NewDeal Technical Support Document 281

CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET


Information about choosing an Internet Service Provider and setting up NewDeal to connect to the Internet

Before you can use Skipper or other Internet client applications in NewDeal, you must establish an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and configure your NewDeal software to connect to the ISP. If you do not have an account with an ISP, choose one and contact them to create an account.

Choosing an ISP

NewDeal is designed to work with ISPs that use a standard login. Most local and commercial ISPs provide this kind of service. Some, like America Online or CompuServe, require proprietary software or scripted login processes and are not compatible with NewDeal. Here is a list of a few ISPs that our customers use successfully with NewDeal. This is not a comprehensive list, many other ISPs also work.
ACC Global Net - www.accglobal.net

ALCOM - www.alcom.aland.fi

ATT WorldNet - www.att.net

A-Plus Internet - www.a-plus.com

Bergen Net - www.bergen.net

Burgernetz - www.iv.de

Earthlink - www.earthlink.com

Erols Internet - www.erols.com

Flashnet - www.flash.net
Login Name: No special characters required.
Password: Up to 8 characters
Primary DNS Server: 209.30.0.9
Secondary DNS Server: 209.30.0.100

FreeI Net - www.freei.net
Primary DNS Server: 209.162.144.2
Secondary DNS Server: 209.162.144.3

Frontier Communications- www.frontiernet.net

GlobalOne - www.globalone.net

IBM Internet Connection Services - www.ibm.net

Indy Net - www.indy.net

Internet Connect Services - www.montana.com/ics

Lightspeed Net - www.lightspeed.net

MN Internet - www.mninter.net

Netcom - www.netcom.com
Login Name: In the U.S., us,ppp, is required
in front of your user name. For example,
if your user name is csmith, enter us,ppp,csmith
Password: Up to 8 characters
Primary DNS Server: 199.182.120.1
Secondary DNS Server: 199.182.120.2

Netti Finland Oy - www.netti.fi

Network Techology - www.net-tech.com.au

New Mexico State University - www.nmsu.edu

Ohio State University - www.osu.edu

Online-Club.DE - www.online-club.de

Online Internet - www.online.be

P&T Internet Service - www.pt.lu

Pacific Internet Philippines - www.pacific.net.ph

Primenet - www.globalcenter.net

Proaxis Communications - www.proaxis.com

Prodigy Internet - www.prodigy.com

PSI Net - www.psi.net

Sachsische Zeitung - www.sz-online.de

Saunalahden Serveri - www.saunalahti.fi

Surf South - www.surfsouth.com

Surfree - www.surfree.com

Sympatico (Bell Canada) - www1.sympatico.ca

Sysnet Communications. - www.sysnet.net

T Online - www.t-online.de

The Internet Access Company - corp.tiac.net

The Solar Stop - www.solarstop.net

TNC - www.total.net

UniDial Communications - www.unidial.com

World Online - www.worldonline.nl
If you already have an account with an ISP, skip to Configuring your ISP below. If you do not yet have an ISP, ask your friends or associates for recommendations, consult advertising, or search the World Wide Web if you have access to it from another software or another computer. Try to find an ISP that provides a dial-up phone number in your local dialing area, otherwise you may incur toll charges on your phone bill whenever you connect to the Internet.

If your computer does not have a modem, but it is connected to a local area network that provides Internet access, you may be able to use NewDeal's ODI Ethernet driver. For more information, see technical support document 277 on NewDeal's web site, or contact NewDeal technical support.

Configuring your ISP

To set up the NewDeal software to connect to your ISP, you must obtain certain information from your ISP. Your ISP may provide this information in their literature or by phone when you call to establish your account. If they did not, call them and ask for it, or look for it in the support or setup section of their web site if you have access to the World Wide Web from another software or another computer.

If you already use another software to connect to your ISP, you might find the information in the configuration portion of that software. For example, if you connect to your ISP from a standard Windows 95 dial-up, look in My Computer, Dial-Up Networking. Double click the icon for your ISP to see the user name and phone number. Right click the icon for your ISP and choose Properties from the menu. Under Server Types, press the TCP/IP Settings button to see the settings for IP address and DNS.

In NewDeal, run Preferences and choose the Internet button. In the Internet dialog box, enter the following information which you obtained from your ISP.

Login Name:
Type the unique user name assigned to your account, it may be up to 32 characters long.

Password:
Type the special string of up to ten characters you use to access your account. Keep your password secret, but don't forget it.

Phone Number:
Type the dial-up number you use to connect to your ISP.

IP Address:
Most ISPs assign an IP Address automatically each time you dial in. If your ISP is one of these, choose Server Assigned. If your ISP provides a specific number for you to use every time you dial in, chose User Assigned and type the number in the IP Address field.

DNS Addresses
Most ISPs supply a Primary DNS and many supply a Secondary DNS. If your ISP is one of these, choose User Assigned and type the numbers in the appropriate fields. If your ISP assigns DNS addresses automatically each time you dial in, choose Server Assigned.
Press the Modem Settings button and make sure the correct serial port, baud rate, dial type, and modem initialization string are configured in the Modem Settings dialog box. If you make any changes, press the OK button. If you make no changes, press the Cancel button.

Most ISPs do not require any changes to the Advanced Settings. If your ISP supplies a gateway address or a subnet mask, press the Advanced Settings button and enter the numbers in the appropriate fields. The Debug setting is used for advanced troubleshooting, leave it set to zero unless directed to change it by a technical support representative. Leave Login set to Automatic. As of this writing, there are no login applications available yet. If you make any changes in the Advanced Settings dialog box, press the OK button. If you make no changes, press the Cancel button.

Back in the Internet dialog box, press the OK button. You are now ready to run Skipper and start surfing the Web or to use any other NewDeal Internet client applications that you have.

For more help about the Internet dialog box or the other dialog boxes described here, press the help button in the dialog box.

Troubleshooting

If Skipper fails to display pages from the World Wide Web or if it reports "Error locating host," check these things.
  1. Is the modem dialing? In most cases, you can hear the modem dial and the static or noise of the connection being established, or you can see the lights blink on your modem if it is external. If not, double check the settings in Preferences, Modem and in Preferences, Internet, Modem Settings to make sure the serial port, baud rate, and dial type are correct.
  2. Is the login being refused? If your modem is connecting to the ISP's modem, but your login is not established, double check your login name and password in Preferences, Internet. Some ISPs require that you enter special characters before or after your login name. For example, in the United States, Netcom requires the characters "us,ppp," in front of your login name. In other words, if my Netcom user name is ndmain, then I must enter us,ppp,ndmain in the Login Name field in Preferences Internet. Some ISPs require "%PPP" after the login name. In other words, if your login name is ndmain, you would enter ndmain%PPP in the Login Name field in Preferences, Internet. If you are unsure, ask your ISP if any special characters are required.
  3. Are your Domain Name Server settings correct? Double check the numbers for Primary and Secondary DNS in Preferences, Internet. These servers help to translate URLs (site names) into the IP address numbers used on the World Wide Web.
  4. If you are sure that your settings are correct, but you still cannot use Skipper or your other Internet clients successfully, contact your ISP's technical support department. Most of them can look at the logs on their servers and help track down the specific cause of the problem.
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Last Modified 25 Mar 1999