WINDOWS XP DIAL-UP CONNECTIONS:

Setting Up Windows XP To Connect To Panix

Introduction: Where do I find the dial-up networking setup?

In Windows XP, you won't find a "Dialup Networking" icon like you had in Windows 9x and Millenium. They've moved all this stuff into the Control Panel now, alongside the other network settings.

Go to the Start button and choose "Control Panel".

• If your Control Panel is set on Classic View, find and open "Network Connections". To create a new Internet dialup connection, click "Create a New Connection" (found in the upper left, under Network Tasks). To modify an existing Internet connection, just right-click the connection's icon and choose "Properties".
• If your Control Panel is in Pick A Category mode, click on "Network and Internet Connections", then click "Set up or change your Internet Connection". From here, you can create a new dialup connection by clicking the "Setup" button at the top of the new window. To modify an existing connection, highlight the connection and click "Settings". The "Properties" and "Advanced" buttons here contain most of the settings.

• Part 1. Creating a new dial-up connection
• Part 2. Setting XP to dial up automatically
• Part 3. Modifying and tweaking your connection

Part 1. Creating a new dial-up connection

First, follow the instructions above to create a new connection. This will open the New Connection wizard.

Click 'Next' to begin, and then choose "Connect to the Internet". Click 'Next'.

Choose "Set up my connection manually", and click 'Next'.

For a plain modem connection, choose "Connect using a dial-up modem". Click 'Next'.

(If you're connecting to Panix via broadband, ask us for our broadband instructions. This page is for dialup connections only.)

Type the name you want to call this connection. For example, if this is your Panix dialup connection to the Brooklyn number, you could call it "Panix Brooklyn". Click 'Next'.

Now enter the modem number for Panix. (If you don't want to mess with multi-location dialing rules, just type the number exactly as you'd dial it on a phone. Include the "1" and the area code, if you need them.) Click 'Next'.

Now enter your Panix username. (Remember, it should be your full Panix username including the "@panix.com" part.) Enter your Panix password in both of the spaces provided. There are also three checkboxes here:

• "Use this account name and password when anyone connects to the Internet from this computer": Check this if you want the other users on your computer to use your saved username and password to dial up too.
• "Make this the default Internet connection": Check this if you want the computer to use this connection whenever it dials up automatically.
• "Turn on Internet Connection Firewall for this connection": Windows XP has a built-in firewall program, for Internet security enhancement. Feel free to check this box, but please let us know if you have the Firewall turned on, any time you call for technical support.

Click 'Next'.

We're almost finished... If you want to have an icon on your desktop for this connection, check the box for "Add a shortcut to this connection to my desktop". Now click 'Finish'.

If your Control Panel is set to Classic View, your computer will give you the "Connect To..." screen now. If it takes you back to "Pick a task..." instead, just open "Network Connections" at the bottom, and double-click your connection icon there.

Here, you can tell the computer whether or not to save your password. We recommend that you don't save it, but if you do please make sure you keep some control over access to the computer. Now click 'Dial' to test the connection.

That's it! Now your new connection is ready to go.

Part 2. Setting XP to dial up automatically

If you want your computer to dial automatically when you open a Web browser or other Internet progam, but it's not doing that, here's how to make it happen.

Go back to the Control Panel.

• In Classic View: Double-click the "Internet Options" icon. Then click the "Connections" tab in the new window.
• In Category View: Click "Network and Internet Connections". Then click "Set up or change your Internet connection".

Look at the list of Internet connections, and find the one you wish to use. If it already says "(Default)" next to it, great. If it doesn't, just click to highlight it, then click the "Set Default" button.

Now select "Dial whenever a network connection is not present". This will make the computer dial your default connection any time a program needs to connect to the Internet.

Click 'OK' to save these settings. That's all!

Part 3. Modifying and tweaking your connection

Your dial-up session shouldn't need any extra setup. However, if you need to change your dialup number or something, you may need to modify your session. Also, line conditions can make a modem connection unstable, and there are a few things you can do to help it out.

Go back to the Control Panel.

• In Classic View: Double-click the "Internet Options" icon. Then click the "Connections" tab in the new window.
• In Category View: Click "Network and Internet Connections". Then click "Set up or change your Internet connection".

Now click to highlight the connection you want to change, and click the "Settings" button.

This "Settings" dialog lets you change your saved username and password. Leave all the checkboxes here unchecked, and leave the "Domain" field blank. (This isn't an Internet domain they're talking about; it's a Windows NT domain.)

Now click the "Properties" button. Good index tabs to look for here:

• The "General" tab: You can change the dialup number here, and set custom Dialing Rules if you want to be fancy.
• The "Options" tab: This tab lets you hide the "dialup progress" display, change the way XP saves your dialup changes, or customize when and how you want the computer to redial a dropped connection.
• The "Networking" tab: Go to this tab and click the "Settings" button, for the checkbox to turn off software compression. (Turning off software compression can increase an "iffy" connection's stability.)
  
  You can also set your computer to add a "panix.com" to unqualified hostnames (e.g. if you just type "panix1" into your telnet program instead of "panix1.panix.com") here. Click the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" button, then "Properties", then "Advanced" in that window. Choose the "DNS" tab, then "Append these DNS suffixes". Click "Add", type "panix.com", then click "Add" again. (You can get back to the Networking tab by clicking "OK" in both sub-windows.)
• The "Advanced" tab: Here's where you can turn the "Internet Connection Firewall" on and off. (If you have connection problems with some programs, you can turn off the Firewall to see if it's contributing to the problem.) This is also where you can go to set up Internet Connection Sharing, and let other computers on your local network share the dialup link.

The "Advanced" button lets you change the number of times it tries to connect, waiting time between attempts, etc. You don't need to set an idle timeout; we set that on our end.

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