Step 1: Verify that Dial-up Networking is Installed

Press the START button, select Settings..., then Control Panel. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon. Select the Windows Setup tab, then click on the Communications option and press Details.... Make sure that the Dial-up Networking option is selected. If it is, go on to step 2. If it isn't, select it and click OK. Windows 95 will attempt to install the needed drivers, so make sure you've got your installation disks or CD handy! Now that Dial-up Networking is installed, you can proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Verify that the Dial-up Adapter and TCP/IP Protocol are Installed

Press the START button, select Settings..., then Control Panel. Double-click the Network icon. You'll see a dialog box. Make sure the Configuration tab is selected. If both Dial-Up Adapter and TCP/IP are present, then you're ready to proceed to step 3.

To add the Dial-Up Adapter, hit the Add... button, double-click Adapter, then scroll down the list until you can select

Microsoft. Choose the Dial-Up Adapter and hit OK.

If you need to install TCP/IP, hit the Add... button, double-click Protocol, then select Microsoft, then TCP/IP, and hit OK.

Now your Network dialog box should contain both Dial-Up Adapter and TCP/IP. Select the adapter, click Properties...,Bindings, and make sure the TCP/IP box is checked. You're now ready to proceed to step 3.

Step 3: Configure your TCP/IP Protocol for dynamic IP

Click on the TCP/IP protocol and press the Properties... button. You should get the TCP/IP Properties box.

There are six sections in this dialog box. We'll deal with them in order.

IP Address Select the Obtain IP Address Automatically option.

WINS Configuration Select the Disable WINS Resolution option.

Gateway This should be left blank (empty)

Bindings This should be left blank (empty)

Advanced This should read none.

DNS Configuration Select the Disable DNS option.

Step 4: Set up the Connection Icon

Open up My Computer from the desktop and double-click the Dial-Up Networking icon. Double-click the Make New Connection icon. This will walk you through the Make New Connection wizard.

Type in "AcroNet", or whatever you want to call the icon you're about to create to connect you to your provider (the title won't affect the type of connection). Your modem (which should have been configured when you installed Windows 95) should be shown in the Select a modem: area. Press the Configure button and you'll get a dialog box

In the General section, Crank up your modem speed to as fast as you think it will go. If you have a 14.4K modem, for example, make the maximum speed 19200. If you have 28.8K modem select 115200. DO NOT, however, select Only connect at this speed. This will let your modem adjust as the connection needs.

Don't worry about the Connection section, the defaults should be fine.

Next, select the Options section. Make sure the Bring up terminal window after dialing box is checked. Now hit the OK button.

Click the Next > button in the Make New Connection wizard. Enter in the phone number for your local connection: Phone Number Locator

Press the Finish button and your icon will be created.

Step 5: Setting the Dial-Up Properties

Select your newly-created connection icon with the right mouse button and choose Properties from the pop up menu. You should get a dialog box named whatever name you gave your icon

Press the Server Type... button. You'll get the Server Types dialog box..

In the Type of Dial-Up Server section, you should have PPP Windows 95 Windows NT selected.

Make sure that only Enable Software Compression is checked among the upper three options and that TCP/IP in the Allowed network protocols: section is the only one checked. Then press the TCP/IP Settings button.

Select Server Assigned IP Address and then select Specify Name Server Addresses. Enter the primary and secondary IP addresses: 66.102.117.6 & 207.7.4.66

Hit the OK button until you are back at the Dial up Networking window.

Step 6: Configure Dial-Up Networking to Automatically Redial a Busy

Number

From the Dial-Up Networking folder, select the Connections... menu item, then the Settings... option. From there, you can choose the number of times you would like your dial-up sessions to attempt connection.

Step 7: Dialing in and Getting Connected

Double-click your session icon that you recently made. You'll get the Connect To dialog, You don't need to enter your name and password here, just press the Connect button and your modem should start dialing. After a few rings, your provider's host machine should answer. Once you dial in, a post-dial terminal window will appear after the handshaking signals.

At the Login: prompt, enter your user name and press ENTER.

Then enter your password and press ENTER.

You should get a message on the screen saying something like PPP beginning...

If you get some garbled characters after entering your connection information, ignore it - it won't affect the connection it is just the PPP protocol at work.

Press F7 or click the Continue (F7) button and you should be connected! If all went well, you'll see a Connected to Dial-up PPP dialog box. You can now minimize (shrink) the Connected to window and run all your favorite 32 & 16 bit Internet applications.