AIM disconnects my cable connection

[dragynphly]

Please don't scream at me, I searched and searched before I decided to post this, and didn't find anything that remotely came close.... maybe I searched the wrong terms, but after seeing the way some newbies have been squawked at, I really had to think about posting.

I want to be able to use AIM, but when their servers disconnect me for inactivity(I don't have very many AIM buddies & accept very few messages from people I don't know) it kills my cable connection, and I have to reboot the modem(which means shutting down the computer, and interrupting any conversations I may have going on YIM etc). I'm wondering if there is anything which will keep AIM from shutting down besides me sending messages to myself, or parking in a chatroom and saying something random to the bots once in a while(I have yet to have a good experience in an AIM chatroom) I don't know a lot about AIM admittedly, so maybe there is a preference setting or something?

If anyone could help me I would appreciate it.

Dragyn

[MimesScareMe]

Hey, that happens alot to me, and I dont know why, But whenever I pront something, it always disconnects me