modem disconnect

Here's a quick question for you. "the Chas" has stated in numerous articles how 98 does not support over 511meg of ram, in otherwords is your 512 2 256er's? remove one and see if it's a memory problem. Otherwise with that much horsepower considerupgrading to xp pro or home.
Another thing to look at with modem issues is the wiring leading to and from your connections. every connection point adds noise, do you have a phone attached? Do you have call waiting? How many different things does your modem need to take care of before it actually starts dialing your service provider and it could be a problem with your provider kicking you off after the initial 5 minutes as well. I f you have a phone attached disconnect it and see if that makes a difference. The fact that you can connect and stay on after the initial connection sends me a message that the modem is fine, your wiring should be fine as well. It's merely the initiallization process thats in question and your service provider. you could always try a free aol connection and cancel it right away after seeing if it works the same. Targets and walmarts have the cd's everywhere.