Hang related to Internet connection

[Elmer E. Dow]

More trouble.

Everything was working fine in KDE, then I left the computer alone for a
half an hour. I had Evolution, Konqueror and OpenOffice open. I started
kppp, intending to check e-mail. Kppp dialed in, but it just disappeared
rather than nesting on the panel. Then the icons on the panel wouldn't
respond at all. I could click on icons and nothing would happen. The
apps open did not respond either. The desktop icons on the left of the
screen worked, so I opened a console and typed halt.

I've rebooted and upon dialing in again with kppp, the kppp window has
again disappeared and the icons on the panel at the bottom of the screen
are again unresponsive. Even the clock freezes, ceasing to update time.

Any ideas? This is getting as flaky as Windows.

Elmer