[iOta]

My Airport Extreme connection, which is PPPoE, almost always drops its wireless connection to my iMac if I'm away for a day or two. I have to turn on Airport Utility and click my way through the successive windows by hitting Continue on each pane. Every pane shows me the existing settings, which I don't change. Lastly I hit Update, which it does, and voila! everything is fine again. But why do I have to go through this at all?

[Big Mac]

It doesn't reconnect on demand? PPPoE has a disconnect on idle option that's usually on by default, but the routers I've used with PPPoE automatically reestablish connections when you go to a web page.

[ghporter]

The AirPort Utility offers three options for PPPoE connections under "PPPoE Options": Always On, Automatic (which is connect on demand), and Manual. When you select Automatic or Manual, you need to select how long the base station should wait before disconnecting because it's idle.

I have my network set up to stay connected always. If I'm going to be away for a while, I turn off the computers and the network equipment. When I turn the network equipment back on, it automatically reconnects because it's set to stay connected, and there's no fuss about manually reconnecting.