screenCaps

Notes

You start the dialer by

• doubleclicking on the the dialer in Dial-Up Networking
• doubleclicking on a shortcut to the dialer
• doubleclicking on the browser (doesn't work in all configurations)

Sometimes the user's "Save Password" checkbox is disabled (greyed out). This is almost always because they do not have "Client for Microsoft Networks" (C4MSN) installed in the Control Panel "Network" section (see here and here).

(A note about changing the password here when the "Save Password" box is enabled and checked: The newly entered password does not get saved until the "Connect" button is clicked and a working dial-up connection has been established.)

Clicking on the "Dial Properties..." button allows you to define how your calls are dialed. This includes things like

• area code
• area code rules
• dial something to get an outside line
• disable call-waiting
• long distance calling card information

Clicking the "Properties" button is the same as rightclicking on a dialer in Dial-Up Networking then clicking on "Properties" (see here).

If you start the dialer by doubleclicking on Internet Explorer, the "Cancel" button shown here says "Work Offline". Same thing.

This little feller is one of your handiest troubleshooting tools. The modem icon (with users I often call it "double monitors" because that's what it looks like to me) only exists in the system tray (see description) when the local (user's) modem is connected to a remote modem.

Just because a connection exists does not mean that communications are taking place; however, no communications can occur until a connection exists.

Rightclicking on the modem icon allows you to see the modem "Status" (see next screenCap).

It is the careful observation of the modem icon's behaviour which makes it extremely useful. Notice that the icon is divided into two independent active sections:

• for windows Me
  • upper/left/behind represents the remote (ISP) modem
  • lower/right/front represents the local (user) modem
• for windows 95/98
  • upper/right/behind represents the remote (ISP) modem
  • lower/left/front represents the local (user) modem

Each section can "light" independently. The "local" section lights up when the local modem is sending data; the "remote" section lights up when the local modem is receiving data (which implies that the remote modem is sending data).

When everything is working correctly, the two sections will light whenever you go to a web page, reload it, download, upload, whatever. Both will be lit because even though you're just downloading data (for example), your machine is still sending acknowledgements of individual packets. If you're just reading a page, one or the other will flash periodically as the local or remote modem checks in with the other to make sure it is still there.

When the modem is "connected" (icon exists in system tray) but neither icon section is lighting at all, this often means that the modem (logic) hardware is locked up; a cold boot will always reset the modem hardware.

When just the local section stays dark and the remote section flashes, this means that the local modem is receiving requests but either doesn't "understand" them or is unable to repond. This could be either modem hardware lock up or incorrect modem configuration settings.

When just the local section flashes but the remote section flashes, this means that the modem thinks that it is sending valid requests but it isn't receiving any responses at all. Again, this could be modem hardware lockup but is more likely to be incorrect modem settings.

Sigh. It's difficult and potentially misleading to try to provide glib, generic answers out of context like this. You have to think about what you're seeing, try to determine what it means, and connect it with what you already know about the rest of the machine.

This screen shows your connection speed in bits per second, time online, and the number of bytes received and sent in the current connection session.

The most telling values are the received and sent bytes. In the course of "normal" browsing, the number of received bytes will generally be about 5 to 10 times more than the sent bytes. If you're doing some serious up or downloading, this ratio will change accordingly.

Sometimes a user will "connect" but they can't browse the web at all (see the next screenCaps). The modem icon local and remote sections will remain mostly dark, maybe the local modem may flash every 10-20 seconds or so. If you look at the received/sent bytes, you will see a few hundred bytes received and the number of bytes sent gradually increasing by about 100 bytes each time the modem icon local section flashes.

Sometimes this is caused by incorrect settings in which case it would be chronic situation.

Occasionally it is just a bad dial-up connection; disconnect and it everything goes back to working just fine.

Other times, LAFN (O1, whoever you want to blame) just seems to not be responding for a while. This happens to me every now and then, I'll cold boot my machine, no change, boot again, no change, then suddenly, everything's working again. These episodes can last anywhere from a couple minutes up to twenty minutes. I have no explanation, I just see it. I guess the moral is, wait a while before deciding that either your machine or LAFN is FUBAR.

On very rare occasion, the user's account may become corrupted at LAFN. I've seen this happen maybe 3 or 4 times in as many years. It would be best to eliminate all other possibilities first.

See the next screenCaps for typical "Can't connect" browser responses.

Netscape and Internet Explorer report identical phenomena in different ways.

If the user's modem is connected but there are no communications taking place, then you will see the screens to the left.

On the other hand, if the user's modem isn't even connected, then you will see these screens.

Windows ME, click "Start", then move up to "Settings", then click on "Dial-up Networking"

Windows 9x, doubleclick on "My Computer", then doubleclick on "Dial-up Networking"

This screen will vary depending upon the "View" settings. The first screenCap is View/ Large Icons mode. However, I prefer the View/ Details mode (second screenCap) because it explicitly shows the actual phone number being dialed.

It is vital to establish which dialer is being used. I have seen users who have literally scores (1 score = 20) of dialers. Just figuring out which dialer is being used can be an exercise in patience.

Some users have a "shortcut" to their dialer on their desktop and they use that to establish a connection. If so, it is essential to determine which actual dialer the shortcut they use points to (see the end of this section).

Other users doubleclick on their browser or email client program and the system automatically opens the dialer for them.

Find out how the user connects normally. You probably are not going to be able to change the user's habits, so find out what they are comfortable with and work within that paradigm.

Find the most likely dialer, home in on it, define it in your mind as the default dialer.

Look carefully at the "manMod" dialer(s) in the screenCaps. You will see a small blue box with a white check in the upper right of the icon. In winMe (not in win95/98) this signifies the default dialer.

Establish exactly which dialer they are using. I do this by having them read off to me, slowly and carefully, the full name of each and every dialer in the Dial-Up Networking window. You can't change a specific dialer unless you know its "name".

If they are using a shortcut to a dialer, have them rightclick on the shortcut and click on "Properties", make sure that the link for this dialer shortcut points to the correct dialer, the dialer you intend to modify.

Having determined the dialer to modify, rightclick on the actual dialer in Dial-Up Networking then click on "Properties" to view the dialer properties discussed in the next section.

Here is where the dial-in number can be changed. It is done in the "Area code" and "Telephone number" text fields. If you are dialing within the same area code, you can leave the "Area code" blank.

Country Code should be "United States of America" but this is only selectable when "Use area code and Dialing Properties" is checked.

If the user needs to disable call-waiting or is dialing outside of their area code, he or she will need to have the "Use area code and Dialing Properties" checkbox checked (see here for additional details).

Write down the name of the user's modem. In my example, it is, "HSP56 MicroModem"

This information may be valuable later. Click on the "Configure" button. This will take you to modem configuration settings. You want to be certain that these are correct. The modem is where "the rubber hits the road".

Unfortunately, these settings can be very temperamental. Most of the time you can go with the default settings. But sometimes, you have to play games with the settings to make them work.

I will show the usual, default settings in the following examples.

The "Port: COM#" varies from machine to machine, generally from 1 to 4. Make a note of it.

Speaker volume doesn't matter but I like it up high so I can hear the cadence, rhythm and tonality of the connection as the negotiations proceed. Once you hear it working right a few times, you will recognize when something may be a bit amiss.

Maximum speed is almost always "115200", but this is somewhat dependent on the modem hardware.

The important thing is that the "Only connect at this speed" checkbox is *unchecked*

Click the "Connection" tab.

These are "Gospel" settings, not user preferences type settings.

Click on "Port Settings...".

This is the winMe screen capture.

win98 shows two sliders, the "Receive Buffer" should be 2/3 to the right, the "Transmit Buffer" should be all the way to right.

Click "OK/Cancel" to move up one level, then click on the "Advanced..." button.

"Modulation type" may be either "Standard" or blank.

"Extra settings" is the place where the Hayes Modem initialization string are entered. These are extremely hardware dependent. Generally no strings (default settings) are correct.

However, a few "unorthodox" strings which I have found work are:

AT+MS=v90,1
AT+MS=k56,1
AT&F&D2&K3+MS=V34

I have been informed that the second string (which forces a kflex56 modem style) cannot work on LAFN. But this was the only way I could make one user's machine work with LAFN. The barking dog is wagging its tail, go figure.

I have "Append to log" activated for my own arcane purposes. Normally this would be unchecked.

Click "OK/Cancel" to move up one level then click the "Options" tab.

Click "OK/Cancel" to move up one level then click on the "Networking" tab.

In Windows98, this is called "Server Types" and has 5 checkboxes in the "Advanced options" frame.

The three checkboxes "lost" from win9x to winMe are found in the "Security" tab of winMe (go down two screenCaps from here).

A very common mistake in win9x is to have the "Log on to Network" checkbox enabled. This should be unchecked. Having this checked under the Managed Modems causes a delay of approximately one minute between the dial-in status "verifying username and password" and actually becoming connected. (Thanks to Jim Jozwiak for that fix)

Another common mistake is, in the "Allowed Network Protocols" frame, to have "NetBEUI" and/or "IPX/SPX Compatible" checked. These should be unchecked as these can cause a sluggish rate of data exchange.

Click on the "TCP/IP Settings..." button.

"Server assigned name server addresses" should usually be selected. However, some users' machines will require "Specify name server addresses" to be selected with the appropriate DNS numbers. The numbers shown are the correct numbers for the O1 DNS.

Bottom two checkboxes are always checked.

Click "OK/Cancel" to move up then click the "Security" tab.

"password" is always asterisked. Here is wisdom: have the user count the number of asterisks to ensure that they have the right password. When a user changes his or her password, I explicitly tell them to make their new password have a different number of characters.

The previous may sound a bit dumb, but there is a very good reason for it. Let's say that yesterday's password was "yesterday" and today's password is "today".

Yesterday's password will be displayed as "*********", today's password will be displayed as "*****"

See? The count of characters strongly suggests which password had been entered in this field.

Common password errors, let's use "Blivet" as a sample password:

Having the CapsLock key on either during intial or subsequent password entry (bLIVET vs. Blivet)

Pressing an intial shift key (blivet vs Blivet)

Transposing characters: (Blivte vs Blivet)

(See section on typos for additional potential errors.)

You should never ask for a user's password, but sometimes they will blurt it out. When dealing with password problems, it can be helpful to try to connect as the user using his/her userid/password. This is *not* a recommended practice since it compromises the user's security and puts you, the mentor, at risk. However, this can be a very effective trouble shooting tool.

If you can connect "as the user", then you know that the LAFN account is ok. If you cannot connect "as the user" this strongly suggests that the LAFN account may be corrupt. Rare, but not unheard of.

Another technique you can try to see if the user can connect is to have them use the userid: "visitor", no quotes, no password (The more observant of you may recall a peculiar dialer in my Dial-Up Networking screen called "lafnVisitor". Well, that's exactly what that does.) This will allow an operational connection to LAFN for 15 minutes.

Click on the "Scripting" tab.

Click on the "Multilink" tab.

Click on the "Dialing" tab.

The top part has a somewhat comparable section of a window in win98; that functionality is found on the InternetpropertiesConnections page

The bottom part of this window appears as the InternetOptions/ Connections/ Settings/ (lower)Advanced window in win98 machines.. I know I know, ticks me off too :(

The important stuff is the "Enable idle disconnect" and "Disconnect when connection may not be needed".

Both of these should be disabled. These can cause Windows to disconnect in an unpredictable manner.

Also, winMe has a subtle bug in it which, on some machines, causes it to not correctly set the "Always dial my default connection" radio button at boot time even though it was correctly set when the machine was ShutDown. The setting "fixes" itself (returns to "Always dial.." after two or three attempts to automatically use the dialer by starting the browser, or by starting the dialer, then Canceling the dialer, then doubleclicking on the browser.

I have busted my hump trying to figure out a fix with no success. Microsoft acknowledges this (ahem) issue as being a problem with "Internet Call Waiting for PC by Bell Canada (see Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q275317. {this link requires being connected to the internet}) Well my friends, it's been a while since I've been in Canada... Anyway...

Some users may report the problem, so be kind and say you know the problem exists, but no fix for it exists at this time other than the two actions mentioned above.

If you've made any changes in the dialer, click "OK"; otherwise click "Cancel".

Doubleclick on "Modems" to get to "Modems Properties".

(Note: Do not doubleclick on the name of your modem if it exists in the Control Panel as is shown in the screenCap to the left [HSP56 MicroModem]. Click on the icon labled "Modems" which looks like a telephone sitting on an antique external modem circa 1982.)

Forget about the "Properties" button, that just takes you to a very similar window as the "Configure" button from Dial-Up Networking Properties General tab (goto the screenCap.)

However the "Dialing Properties" button does open up a section which can be vital for some users, the ability to disable call-waiting in particular.

Click the "Dialing Properties" button.

Note that for winMe (I'm not certain about win98) this same window can be gotten to by clicking the "Dialing Properties" button from the "Connect To" window when you start the dialer (see this).

The "I am dialing from:" dropdown box allows you to create multiple configurations for the Dialing Properties and AreaCode Rules. That is to say, each entry in the "I am dialing from:" dropdown box may have completely different settings, and you switch between sets of settings by changing the entry in this field. I would hazard to guess that this is most useful for laptops and is essentially useless for desktop machines.

However, given the whimsical nature of the telephone company in deciding how folks should need to dial to connect across the street, it is good to know where this information is. We all remember the 310 area code "overlay" fracas with amusement and good grace. Yes, of course we do.

The "Area code:" field here refers to the user's home area code, where they are dialing from, not where they are dialing to. This information is needed so the dialer can know when it should dial 1-(areaCode) before the target phone number.

Note that these settings, including disable call-waiting, are active only if the "Use area code and Dialing Properties" checkbox of the dialer's properties is checked (see here).

To the best of my knowledge, the correct entry to disable call-waiting is *70.

Click on the "Area Code Rules..." button.

A couple years ago when the phone company was trying that "overlay" stuff in the (310) area code (had to dial 1 310 ###-####, ridiculous), this window became very important. Since they tried it once, they'll try it again someday, so here is where you go to set that stuff up.

It's quite straightforward as long as you carefully read and comprehend the captions for each field. Enough said.

Click "OK/Cancel" twice to return to the "Modems Properties" window, then click on the "Diagnostics" tab.

Now this window provides access to another very useful tool which relatively few people know about. Forget about the "Driver" button (arcane and almost completely useless information) and the "Help" button (typical computer help: absolutely, categorically, and completely useless information). What you want is "More Info..."

But before you do that, if there is more than one entry in the text area, make sure that the correct COM port is selected (that would be the one with the modem attached). You have to click on the word "COM#" itself in the text area, make sure it's highlighted. Clicking on the "Installed" entry will just unselect everything.

After you select (highlight) the correct COM port, click the "More Info..." button.

After you click the "More Info..." button, you will get a window (I was unable to capture it try as I might, sorry) which says, "Communicating with Modem. This may take a few minutes." In fact, it should take only a few seconds. Then you should get a window similar to this one.

Basically what happens is that several Hayes commands are attempted and the modem's responses are reported.

While this test is certainly not foolproof, it is a guarantee that if the modem fails this test, it is not going to connect to the internet.

The responses will vary from modem to modem, but generally you are looking for a few things:

• the correct response to ATI1 varies quite a bit, including no response at all.
• a few "OK"'s
• the name of the modem in ATI3 and/or ATI4
• there should be no mention of "Error"

If you get nothing in the text area (you should get at least the ATI1 commands), then you have almost certainly forgotten to select the COM port with the modem on it. I forget all the time. :)

If you do get "bad" responses ("Error" and so forth), the first thing to do is cold boot the machine. I cannot emphasize strongly enough the inherent advantage of a cold boot over a warm boot.

Click "OK" to return to the Modems Properties, then "OK/Cancel" to exit to the Control Panel.

Doubleclick on "Internet Options" to get to "Internet Properties".

Ahem. Yes, you read it correctly.

Also, "Internet Properties" (the next screen) is exactly the same screen and place as you get to from Internet Explorer by clicking menu item "Tools" then "Internet Options..."

Note that it is not enough to just launch your browser and see the homepage (whatever it is) to prove that communications are occuring; you may be looking at a cached copy of the page (a copy which exists as a temporary file on your computer).

To prove that the machine is communicating, be sure to click the "Refresh" (IE) or "Reload" (Netscape) button and observe that the work area clears briefly then redraws itself.

A minor note: Internet Explorer will load a bit faster if you reduce the "Number of days to keep pages in history." However! If you make this zero (0), you will never see a visited link. So if you have a user who says, "Hey, I click on a link, it goes red for a split second, I get to the destination link, but when I return, it's still 'unvisited'! What gives?" check this first. :) It took me an hour to find this the first time. :)

The same holds true for Netscape.

"Security" and "Content" issues are dealt with in other documents. (Don't forget to write "other documents...)

Click on the "Connections" tab.

(Instead of the text area containing the available dialers as shown, some users will have a text field with a dropdown button; click the dropdown button to select another dialer.)

It is important to select a default dialer. Be sure to set it to the dialer you are working on. You can only set a dialer to be default when either the:

• "Dial whenever..." or
• "Always dial..."

Note the "LAN Settings..." button at the bottom right. One would think that since no LAN connection is being utilized that any settings being enabled in there would not affect dial-up communications. Not true.

I don't have a reasonable theory why having enabled settings in there can interfere with dial-up connections. But they do. So inspect it and if they have settings turned on in there you can blame that.

Click the "LAN Settings..." button.

Unless the user really is part of a Local Area Network, all of these boxes should be unchecked.

This sort of brings me up to another matter, what if a user has implemented a LAN at home and wishes to connect safely to LAFN? My procedure has no room for that. Experienced mentors may wish to help clarify this for me and others.

Click "OK/Cancel" to return to the previous screen, then click the "Settings..." button.

Normally the "Use a proxy server" checkbox should be unchecked. However, some older machines may not be able to communicate without it. It doesn't hurt anything to check this box as long as the proxy settings are correct, but normally it is not needed. However, the "Bypass proxy server for local addresses" box must not be checked. This causes really bad things :)

To define the proxy settings, check the checkbox and click the "Advanced..." button in the Proxy server frame.

(A word of clarification: on win98 machines there is another "Advanced..." button (yes, two identically labeled buttons in the same window). The other Advanced button is in the "Dial-up settings" frame. Be certain the user understands which button to which you are referring.)

In the "Dial-up settings", make sure that the user has their userid in the user name text area and the right number of asterisks (***) in the password text area. Domain is blank, I have no idea what happens if there is text in there.

If you click on the "Properties" button, that takes you to the Dial-Up Networking Properties for the selected dialer you are working on, the same as at the beginning (rightclicking on a dialer and clicking Properties). I usually give this another spot check to make sure Windows hasn't played any tricks on me. Yes, occasionally it does, though more often I have just gotten sloppy. Doublechecking keeps me on my toes.

If you want to set up the proxy information, click the "Advanced" button of the "Proxy server" frame.

Click "OK/Cancel" until you get back to "Internet Properties", then click on the "Programs" tab.

(All of the relevant detail info here applies to the analogous Netscape Proxy settings page.)

The proxy information entered here falls into four categories:

1. Socks proxy settings
2. Old proxy settings
3. Ancient proxy settings
4. Non-standard (usually incorrect) settings

2. Old proxy settings may be required for some older machines. They are:

• HTTP: proxy.lafn.org
  port 80
• Secure: proxy.lafn.org
  port 80
• FTP: proxy.lafn.org
  port 80
• Gopher: proxy.lafn.org
  port 8001
• Socks: (address blank)
  port doesn't matter
• Exceptions: www.lafn.org

3. Ancient proxy settings would be having "www.lafn.org" in place of "proxy.lafn.org" for category 2.

4. Non-standard settings. Sometimes folks will have proxy.lafn.org and www.lafn.org thrown willy-nilly all over.

You should have either just the Socks address filled in and the rest blank, or all others filled in and Socks blank ("filled in" = "proxy.lafn.org" without double quotes). Having Socks and any other (HTTP, Secure, FTP, Gopher) proxy address filled in will cause unpredictable behaviour.

However, on the topic of non-standard settings, I have seen a few machines, not many, and not all of them old, which require a little fiddling in the Exceptions field to get the browser to access LAFN.

Occasionally I have had to have users use "www.lafn.org:80" instead of "www.lafn.org".

One memorable machine had me talking to myself until I put "www.lafn.org:8001" in the Exceptions field. Don't ask why it worked or why I had to do that. I haven't a clue. All I know is that it works (to this day) and I'm merely reporting it.

Click "OK/Cancel" until you get back to "Internet Properties".

Click "OK/Cancel" until you get back to "Internet Properties".

Most LAFN users don't write their own web pages. For those that do, the "HTML editor:" selection is pretty thin, so I tell everyone to leave it "as is" and if they want to write html, fire up their favorite html editor manually.

The email client is straight-forward: If their preferred browser is Netscape, they should select "Netscape Messenger" (not to be confused with any Instant Messaging program). If their preferred browser is IE, then they should select "Outlook Express" or "Outlook". If they prefer a different email client such as Eudora, then obviously they should select that. If it's not available from the dropdown list, I don't have an easy way to solve that. It can be done, but not easily and not without some peril (playing with the registry).

Not one out of twenty LAFN users access the (Usenet) newsgroups. If they do, they should use the same client as they're using for email if the option is available. Frankly, if they're using Netscape, these settings don't make a bit of difference; these only affect which program IE calls if you try to access those features from within IE.

I've never met anyone yet who uses "Internet call". So I solemnly tell folks to set it to "Microsoft NetMeeting".

"Calendar:"? I have no idea, it's always blank.

"Contact list:" should be "Address Book". I seem to recall that some machines do have other options, but mine doesn't. I know that AddressBook works fine for everyone I've worked with.

Never click the "Reset Web Settings..." button. It will wipe out much of the nice work you've done.

The checkbox, "Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser" should only be checked for those users who actually use IE as their browser of choice.

To force Netscape to be the default browser, see the end of this web page. That procedure must be done completely separate from these settings.

Click the "Advanced" tab.

This is a window designed to make strong people weep. Especially people who try to help other people over the phone.

The order, phrasing, and even existance of some of these settings change significantly between even minor versions of IE.

Usually I find it best to let the customer read the name of the setting and its status (checked/unchecked) while I hunt around for it on my screen. I do this because I'm more familiar with the screen than they are.

The "Accessability" items are relevant only for folks with vision problems who are using the handicap-assistance features. They don't affect connecting.

The "Browsing" items in this screenCap are pretty much individual preference stuff, they don't affect connecting.

(...continued...)

Bottom half of "Browsing" items. About the only one I can think of which might affect connectivity would be
"Use Passive FTP for compatibility....", but I've never seen this be an issue.

"HTTP 1.1 Settings": I've never seen a deviation from the settings shown.

"Microsoft VM" (aka Java Virtual Machine): the "Java console enabled" should be unchecked.

(...continued...)

"Microsoft VM" (continued...): "Java logging.." should be unchecked, "JIT compiler.." needs to be checked. Deviations will slow down some browser performance on certain pages with java applets (not javascript; javascript is a completely different animal from java).

"Multimedia": totally user preference here.

"Printing": again, user preference, but I would strongly urge "Print background colors and images" to be unchecked unless you like paying for ink.

(...continued...)

"Security": Except for the last two items, I consider that these settings should be made exactly as shown here.

If any changes were made, click "Apply" then "OK"; otherwise click "Cancel" to return to "Internet Properties".

If you made any changes elsewhere in "Internet Properties" and the "Apply" button is enabled, click the "Apply" again, then click the "OK" button.

Now you should be back to the Control Panel.

Okay, the first thing you need to do is have Outlook Express running. Next, click menu item "Tools" then "Accounts..." to get to this screen.

That there are four tabs can be slightly misleading. There are only three different sets of Account information: "Mail", "News", and "Directory Service". The "All" tab just shows all the accounts in one window.

I find it helpful to just look at what I'm working on, so click the "Mail" tab.

What is displayed in the text area ("pop3.norton.antiv..." in this case) is only a label which you choose to refer to the account! You can call it "Wally" or "Fido" if you want, but that isn't very informative. I could (maybe should) have called mine "LAFN POP3 mail", you get the idea.

If the user has several email accounts (either from experimentation or from other ISPs) then you will have to find out which is the correct one to use by examining the "Properties" of each account and determining which is easiest to fix. Then you select that email account by clicking on it at this page, and clicking the "Set as Default" button.

If the customer isn't using the other email accounts, I'd suggest getting rid of them as they don't do anything except add human confusion.

Now you've got the (default) email account selected, click on the "Properties" button.

The text area which is under "Mail Account" is where you would put "Wally" or "Fido" or "LAFN POP3 mail". Whatever you put here is what will be displayed in the previous screen.

Under "User Information":

"Name:" is normally the user's proper name, but can be anything (including nothing).

"Organization:" doesn't matter, some folks like to put their company name in there.

"E-mail address:" must be the user's correct email address otherwise mail will not be sent (that is, no, you can't spoof your email address here. :))

"Reply address:" If left blank, your email address above is the value used. This field can be set to anything for display purposes, but if it is not a valid email address and the recipient tries to "Reply" to the email, the reply will fail. Miserably. OE will warn you if the character string in this field does not contain exactly one "at" (@) character (abc@d is OK; @abcd abcd@ a@b@cd abcd are all not OK).

"Include this account"... can cause confusing problems if the user has more than one mail account, especially if they are "dead" accounts. For troubleshooting purposes, make sure that only one account (the one you're working on) has this checkbox enabled.

Click on the "Servers" tab.

"My incoming mail server is a" should always be "POP3". I have no idea how one would change this field.

"Incoming mail (POP3):" should be "mail.lafn.org" unless the user has a fairly recent version of Norton Anti-Virus (NAV). If the user has NAV, then this field should be "pop3.norton.antivirus".

"Outgoing mail (SMTP):" must always be "smtp.lafn.org". For some reason, this seems to be grand central station for typos, the favorite being (BAD) "stmp.lafn.org".

"Account name:" should be the customer's LAFN userid unless the user has NAV. If the user has NAV and has "pop3.norton.antivirus" in the "Incoming mail (POP3):) field, then this field must read "[userid]/mail.lafn.org" as shown.

A note about this "Password" field. This password is used only for received email. It has to be the same as the LAFN user login password. If the user changes their password at LAFN and at their dialer but forget to change this one, the next time they try to access their email, they will be prompted for the correct email password and what they enter will automatically be put here.

...Um, as long as the "Save Password" checkbox is checked. Of course.

Click on the "Connection" tab.

If LAFN is the user's only dialer, then the "Always connect to this account using:" checkbox setting is academic. Otherwise, check the checkbox and select the same dialer as is used for dialing in to LAFN.

Some other versions of IE/OE have a text area here instead of a dropdown box, so it is wise to ask the customer what they see when they click this tab before blithely telling them to click on the dropdown button, etc.

(Checking the checkbox enables the "Settings..." button, this button takes you to the "Dial-Up Networking" Properties window (see here). I'd suggest not changing Dial-Up Networking settings in a round-about manner like this.

(Likewise, the "Add..." button takes you through "Make a new connection" of Dial-Up Networking. If you want to add a dialer, do it from there, not here.)

Click on the "Security" tab.

To be honest, I'm not very clear about how to use this section. I know that if you want to digitally sign your emails, you have to acquire a digital certificate from an "Issuing Authority" such as VeriSign.

For more information, see this link to VeriSign (this link requires being connected to the internet).

The bottom line is that 99% of LAFN users do not need a digital ID, so you can leave this stuff "as is". In fact, for troubleshooting purposes, I would disable all this stuff (after making notes about the original settings) even if they *did* use digital ID's.

Click on the "Advanced" tab.

The server port numbers and SSL settings shown are Gospel.

The server timeout specifies how long to wait for a response from the server before stopping an attempt to send or receive messages. One minutes seems to work okay for me.

Breaking apart messages is mostly to support mail systems that limit the size of individual emails. I don't think I've seen such an animal since 1997 or so.

Having "Leave a copy of messages on the server" unchecked is still a high priority.

All right, click "Apply/OK or Cancel" as appropriate to return to "Internet Accounts" (remember this?), then click the "Close" button to return to the Outlook Express main screen.

Next click menu item "Tools" then "Options..." to get to the next screen.

I don't use OE at all except for testing purposes (rarely), but I seem to recall that if you have more than one dialer, OE wants to dial all of them when sending or receiving email. Putting a check in "Ask before switching dial-up connections" gives you a bit more control over the process.

And "Hang up after sending and receiving" just seems a bit high-handed and autocratic to me, so I uncheck it. I'll decide who I dial and when I hang up, thank you very much.

Clicking on the "Change..." button of the Internet Connection Settings is just another way to get to "Internet Properties". Again, if you want to change your Internet Properties, I find it prudent to take the path of least circumlocation and convolution.

Sometimes you will get this window when accessing your email. For whatever reason, I think the mail client is trying to access the POP account a second time while the mail server is already busy servicing the email client's first request.

To get out of this window, type in your password and press the Enter key; do not click the "OK" or "Cancel" button because that won't work.

Neither will Alt-Cntrl-Del and "End Task". That will only lock up your machine.

From the main screen of Netscape, click on menu item "Edit" then click on "Preferences" to get to this screen. Disregarding the details on the right, I will refer to this general screen (with the structure in the left text area) as the "EditPrefs" window.

Nothing surprising here.

Note the hierarchical structure to the left, very similar to the Windows Explorer depiction of a directory structure. If an item has sub-categories then it has a small square immediately to the left of its name; in the box is either a plus (+) or a minus (-) sign. The plus sign means that the item is not "expanded." To expand an item, either click directly on the plus sign or doubleclick on the item name.

Doubleclick on "Mail & Newsgroups" to expand and select that item.

All simple user preferences, though I usually strongly recommend that "Confirm when moving folders to trash" is checked (if it isn't already).

Click on the "Identity" item.

Everything said in Oe Tools Accounts Properties General applies here: Name is your real name; email address is email address; reply to is your email address unless you specify otherwise; organization is whatever.

The one absolute is that the email address must be correct.

The noticeable difference is the option for a "Signature File:". You may specify an ASCII (*.txt) file containing static text you wish to append to each outgoing email. The same function is found in Outlook Express by clicking "Tools", "Options", "Signature".

Click on the "Mail Servers" item.

Unlike the analogous Outlook Express screen, here the name displayed in the text area is the name of the mail server. This is defined in the next screen (after selecting a mail server and clicking the "Edit..." button). I'll return to that "Edit" button in a minute.

First make sure that the "Outgoing mail (SMTP) server:" is correct. Typos here are common.

Next, verify that the "Outgoing mail server user name:" is the customer's LAFN userid.

The "Use Secure Socket Layer(SSL)..." is set to "Never".

Now click on the mail server name in the text area (to select it) then click the "Edit..." button.

If the customer does not have Norton Anti-Virus (NAV), then the "Server Name:" must be "mail.lafn.org". If the customer does have NAV, then it should be as shown.

"Server Type:" is always "POP3 Server".

If the customer does not have NAV, then the "User Name" must be their LAFN userid. If the customer does have NAV, then the "User Name:" must be as shown.

I sometimes run into flak because I always set my "Check for mail every [1] minute". Well, my reasoning is that the darn thing is not going to chime in every 60 seconds to glibly inform me, "You don't have mail!" I mean, c'mon, that's just plain silly. :)

Click on the "POP" tab.

Here's the place to make sure that messages are not left on the server. Make sure this is unchecked.

Click "OK/Cancel" to return to the EditPrefs window, then click on "Newsgroup Servers" at the left.

I doubt that 10% of LAFN users read the USENET Newsgroups, but here is the info anyway. Not much to tell, you can only access the USENET groups which LAFN permits in. To be able to read them, you have to define the newsgroup server.

Click the "Add..." button to define the server if it has not been set already.

Otherwise, click on a news server to select it, then click the "Edit..." button to see what has already been set.

Clicking "Add..." takes you to this screen.

You put "news.lafn.org" in the "Server:" text field. "Port:" is "119" (the default).

It is my understanding that neither the SSL nor the "name and password" option is implemented in the LAFN news system (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Click "OK/Cancel" to return to the EditPrefs screen, then click on "Addressing" at left.

Clicking "Edit..." takes you to this screen.

This just shows you what your current settings are.

Click "OK/Cancel" to return to the main "EditPrefs" window, then click on the "Addressing" item at left.

Mostly individual preference stuff, though I'm pretty sure that it's a very good idea to have the "Address Books" checkbox checked.

Click on the "Messages" item at left.

More individual stuff. To this day I can't find any difference between the settings for the last frame, "Send messages that use 8-bit characters". They both say 'does not work well with some mail servers'. I figure it's best to put things through as few shenanigans as possible, so I always have users set it to "As is".

Click the "Windows Settings" item.

I prefer the settings as shown, I get to see more information which is relevant to me (the body of the email being read). But no big deal one way or the other.

Click the "Copies and Folders" item.

Same old, same old, same old... Personal preferences, but Bcc'ing to one's self makes the inbox a crowded place. That is what the "Sent" folder is for.

Click the "Formatting" item.

Now here I am a bit more adamant. Personally, I do not like receiving html or rtf formatted emails.

First off, there are far too many ways to hide nasty things (viruses, trojans, worms, activeX stuff, scripts, etc.) in formatted emails.

Second, folks mistake visual grandeur for semantic content. When I get emails, I want to read ideas, not be assaulted by a variety of fonts, sizes and colors.

Third, using formatted text increases the size of the email (in terms of bytes) by at least 2 or 3 times.

Fourth (and this is my main reason for using plain text in my outgoing email), not everyone is equipped to receive formatted text. On the other hand, everyone who can get email is equipped to receive plain old ASCII. This is a case of striving to meet the lowest common denominator.

To me, this is just a simple courtesy.

Click on "Return Receipts".

I will leave this page for the truly anal retentive.

Click on the "Disk Space" item.

These are personal preferences and I have long forgotten what the defaults are. :( I always make the settings as shown.

You might want to "un-expand" the "Mail & Newsgroup" category since we are done with it.

I'm not going to address "Roaming Access" or "Composer" in detail here since they have no bearing on day-to-day connection matters.

As I understand it, "Roaming Access" is a way for you to retrieve your Netscape program profile information from some central "Roaming Access server". I don't think too many LAFN users have need of this feature, though with statewide access now, this may well change.

"Composer" allows the user to change settings for the built-in Web building module of Netscape.

Doublelick on the "Advanced" item (to expand as well as open it).

First, let's make a clear distinction here: Java and JavaScript are two completely different and unrelated languages.

Java is a standalone, (mostly) platform independent programming language.

JavaScript is a scripting language suited only for (what did I read the other day?) "enhancing the viewer's browsing enjoyment." In other words, JavaScript permits a web author to add fancy stuff to a web page and it must run within the confines of a browser program.

So, what does that have to do with this screen capture? The settings you see to the left are what I use 95% of the time. I leave java on but turn off JavaScript. Why?

Well, how shall I put this delicately? Sometimes I visit sites which are intentionally engineered to keep me around, sites of "ill-repute". But they rely upon the visitor's browser having JavaScript enabled. The way it works is when you attempt to exit the site, two new windows open up. You close one of those new windows, and you get two new and additional screens. Extremely annoying in general and a little frightening the first time it happens.

Unfortunately, it isn't just the red-light district which does this sort of thing; a lot of "reputable" sites throw new windows of advertising at you when you visit them. It's ridiculously easy to do. :(

However, it's also ridiculously easy to stop:
Disable JavaScript.

Cookies: Easy: Accept only cookies that get sent back to the original server. There is another way to largely confound the idiots who take advantage of this fundamentally nice idea. I will address that later.

Click on "Cache"

Quite frankly, I would say always leave as the default values.

Click the "Proxies" item.

Nowadays for most users this area should be exactly as shown. But some users may need to use the proxy server anyway. To set the proxy server info, click on the "Manual proxy configuration" radio button then click on the "View" button.

If you have to set someone up using the non-Socks proxy servers, this page gives the right port numbers. The proxy server address will always be "proxy.lafn.org".

Regarding non-Socks proxy settings, the same rules apply here as for the IE proxy settings: Either put proxy.lafn.org in Socks and leave the rest blank, or fill all the others with proxy.lafn.org and leave Socks blank.

These settings do not have any effect unless the previous screen has the "Manual proxy configuration" radio button selected.

I still don't believe in this damn page. :) I don't have a blessed clue what the hell these settings do. Yeah, I read the "Help", what it describes has no relationship to what my machine does. Any ideas?