Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with disconnect

How do I disconnect a malfunctioning car alarm on a 2002 Prius?

Slinga — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:20:15 -0800

How do I disconnect a malfunctioning car alarm on a 2002 Prius? My mom's Prius has a built-in alarm, and it just randomly turned itself on yesterday and went off for four hours and drained the battery. It has done this in the garage by itself, so I know that it's the alarm's problem, not outside forces. She'd like to disconnect the alarm, but the dealership wants over a hundred dollars to do it. Anyone have any idea how to?

dee-dee-dee

mothershock — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:44:27 -0800

Phone mystery: "The number you have reached is temporarily disconnected" -- except it's not! This is very strange. I'm trying to call someone's cell phone, and no matter whether I try calling from my iPhone or my landline (which are handled by different carriers), I get a message saying "We're sorry, the number you have reached is temporarily disconnected." The same thing happens to the other person when they try to call me on my mobile line or my landline. This is someone I am in constant contact with for work and talk to all the time, and it's frustrating to us both that this is happening. I can call everyone else fine on my phone; the other person can call everyone else fine on theirs. It started happening yesterday. What is the deal? And how can it be fixed?

I don't want to call India again...

wastelands — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:27:09 -0800

Why does my DSL connection keep dropping connections? I have a DSL connection from Qwest. The last couple weeks, I have seen the following:

* My connection with a torrent tracker drops (red arrows in uTorrent)
* My connection with an IRC server drops several times a day
* Often my browser will take a long time to start downloading web pages... I have to try the address again to "reset" it, otherwise it will just spin for a long time

No major hardware or software changes, except for minor stuff like upgrading VLC player, installing Chrome, the usual software changes. (Note: I'm on XP SP3... relatively fresh install, a few months old)

Normally I'd bug my ISP, but the last time I did that, they gave me a rated-limited modem. So instead of getting 5 Mb/s down, I was getting a third of that, and uploads were also slower. So I'm sticking with my old, but trusty, DSL modem from 2006. Is it just crapping out?

Is there anything I can do? I've tried unplugging power from the modem, waiting a minute, and plugging back in. Tried rebooting the computer. My overall speed for download/upload is the same as always, but it just keeps dropping connections.

Any help is appreciated!

Stop my Wireless from disconnecting when idle

lemonfridge — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:19:54 -0800

When I leave my PC on during the day while I'm out, it disconnects from the wireless router, stopping any downloads I have running. if I'm at home using it this never happens. I have turned set all the power-saving options to "Never", and have checked that the Wireless USB dongle is set to "CAM" power-saving mode.

Is there anything I can do to stop it doing this? The Router is a brand new Netgear DG834G, the USB dongle is a "Dynamode" but has no model number. I'm running XP/SP2.

Disconnect ethernet cable?

Mitheral — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:38:21 -0800

Where to buy a quick disconnect Ethernet cable that will just pop open if tugged like those found on X-Box controllers? Canadian source would be great but American or anywhere else will be OK especially if they will ship by mail. I just don't want to pay $70 in brokerage for a $15 cable.

Mac OSX v Netgear Router

superfurry — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:57:41 -0800

Trying to solve a Mac internet disconnection issue. As always there is I have a Mac Mini running OS X 10.4.9 connected to a Netgear DG834G router via an ethernet connection. The router has the latest firmware installed. I also have a Windows XP Pro machine connected. They are both on static IP addresses on the router, though I also tried them on dynamic ones. They have both in the past been connected to this router via wireless and wired connections.

The PC plays along nicely. The Mac has browsing the web issues. Every now and then - actually quite frequently - the Mac gets 'server not found' errors in Firefox, and I have to repeatadly click the Retry button to get it to load the page. Looking at the router logs, the router is maintaining its DSL connection - its the Mac somehow crapping out. Like I said, no such issues on the pc.

I've tried different hardware by swapping the Mac HDD into different machines. I've formatted and re-installed OSX completely. I've tried wired, I've tried wireless. I'm at the end of my tether.

Before I go buying another DSL router, any suggestions or known issues ?

Help me get my drive unplugged!

antifuse — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 00:35:51 -0800

How can I find out what application is locking my external USB drive in Windows XP? Ok, here's the long and the short of it: I've got an external hard drive (a normal 3.5" drive in a Vantec Nexstar 3 enclosure). I've closed all the apps that have files open on said drive. When I try to "eject" it in XP (make it safe for unplugging) it says that an application is still using a file on the drive. How can I find out what application is holding that file open? I know, I can just shut down the PC, but I'd like to be able to disconnect the thing without having to shutdown every time! Are there any apps that tell you what file handles are open for each running process? I tried FileMon from SysInternals, but that tells you more as things are being opened, not after the fact what is being *held* open.