> Hrrm. As a non-UKanian, I must admit to staring boggled in front
> of me at this. What possible motivation could they have for such
> an idiotic practice?! I frequently sit online for hours working
> on stuff at uni or the computer club. Any ISP that tried tricks like that
> would lose my money within a business day. Is it one of those
> "customers should just pr0n-surf for two hours and then disconnect
>  so they won't drain our limited, over-utilised pool of IP-addresses"
> policies? I am baffled. :)

The thing to remember is that (traditionally) local phone calls in
the uk are not 'free'.  So you would pay about 1p (or $0.01) per
minute for a connection.  If you are willing to pay that you can
stay online for as lomg as you want....

In the last couple of years some ISPs have introduced a service
where you pay a fixed amount that includes call charges.  It is
possible that they actually have to pay the telco bye the minute!
In any case, because of the 'contention ratio' (number of subscribers
per modem) they disconnect you after 2 hours (even if they aren't busy)
in order to give other subscribers a chance.

Unfortunately we have to live with it - or pay a lot more...

	David

-- 
David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk