Topic: LAN disables itself

[Sandra]

I recently set a network up for a friend with his no 2 PC being on a 56k dial up connection networked to his main PC via an ethernet crossover cable as he was due to get ADSL in a few days and I thought it was easier to set the 56K up on one and the ADSL on the other when it was activated
His line was enabled yesterday so I went over and set his ADSL up on his main PC and everything seems to be ok but he said that he had to enable the LAN on his no 2 PC to get the 56K connection to work on his main one prior to me setting up the ADSL connection.
I rebooted both PCs a few times last night and everything was fine he can connect from either PC to the ADSL connection, as long as his main PC is powered up.
I got a phone call this afternoon as his partner was trying to get on the net with the no 2 PC and even though the main one was on and she had connected to ADSL on that, she couldnt get on the net on the no 2 PC.
It turned out that the LAN on no 2 had disabled itself and it works fine now she has enabled it.
Why is it doing this ?
Is there a setting that needs ticking somewhere that I havent noticed  
Both PCs are on XP pro  

[Adept]

They hardly ever disable themselves Sandra

Because the network system tray icon is identical to the dial-up networking one, people who are used to dial-up automatically right-click this icon and close it

I would use the option in the Network connection settings that stops the icon from displaying

[Sandra]

I must admit that I had suspected Operator Error rather than something that the person (yours truly), who set their network up had done, especially when she said she was clicking on the connect to ADSL shortcut on her desktop when the main PC was already online  

[Adept]

I've given up enabling that icon now on the machines I look after. Too many people have phoned me to say they have no connection to the network, only to find that they had disabled it themselves

Surely Microsoft could have come up with a different icon so as not to confuse people?  

[Sandra]

It would have been better but I suppose they think its showing a WAN and a LAN and as both are networks then they can justify it.
Hopefully they will get an adsl modem/router/4 port hub soon as ebuyer have one that looks ok for £39-99 plus vat plus postage  
At least that will solve the connection problem and it will only be the LAN that gets disabled at worst