[MADwanker]

The best advice was given to Will early in the thread: he should move to another ISP. Losing connection for any extended period of time, twice in a year, is unacceptable, imo.

Didn't we go over this already?

There is a tree in my front yard. Both times this year severe weather has pulled off branches from the tree and sent them through the service lines in front of my home. The snow in October was the first time and this time was microcell in my neighborhood.

The wires were ripped off, there is no ISP that can fix this. And, for the record, most of suburbia in the US of A does not have a choice for their service provider, there is one option for cable and -sometimes- one for DSL.

iceman,

If I would have known on Tuesday (the last time that I logged on my PC) that a microcell would be over my place on Friday, I would certainly have changed it to offline mode. But, unfortunately, I did not think of it, some update was flagged and I was stuck in the loop described above.

If you look at the very first step in the instructions that you provided "Start Steam in online mode" - Not happening.

--- Post Update ---

Will lives in a very affluent neighborhood in the Northeast megalopolis, not a farm in South Dakota. He has no shortage of ISP providers.

Incorrect.

Either Comcast 24Mbps or ATT U-Verse for an unreliable 4Mbps (at twice the price).

--- Post Update ---

You poor misguided man.

Please guide me then. Where am I wrong here? I will gladly admit it.

Prove it to me. I will listen.