Well,
Just a guess here...Did you have the password "remembered" in a log in box previously? Maybe that got you around their software and it doesn't now. It appears that MSN had a "hole" in their previous version and they plugged it. I've used a few different ISP's and I've never found a way to connect without being signed in to the dial-up connection. It's how the ISP recognizes who you are and the means by which it "allows" or "disallows" the connection.
Unfortunately, MSN has a lot of "bloat" software which many say slows the connection. Apparently they are now "forcing" you to load their extra "stuff", much like AOL.
Hope this helps.
Grif
I recently updated to MSN 9. Prior to doing so when using my MSN dial up to connect to the internet I could cancel the sign in for windows messenger, and close MSN, and still navigate the internet using internet explorer. The idea is to use internet explorer and not be signed into MSN which I feel slows everything down. Now when I close the butterfly I get completely disconnected from the internet. Any ideas? Interesting enough MSN said it could never be that i could close MSN and still be connected, but I know I did it for years. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

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