well now i don't know what to think of this. during the past week i've been running my batch file at startup to connect, and have turned off autodial so apps never dial my connection. sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't! once every 4 or 5 boots i'll come back to my machine a minute after pressing the power button to find the internet has not been initiated yet. i can connect manually, that's not a problem, but i don't understand why it's such a big deal to get the stupid thing to connect at boot