By default, the BellSouth supplied Motorola/Netopia 2210 modems are set up to disconnect your internet session after a certain period of inactivity. Ideally, when you reopen the browser or make any browser requests the modem should automatically reconnect. However, this does not always work correctly and you are required to cycle the power on the modem then reestablish connectivity.

The easy fix for this is to set the 2210 to "Always On" which will disable the session timeout and automatically reestablish a new session if the connection is dropped for any reason. Since BellSouth does not have IP lease times for PPP sessions you will keep the same IP unless until that session is terminated by you or BellSouth for some reason.

Step 1
Open a browser application and enter "192.168.1.254" in the address field to access the 2210 Interface. Note: If you are using another router in conjunction with the 2210 and you can not get to the interface screen click here.

Step 2
Click on Broadband DSL Line from the top menu. Click on Connection Configuration from the right menu. Select "Always On" from the Connection Type pull down. Click on Save and Restart Connection at the bottom. This will automatically restart the modem and the interface will return after the changes are saved. The modem will automatically try to establish a new session.

Other Connection Options:
Manual Mode - Allows you to manually initiate your DSL connection much like a dial up modem configuration. It requires you to click a "connect" button that is accessed through the modem interface to establish a session.
On Demand - Automatically initiates a session when you make an internet request and terminates the session after a predetermined period of inactivity (which causes the "Internet" light on the modem to turn red). This is the default mode for the 2210, but as stated above it doesn't always work correctly when trying to reestablish a new session.

Important Note: If you are running the 2210 in bridged mode in conjunction with another router the "always on" setting is irrelevant.

Cool Stuff
An online, html-based menu simulator program is available here. The simulator recreates the Motorola 2210 user interface and provides the ability to navigate menus; just like the real modem interface. It is for simulation purposes only and will not make any changes to your actual modem.

Andy Houtz