Use Tws Start from the bottom of this page http://dynaorder.com/3rdparties.asp this will log you back on automatically to tws.
what do you expect from timberhill no serious ctas/traders use tws use x-trader you can't go wrong with it get it at velocityfutures.com
patsystems is Jtrader. IB has had it's problems recently(I was also effected ~4:30 am this morning East coast) and my backup broker via Jtrader was stable I've been thru periods where IB was stable and my jtrader platform has been flakey. I think it's the nature of the business. As long as one is up it should be no sweat, worse case if you have a position during a flake out then offset it with your backup broker and relax. I believe the game will change if some of the popular IB front end app's start to support an api to patsystems. Ninjatrader has definitely improved my trading, I was reluctant to admit it a first but it's so. This morning when IB went down I was flat but the thought of having to calulate my stops/targets, watch price action, point/click etc on jtrader left me cold on doing anything with jtrader until IB came back up so I could do the ninja thing again.
After TWS shuts down, check the contents of c:/jts/oldlog.txt What is in the log file just prior to TWS shutting down?