I know I'm probably being stupid here

[mycats]

But I always thought the whole point of broadband (apart from it being faster) is that its "always on". Now, when I put my puter on I have to (wait for it all to start obviously lol) then click on the AOL thingy, then sign in, now how is that always on?
and if I want to use IE or Firefox I still have to sign into AOL before I can sign into them.
Do you have to sign into your provider (who do you use?) then into whatever browser you use?

[puzzlesRus]

This is a peculiarity of AOL. Other ISP's do not work this way.

[camioneur]

I don't know anything about AOL but surely they do a router for wirless applications and by their very nature routers are "always on". If you go with any other broadband supplier wthout a router then you always have the connection thing to do when you fire the PC up. A router is the only way I know round this and like I already said, routers are already on when you switch your PC on.

I stress, I have no knowledge of AOL before anyone (and they know who they are) have a go!!!

[mycats]

Ah so if I changed provider I wouldnt have to go through all that? cool thanks

[camioneur]

well no not really, unless you get a router you're gonna have this with whoever you're with.

[mycats]

ah right :-(

[Mattk]

i used to connect via modem and that was always on.i only switched to router as i need to connect several things at once.