Using More Than One Modem at a Time
Seeing Servers Your Are Connected To When Online
Backing Up Your ISP Settings
Forcing Alpha-Numeric Passwords
Speeding Up Internet Searches
Auto-Dial Internet Connections (Win98)
Opening the Make New Connection Dialog Box
Help Stop Modem Disconnects
Speeding Up Your Modem's Dialing
Showing Your Actual Modem's Connection Speed
Increasing Modem Performance
To Find Your IP Address
Using UNC Network Names with Files
Changing the Number of Rings Before Dial-Up Server Answers
Resetting Forgotten Dial-Up Server Password
Monitoring Your Dial-Up Connection
Fixing a problem with Shortcuts that keep network UNC
connections
Starting a Dial-Up Connection from the Command Line
Device Contention when trying to use a Modem
Unable to Browse the Network
Auto-Dialing for 32-bit Internet Applications
Changing your Modem's Initialization String
Increasing the Modem Timeout
Potential problems leaving 16-bit winsock.dll's
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Using More Than One Modem at a Time |
(Win98, WinME and Win2000)
If you have two phone lines in your home and want to use
them both to dial out,
you can use MultiLink, which will effectively double your
connection speed.
Create a dial-up connection like your normally would.
Right click on the icon and select Properties
Click on the Multilink tab
Click on Use additional devices
Click on the Add
Click on the other modem you would like to use
If your ISP allows, you can use the same phone number,
otherwise enter an additional phone number to dial.
You should now connect with both modems.
You can confirm this by opening up your dial up connection
in the System Tray after you connect. |
Seeing Servers Your Are Connected To When Online |
To see what servers you are connected to when on the
Internet
Simply run Netstat |
Backing Up Your ISP Settings |
|
If you want to save your ISP settings (name, phone, login
id etc.) for future installations:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ RemoteAccess
Select Registry / Export Registry
Make sure Selected branch is checked
For the name, enter any name that will help you remember
the purpose of the .reg file
Now if you need to restore your ISP settings after a new
installation of Windows, you just need to import this
file Go
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Forcing Alpha-Numeric Passwords |
|
In order to force passwords that just use alpha-numeric
characters
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows
\ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Network
Create a DWORD entry called AlphanumPwds
Give it a value of 1 |
Speeding Up Internet Searches |
When you go to a web site, the first thing that happens is
that a query goes out to the DNS server for IP address of
the web site.
In order to eliminate this query, you can simply add the
IP address and web name into the HOSTS file in the Windows
directory.
To find the IP address, just PING the web name (ping
www.microsoft.com)
For example, Microsoft would be:
207.46.130.149 www.microsoft.com #.url
You can do this for all the sites you regularly visit. |
Auto-Dial Internet Connections (Win98) |
|
If Win98 is not automatically dialing your Internet
Connection:
Open up the Dial Up Networking box
Click on Connections / Settings
Uncheck Prompt for information before dialing
Go
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Opening the Make New Connection Dialog Box |
|
This command line will pop up the "Make new connection"
window. rundll rnaui.dll,RnaWizard /1 |
Help Stop Modem Disconnects |
|
If you modem goes offline frequently, it may be due to a
temporary lost carrier. To lengthen the time the modem
will go offline after the carrier is lost, change the
modem properties.
Open up the Control Panel
Double click on the Modem icon
Click on Properties / Connection / Advanced
In the Extra Settings, enter S10=10
This will enable the modem to stay connected without a
carrier for up to 10 seconds. |
Speeding Up Your Modem's Dialing |
|
For Win95, to make that modem dial much faster:
Open up the Control Panel
Double click on the Modem icon
Click on Properties / Connection / Advanced
In the Extra Settings enter S11=x , where x is how many
milliseconds each tone sounds. Try S11 = 1, then dial,
you'll be surprised. |
Showing Your Actual Modem's Connection Speed |
Normally when you open up the modem icon in the system
try, it shows the port connect speed.
So see your actual modem speed:
Go Control Panel
Open up the Modems icon
Click Properties
Click on the Connection tab
Click the Advanced button
In the Extr Settings, put ATW2L0 (the last character is a
zero) Go
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Increasing Modem Performance |
|
To increase modem performance when connecting to the
Internet:
Disable compression on your modem
In SYSTEM.INI under 386enh section put in: COMxBUFFER=1024
(x is your modem port number )
Add AT%C0 (that's a zero),to the extra settings line of
your modem's properties.
Switch errror correction off |
To Find Your IP Address |
|
To find your IP address when connected:
Open Explorer
In the Windows folder find the file IPCONFIG.
Drag a shortcut onto your screen.
Now when you are online you can double click the shortcut
to see your IP address and other data. |
Using UNC Network Names with Files |
As already mentioned, you can use long file names in an MS
DOS Box.
But you can even use UNC-style network names.
Example: DIR \\server\share1\dir1
will give you all files on the computer named "server", in
the share named "share1" and in the directory "dir1".
This does not work with CD, but it will work with MD, RD,
DIR, COPY, MOVE, REN, and so on.
I use this in combination with a batch file to copy files
to a number of computers on a network |
Changing the Number of Rings Before Dial-Up Server Answers |
|
To change the number of rings before Dial up Networking
Server answers:
Find the INF file for the modem in the \WINDOWS\INF
directory. The filename will begin with "mdm" and end with
characters desciptive of the manufacturer, ie. "supra" for
Supra Express modem.
Make a copy of this file.
Edit this file with notepad and look for a string "HKR,
Answer, 1,, "ATA<cr>".
Change to HKR, Answer, 1,, "None".
A few lines up from this should be the line HKR, Monitor,
1,, "ATS0=0<cr>" Change the value of the S0 register to
the number of rings you would like to have the modem
answer on.
Remove the modem by using the Control panel | System |
Device Manager.
Reinstall the modem using the REFRESH Button.
This should install the modem using the updated INF file.
Go
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Resetting Forgotten Dial-Up Server Password |
If you forget the password you set for you Dial-Up Server
simply delete (or rename) the RNA.PWL file in the WINDOWS
directory |
Monitoring Your Dial-Up Connection |
There are some system checks you can use to see how good
your ISP and Phone lines are.
You either net OEM SR2 or the ISDN Accelerator Pack 1.1
installed
Make sure SYSMON is installed. You can add this through
the Control Panel / Add New Programs
Run SYSMON
Select Edit / Add Item
Click on Dial-Up Networking Adapter
Select CRC Errors
Click on OK
If you have lots of CRC errors, either the phone lines or
your modem is having problems.
You can also add Framing Errors and Timeout Errors if you
are still having problems and your phone line appears ok |
Fixing a problem with Shortcuts that keep network UNC
connections |
By default, when you create a shortcut to a network
application, both the Drive letter and UNC connection are
stored as part of the shortcut.
The reasoning that if the drive letter gets reassigned or
deleted, the UNC connection will serve as an additional
way to ensure that the application is available.
This can also be a problem because when you want to
re-assign the drive to a new server, it will still make
the connection to the old one through the UNC
To disable this feature, there is a program called
SHORTCUT.EXE in the Admin / Apptools / Envvars directory.
Execute the program with a -? to see a description of the
available switches. Go
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Starting a Dial-Up Connection from the Command Line |
You can dial your ISP from a command line. This can make
it easy to create a batch file that will
do things like dial, start your e-mail and web browser.
The syntax is:
rundll rnaui.dll,RnaDial connectoid
Note: The RnaDial and connectoid components of the command
line are case sensitive |
Device Contention when trying to use a Modem |
|
Occasionally, when trying to use your modem, you might get
the following errors:
Another program is using the selected Telephony device.
Try again after the other program completes.
or
Cannot initialize port
The state of Windows 95 device contention is determined by
the value for the "COM n AutoAssign=x"
setting in the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file,
where n is the number of the serial port and x is a value
from -1 to 1000.
The default setting in Windows 95 is -1. This setting
causes Windows 95 to not release a serial port previously
used
by a non-Windows-based program.
If you need hot-swapping capability between an
MS-DOS-based communications program and a Windows-based
communication program,
add the following entry to the [386Enh] section of the
System.ini file:
Com n AutoAssign=0 Go
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Unable to Browse the Network |
If you do not have a logon password, Windows95 might have
problems when you try and browse the network.
Try the following steps to solve the problem.
Start REGEDIT
Go to Hkey_Local_Machine \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows
\ Current_version \ Network \ Real mode net
Delete the line that says AUTOLOGON=0
Save the changes and reboot the system |
Auto-Dialing for 32-bit Internet Applications |
If your 32-bit Internet applications do not automatically
invoke your
Windows 95 Dialer, here is a way I found to enable this
feature.
First, bring up an internet application such as
Netscape or Internet Explorer.
Next, manually dial into your internet provider by
double-clicking your connection icon.
Once connected, go to the Control Panel and double-click
on the Internet icon.
Once the window open, uncheck the checkbox titled "Dial
whenever an Internet Connection is needed".
Click the check box again and make sure there is a check
in the checkbox.
Next, click the APPLY button.
Finally , click the OK button.
Once you do this, close your internet application and
disconnect from your internet provider.
Re-start your Internet application and the Windows 95
dialer should start up.
NOTE: From my experience, all Internet applications will
be effected and will automatically start the Windows 95
dialer. Go
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Changing your Modem's Initialization String |
Start REGEDIT
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \
Services \ Class \ Modem \ 0000 \ Init
Change the settings to the values for your modem |
Increasing the Modem Timeout |
If your modem it timing out during file transfers or
loading Web Pages,
you might try increasing the timeout period.
To change it:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet /
Services / Class / Modem / XXXX / Settings
Where XXXX is the number of your modem
Move to the right panel and double click on Inactivity
Timeout
The number of minutes for a timeout should be entered
between the brackets.
For example, a US Robotics Sportster could have S19=<30>
to set it to 30 minutes. |
Potential problems leaving 16-bit winsock.dll's |
If you re having problems getting some of your winsock
applications
to work under Win95, make sure you delete any old 16-bit
winsock.dll's.
If this file is in the directory were the application
resides, it could
cause problems. Programs that could have problems like
this are:
Ewan.exe (Telnet app)
WSIRC.exe (IRC app)
WSGopher.exe (Gopher app)
NX.Exe (NewsXpress)
Netscape v.1.0
We found that if the software listed above is in the same
directory as the
Trumpet Winsock.dll file, then they will NOT work under
the MS-TCP/IP stack. |
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