For programs that rely on connecting to the internet, it is very useful to know whether or not the computer has an active connection.  Whenever Windows logs on to a dial-up connection, it changes a value in the registry.  The following code demonstrates how to read this values to determine whether the computer is connected or not. NOTE: This will only work on Windows 95/98, not on Windows NT Declarations You must put the following code into the declarations section of your project. Public Const ERROR_SUCCESS = 0& Public Const APINULL = 0& Public Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002 Public ReturnCode As Long Declare Function RegCloseKey Lib "advapi32.dll" (ByVal _ hKey As Long) As Long Declare Function RegOpenKey Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias _ "RegOpenKeyA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As _ String, phkResult As Long) As Long Declare Function RegQueryValueEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias _ "RegQueryValueExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpValueName _ As String, ByVal lpReserved As Long, lpType As Long, _ lpData As Any, lpcbData As Long) As Long Code Public Function ActiveConnection() As Boolean Dim hKey As Long Dim lpSubKey As String Dim phkResult As Long Dim lpValueName As String Dim lpReserved As Long Dim lpType As Long Dim lpData As Long Dim lpcbData As Long ActiveConnection = False lpSubKey = "System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RemoteAccess" ReturnCode = RegOpenKey(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, lpSubKey, _ phkResult) If ReturnCode = ERROR_SUCCESS Then     hKey = phkResult     lpValueName = "Remote Connection"     lpReserved = APINULL     lpType = APINULL     lpData = APINULL     lpcbData = APINULL     ReturnCode = RegQueryValueEx(hKey, lpValueName, _     lpReserved, lpType, ByVal lpData, lpcbData)     lpcbData = Len(lpData)     ReturnCode = RegQueryValueEx(hKey, lpValueName, _     lpReserved, lpType, lpData, lpcbData)          If ReturnCode = ERROR_SUCCESS Then         If lpData = 0 Then             ActiveConnection = False         Else             ActiveConnection = True         End If     End If RegCloseKey (hKey) End If End Function Use Here is an example of how to use the ActiveConnection function. If ActiveConnection = True then     Call MsgBox("You have an active connection.",vbInformation) Else     Call MsgBox("You have no active connections.", vbInformation) End If