Work Off-Line? (XP Home)

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I just installed XP Home on a new hard drive. Window would pop out the following message everytime I launched the Internet Explorer after starting the computer. However, if I clicked on the Try Again button on this message, the internet connection is recovered. How to get rid of this annoying message?

I am using Cable internet. A fax modem is on a PCI slot when the Windows XP is installed.

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I’m sure this has been covered before – possibly in the IE forum – and it is something silly like:

Your setup for connecting to the Internet is either set to work off-line or assumes you want to control exactly how you connect each time….
Tools > internet Options > Connections >
Have you got Never dial.. or Always dial… selected?

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On my Windows XP Pro, IE 6, SP! all is grayed out. The connection is through the Network and the cable modem to a router. When I set up the network one of the questions was about how one would be connection to the internet. See attachment

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Leif,

I did look at that place before I posted this question. You can tell from the screen shot that there is no place for me to make any selection. Though all three radio buttons are dimmed, it seems the first radio button is selected.

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Since your connection is the same as mine, but. you stated “A fax modem is on a PCI slot when the Windows XP is installed”. This may be your problem. Check out the properties of this device. IE may in fact be trying to make a connection using this modem.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Dave,

I checked the properties of modem. I did not find any related problem or setting on properties. Since this modem is required for fax operation, I can not take it out.

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To check and see if it is the problem, you may want to remove it. If is NOT the problem then you can reinstall it. Even if it is the problem at least you will know.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Dave,

I uninstall the modem driver from Device Manager and then unplug the modem from PCI slot. Cross my fingers and restart the PC…The annoying message is till there when I lauch the Internet Explorer!

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Dennis ~

There is nothing wrong and the solution to this is incredibly simple.

All you do is close the annoying box by clicking the ‘X’ in the upper right hand corner. Then go to menu bar, click ‘File’, go down to ‘Work Offline’ and remove the checkmark. Make sure you only have one instance of IE open. You may have to do this one or two times depending on how many pages were open when you closed your last connection, but this will rid you of the annoying message.

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Bruce,

There is no check mark at Work Offline on the file menu after I click on the X of the annoying message. It seems that Windows XP has set Work Offline for Internet Explorer as default at somewhere.

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After two weeks struggling, I finally find the solution for this problem. Just select Automatically Detect Settings under internet Options/Connection/Local Area Network (LAN) Settings.

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Good going! I was into finding out what could cause that and still came up empty handed. Glad to know what you did.

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Bruce,

F.Y.I.: The Work Off-Line problem happened once the Setup a Home or Office Network LAN is established when I installed WinXP on a new hard drive from scratch. There was no Work Off-Line problem before the LAN was established. To select Automatically Detect Settings under internet Options/Connection/Local Area Network (LAN) Settings would solve this problem. But, in the set up of the WinXP on the old hard drive does not have this problem.

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