Modem connection dropping Debian Etch

["John Kerr Anderson" <johnan@fmail.co.uk>]

Hello everyone,

I have a very annoying problem.  I am trying to download some new
programs via aptitude and notice that my modem connection keeps dropping
out after 5 - 10 minutes.  The connection keeps dropping esp. if I try
to check a web-page out while it is downloading in aptitude.  

At first I thought it was a modem problem or something.  The first
machine is a built computer AMD64 3500+ with USR 56 Courier modem the
other machine is a Thinkpad R60 with internal soft modem.  Both machines
run Debian Etch with kernel level 2.6.18 (i386) on AMD machine and
2.6.17 on thinkpad.  

Of course I had another windoze machine and it seemed to work OK... In
both instances it seems that the disconnect occurs whilst running
aptitude to download files... Not 100% sure though :(

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

Sincerely,

John Anderson