Weather Forecast 3.1 Connection Problem

Hi,

I have been a fan of Weather Forecast for some time, and never had problems with it until version 3 where it takes its connection settings from IE. I am sure I am in the minority of users with this specific problem, but for whatever reason, Weather Forecast likes to think I am offline (exclamation mark on its icon) when in fact there might be a long period of internet inactivity - - but still I am connected to the net.

I'll explain. I have a USB wireless adapter and use Firefox mainly over IE with WinXP SP3. If I don't use my computer for a period of time, and then right click on the WF3.1 icon, it has a check mark next to Work Offline, but my XP Connection icon in the tray still shows the connection (albeit a non-lit up monitor) and right-clicking still shows a solid connection. If I open up IE, Firefox, or any other internet utilizing program, WF connects back up and reloads the weather data.

Now I know that the problem must lie somewhere with IE if WF uses its connection settings, but I have done extensive Googling, and have tried various options like: making sure Work Offline is NOT checked in IE, checking and un-checking "Automatically detect settings" under LAN settings in IE's connection settings, and verifying that my registry has the two LoadSens and LoadLCE set to "auto". It seems checking "Automatically detect settings" improves things as far as IE goes as it stopped asking me if I still want to Work Offline at startup, but I still have the trouble with WF. I have also gone into my wireless card's settings to toggle its power save options, although I don't have the normal Power management tab - but rather advanced options where I can set the Power Save Mode from Disabled to Maximum.

I must say that I preferred it when WF didn't use IE's settings because I didn't have any problems - but I am guessing not many others have this problem since I didn't see any other posts on this specific problem. Any suggestions or options in future versions would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!

Drew

Is there some way to get Weather Forecast 2.2 since one isn't forced to use IE settings and it is Weather.com compatible?

Thanks.

We have seen a router that shut off idle connections. This was a DSL router/modem. Perhaps.....?

Second idea is to get freebie software that pings or the like regularly to keep the connection alive even though you are idle on the computer. Cannot say the name as it has never been needed here. Do a search and you will find one.

Hopefully the answer is forthcoming.

Is there some way to get Weather Forecast 2.2 since one isn't forced to use IE settings and it is Weather.com compatible?

I came here to ask that very question. If someone could provide WF 2.2, I'd appreciate it.

WF 2.2 is not compatible with updated weather.com service. I'll add option to make the direct connection.

Any chance the update would also make it possible to reload the weather data more than once per hour? I constantly have to manually reload the weather because the current temp/conditions are inaccurate. (The temp in my area often varies by several degrees each hour...)

Any chance the update would also make it possible to reload the weather data more than once per hour? I constantly have to manually reload the weather because the current temp/conditions are inaccurate. (The temp in my area often varies by several degrees each hour...)

Currently WF updates once per 25 minutes. The weather.com don't allow update it more often :oops:

That's not what I see here. I am currently using WF and the 1-ClickWeather Firefox extension. WF always lags behind 1-ClickWeather, and seems to always take 1 hour to update itself. Right now for example, it is 7:22 PM in my location, and WF was last updated at 6:45 PM, which is 37 minutes ago. I don't expect that it will update until 8:22 PM...

Hmm.. the update time in the tips is not actually the time WF take the data. This is the time weather.com is report in the forecast data. Looks like they using other way to get the forecasts... ...and 1-ClickWeather extension is created by weather.com

I figured it out for myself - hopefully this will help anyone else with the same problem...

It is an IE problem - not a TLB/WF issue. Under connection settings - I did not have a connection listed under Dial-up and VPN settings because I use a cable modem connection - not a dial-up. So I added a "Broadband Connection," checked Automatically detect settings, and then on the Connections tab - - clicked on "Never dial a connection."

Now, all seems to be fine with WF so I am good with everything.

Nevermind - that was only an illusion. I am behind a router and if there is any activity on any of the other connected computers, then the wireless tray icon lights up and the offline setting goes away and WF connects. I checked to see if my laptop - a completely separate machine - would have the same problem as my desktop and sure enough, after a period of network inactivity, WF thinks it is offline and gets the little yellow triangle icon. My laptop has the option under power settings to turn off the wireless card after inactivity - and I toggled that - and got the same problem.

I don't know what is going on here - but I have no issue with any other aspect of my computers. It is just when I don't use the internet behind my router that WF cannot initiate the request to get on the Net. Perhaps there is a router issue, or some IE setting I am missing, but I would be very happy to have an option to allow someone to not use IE's settings but rather just generically connect.

Thanks!

I have the same problem. No WLAN, just plain LAN cable connected with my router. Router is 24/7 online. Everything was working with v2.2, but 3.1 is not useable at all.