Hi,
It all has to do with TTL setting & the resync capabilities of the device.
A lot of lower end equipment has the TTL set to never expire, and when the link drops for whatever reason (an exchange problem or the ISP cans your link), the device isn't able to resync.
The only way to reconnect is to power cycle the device which causes an Intiate new connection to be issued, which usually works.

It all boils down to you get what you pay for. The entry level stuff assumes that it will be turned off on a regular basis, thus initiating a new connection, which is totally different to a resync.

>>Hi,
>>It stops badly configured or faulty hardware from disconnecting, it works to keep things working until the root cause is found.
>
>So, it would make sense if the ISP provides an intermittent connection. Anyway, it is still a mistery to me why PING should keep the connection open, and the data which I am communicating anyway (say, downloading a Web page) would not.