 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Internet Newsletter No 9 George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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Since my last newsletter, services have been performing very well and we have no substantial problems apart from one faulty modem card in the bank of digital modems that has temporarily resulted in ten less lines being available.
Although I am associated with the Internet team and must admit some bias, the Internet team believes it has been supplying a very good service to users, especially if price is taken into account. The Internet service is quite complex and all our computers, hubs, routers etc. have continued to work correctly and non-stop to achieve this reliability.
Overall, our recent reliability is substantially better than Telstra's cable service. From my home office and for business purposes use I predominantly use Telstra's cable service for convenience and dial in to Melb PC to perform checks or to get onto the Internet when the cable is down. The cable service drops out at least once and probably twice a week for up to an hour or more per incident. About a month ago it was off for most of the day and this is a service for which Telstra charges $65 per month or $780 pa (recently dropped to $50 per month) but as there are also volume charges, most users will pay more.
Old Intranet lines to be Phased Out
Many of our users may not know much about our Intranet service. It is a service that will allow you to dial in and collect your mail and read news even after you have used all your allocated time for that day. Intranet refers to the internal computer network and as mail and news messages are stored on our servers, these facilities are available. However, to surf the net you must access computers outside the South Melbourne computers by dialling our Internet numbers.
The old analogue Dataplex modems we still own are being used only for Intranet lines. We hope to have these phased out in the near future as some are continuing to give problems despite the team's efforts. However, this does not mean the service will disappear. It will not but the existing phone number 9690 5644 will change and the good news is that the new number will have a bank of 56 kbps modems instead of the existing 33 kbps units. The new number will be posted in advance.
Making Telstra Richer
Some users are still being caught by having their Internet dial up configured for auto-redial and then have that "feature" cut in after they have used up all their allocated time; resulting in a large phone bill.
This can happen without your knowledge if you shut down your browser and mail reader and leave your computer without disconnecting from the Internet. When your allocated time is used up, your line will be disconnected. However, your auto-redial will attempt to do its thing and duly redial and you will be logged on again. Unfortunately for you, our timer checks all accounts every two minutes and your line will be dropped. Undeterred, your auto-redial will do its bit etc. Unfortunately if you are not at the computer when this is happening, you will see the results on your phone bill!
All users are strongly urged to turn off the auto-redial facility in their configuration. This is done from My Computer, Control Panel, Internet Options, Connections tab and then, if you are using Windows 98, highlight each of the diallers set up in the centre window of Dial-up connections. Windows 95 users, from the Connection tab, must click on the Settings button next to "Connect to the Internet using a Modem". For each dialler go to Settings to verify that the proxy settings are correctly set otherwise you may not be able to browse, and then at the bottom of the same window with the proxy settings are the Dial-up settings where the username and password appear. Click on the Advanced button and there the number of redials should be set to 1. Windows 95 users will have these options visible after they have clicked on the Settings button. It is always preferable to have the dialling under your own control than allowing your system to try to anticipate for you.
On this page you have the opportunity set or remove the two Disconnect options. Melb PC does not use any Inactivity Timers at its end - any disconnects due to Inactivity are due to the user settings.
Back to the first Connections tab window, there is a radio button that should be clicked for Never Dial a Connection as this can also stop redialling if you every use more that the one number to dial. If this button is ticked it means that you have to use a dialler (or its shortcut) and not double-click a program icon for dialling in. This encourages individual and flexible dial-in on any of our numbers - or even those of another provider. This means that you can have several browsers and mail readers open simultaneously and not be limited to using just Outlook Express.
Finally the Internet team members suggest that it does no harm, that it is
an advantage to click on the LAN settings button and enter the proxy server settings there even if your PC is
stand-alone and not a part of the LAN. This helps overcome the problem of other programs not recognising a
Default dialler. In particular Outlook Express will actually drop a connection if it finds you are not on the
Default dialler and this causes a drop of connection apparently in readiness for a redial on what it believes
to be the "correct" dialler. This step will allow you to read your mail irrespective of which Melb PC number
you have dialled.
Reprinted from the May 2000 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group,
Australia
