· Always contact your phone company to verify if the numbers provided by your ISP are a local call. Calling plans in many areas are very confusing, and you may end up paying your telco several hundreds dollars at the end of the month. Dial 0 on your telephone and ask the operator whether the number you are going to use is a local call.

· We hate to remind, but always set your CAPS LOCK off before typing your password. In most cases passwords are case-sensitive.

· While we tried to make this tutorial as complete and straightforward as possible, it is a supplementary information and doesn't constitute professional customer support from your ISP. Keep your ISP's tecsupport phone number / e-mail address handy.

· Do not hesitate to contact us with comments and suggestions at feedback@theisplist.com

1. You must have a modem connected to a telephone line. If you have an external modem, make sure that it is turned on and connected to the computer.

2. All the required software to connect your OS/2 system to your ISP must be installed. This includes:

   • IBM OS/2 Warp version 3.0 or 4.0
   • Internet Access Kit (IAK), from the OS/2 BonusPak CD
   • REXX language support, installed by default with OS/2

3. Print this document for reference during software installation.

4. Close all running programs before you begin software installation.

Configuring the Dialer

The location of programs relative to your desktop may be different, according to the amount of customisation you have done. The locations described here are based on the default placement of folders when you first install OS/2.

1. Open the IBM Internet Connection for OS/2 folder on your desktop, and from within that open the Internet Utilities folder.

2. Double click on the Dial Other Internet Providers item. This will start the IBM PPP Dialer program.

3. Click the Add Entry icon/button.

4. The Login Info tab will be displayed.

   Name

   This field contains a name for the connection. Enter Your ISP Name.

   Description

   Specify a description of the connection. This is optional. Enter Your ISP Name.

   Login ID

   Enter your login name.

   Password

   Enter the password assigned or nominated to you when you opened your account.

   Phone Number

   Specify the phone number of the POP you wish to call. Select a POP which is in your local call area.

   Login Sequence

   Enter NONE. This indicates that no login sequence is required beyond getting the modems connected.

   Connection Type

   Select PPP.

   Inactivity Timeout

   This is the amount of idle time (in minutes) allowed before the dialer will automatically close the connection. While this may be useful in some circumstances, it is recommended for trouble free operation that this be set to OFF.

5. Click the small right arrow at the bottom right of the dialog, or click on the Connect Info tab.

6. The first three items on the Connect Info dialog will be greyed out for PPP connections. This information is negotiated at the time of connection.

   MRU Size

   Enter 1500. Entering any other value here is not recommended.

   Domain Nameserver

   This is the 32-bit dotted decimal notation internet address of the server that resolves host names to IP addresses and vice versa. If you are not shure what it is, check with your ISP.

   Your Host Name

   This field is only useful for connections which are allocated a static (fixed) IP. For other types of connections, the entry in this field does not matter. Enter pppuser.

   Your Domain Name

   Specify the name of the domain in which your computer resides when connected to the internet.

7. Press the right arrow button at the bottom right of the dialog, or click on the Server Info tab.

   News Server

   Leave this field blank.

   Gopher Server

   Leave this field blank (gopher is an obsolete internet protocol similar to www.

   WWW Server

   Enter the server for your home page: www.yourgreatISPhomepage.com

   Mail Gateway

   This entry is used for sending internet email. Enter your SMTP server name

   POP Mail Server

   This entry is used for receiving internet email. Again, enter your POP3 server name

   Reply Domain

   This is the domain part of your email address.

   Reply (Mail) ID

   This is the user part of your email address. Enter your login name

   POP Login ID

   This is the username you use to log in to collect email. Again, enter your login name.

   POP Password

   This is the password you need to give when collecting email. Enter your password

Note that the last three items above are only used by the default UltiMail mail client that is provided as part of IBM OS/2 Warp. If you use a different mail client (and there are many excellent ones available), then the entry in these fields will not be used.

8. Press the right arrow button at the bottom right of the dialog, or click on the Modem Info tab.

   Information on this dialog is very dependant on the characteristics of your modem. Unfortunately, OS/2 provides no modem autodetection to make your life easier, so you need to consult the manual provided with the modem to determine the optimal settings and initialisation string. Values suggested here are for a generic 28.8k or 33.6k modem.

   Modem Type

   Use Hayes Compatible. This is by far the most generic modem type (99% of modems manufactured these days are of the hayes compatible variety.

   Com Port

   Enter the serial port to which your modem is attached. If it is an external modem, it will almost definitely be com1 or com2. Internal modems either replace one of the serial ports, or are configured as com3.

   Speed (Baud)

   This is the speed your computer will use for connection to the modem (not necessarily