Connect to: empty?

[Thrush]

I have a Pipex adsl connection and when I originally set it up (manually) I had a nice direct link to allow me to log onto the internet. START - CONNECT TO - Pipex Xtreme. When it booted I also got the two computer icon load into the corner of my start bar. But last night for some reason it vanished has so has the computer icon at the bottom of the screen. The internet connection is still active, I checked it in Control panel under internet connections. It is still there and I can connected to the net via IE/Outlook but I'd rather have the manual control that I had with having the link under "Connect to" I tried deleting the accounts shutting down then manually inputting the Pipex connection information (via Connect to: / Show all connections / Create new connection , but even when it completes the icon that should be there isn't. Its driving me insane Can anyone shed any light on this little problem.


Thanks in advance,

Cue

[dert]

Go to my computer/contol panel, then click on Network Connections, highlight your adsl connection and then go to properties. On the general tab, at the bottom of it there will be a check box and the words show icon in notification area when connected (notification area is where the clock is) see if it's checked or not, if it isn't check it and that should solve your problem.

There is a possibility that you have picked up a dialer somewhere along the way, they have an habbit of changing settings so you don't know you have dialed out with them, if you have a 56k modem in the system as well as your adsl connection check your internet options on who you are dialing out with. Your settings may have been changed to automatically dial when connection required.

[jbosvark]

open the network connection properties window by right clicking on My Network Places and choosing Properties.
do you have any connections in there? any connection configured in Windows XP including LAN and Firewire should be listed in this window. If it's not there and your Internet connection is still active, I would disconnect any MODEM lines connected, to make sure there is no chance of a dialler taking over and diallling to some VERY expensive places. Install a firewall liuke sygate personal firewall or ZoneAlarm and in the case of ZoneAlarm have a look at the zones tab under the firewall heading, it should show all the network connections.
If your connection is listed, then you can go to the properties sheet of the start bar and configure the start menu to show the Connect To link as a menu or a link. This might be corrupt.
Try a program like HijackThis to see if you have a dialler installed, it should show up as a BHO (Browser Help Object) This is for the more technically minded however, otherwise, for a more user friendly option, try AdAware or SpyBot Search and Destroy to search for any possible diallers.