider looking into the Dual PC Modem by Actiontec (www.actiontec.com). Great device for rural areas where broadband and DSL are not available. 

Jburns203,

As I said, sometimes it helps, and sometimes it doesn't. 

Some report the following helps with "server not found" problems.  While in Internet Explorer, go to Tools|Internet Options. Click Advanced tab. Uncheck the following:

- Do not save encrypted pages to disk
- Warn about invalid site certificates
- Warn if changing between secure and not secure mode
- Warn if forms submittal is being redirected

Also, You mentionned that your ISP has a speedster program.  Some ISP's utilize a different dial-up access number for speedster-enabled accounts.  Visit your ISP's help page, and see if this applies in your case.  ISP's that use SlipStream Accelerator often do this.  Slipstream recommends the following for situations similar to yours:

1. Disable "Block Floating Flash-Ads" in Pop-up blocker settings.

2. Add the website to "Pop-up Blocker White List".(Similar to Trusted Sites on IE6 Security Page)

As for DSL option, most DSL providers now have a Lite version that is only a few dollars more than dial-up. Of course, in your case it would be more than a few dollars more.

Tony