Edit your cgminer.conf file to look like this:
{
"pools" : [
{
"url" : "stratum+tcp://stack.novahash.org:3333",
"user" : "Dabs.2",
"pass" : "2"
},
{
"url" : "stratum+tcp://stack.friendlymine.com:3334",
"user" : "Dabs.2",
"pass" : "2"
},
{
"url" : "stratum+tcp://stack.crypto-pool.fr:4004",
"user" : "Dabs.2",
"pass" : "2"
},
{
"url" : "stratum+tcp://pot.criptoe.com:3333",
"user" : "Dabs.2",
"pass" : "2"
}
]
,
"failover-only" : true,
What that does is make it mine from the top pool, going down if that pool is not sending work. So in this case, this one will mine the last pool if the 3 pools above it aren't working.
My pool settings actually include 4 more "profit pools", just in case those pools don't send work. The last one is actually middlecoin. It's not likely that 10 pools are all down, so usually it will mine at the first pool, and 9 are backup pools.