REMOTE & MOBILE LINKS

REMOTE & MOBILE COMPUTING HOME DISPLAY SYSTEMS NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) REMOTE NETWORK ACCESS WIRELESS NETWORK

Dial-up Networking Dial-up Networking is provided with all Microsoft Windows operating systems. It allows a modem and phone line to be used to connect to the campus network. It could be used by a student or faculty/staff member using their home computer or someone traveling with a notebook computer.

Some facilities have digital telephone lines. A somewhat reliable method to identify a digital phone line is the telephone. If it has a display and lots of buttons it is very likely connected to a digital phone line. Digital phone lines can have voltages present that will damage the modem and possibly the computer. Anytime you use a phone line for the first time you should confirm it is an analog phone line.

Dial up networking can be configured to call an SOU modem pool, such as the SOU Faculty/Staff modem pool or an ISP (Internet Service Provider). Both of these methods provide the same capability with one exception. Dialing into the SOU Faculty/Staff modem pool provides limited Internet access so you only have access to SOU web sites.

If you are traveling, calling the SOU Faculty/Staff modem pool is probably be a long distance call. Be aware that many hotels and motels charge very high rates for calls billed to your room. You should try to use a calling card to keep down the cost of your long distance calling. There are several ISPs that offer nation-wide access. With this sort of service, it is very likely there will be a local phone number for you to use at you destination. It can be difficult to program the dialing instructions for dial-up networking, especially when using a calling card. If you need assistance doing this, contact the Help Desk, prior to your departure, at 541-552-6900 or x2-6900.

If you are having trouble connecting with Dial-up networking, try to monitor the progress through the following steps:

1. Double-click the Dial-up Networking shortcut.
2. Confirm the "User Name", "Password" and "Dialing from" are set correctly and click the connect button.
3. Listen for the dial tone then for the modem to dial the phone number.
4. Listen for ringing. A busy signal can indicate one of two things. It may be that all of the modems are busy. In this case click Cancel and try again. If you continue to get busy signals, inform the Help Desk, if using the SOU Faculty/Staff modem pool or the ISP, as appropriate. A busy signal can also mean you've not selected the correct "Dialing from" setting. In this case click Cancel, confirm the "Dialing from" setting and try again. If you hear more than two rings, the modem pool may have a modem that is malfunctioning. You may have to try again, two or three times before the modem resets and becomes usable again.
5. Listen for the modems to handshake with each other. This is a whistling/raspy sound. If the handshake takes longer than usual, it can mean you have a noisy phone line. You should check your connection speed if you are successful in connecting.
6. Observe the dialog box Status for "Verifying user name and password…" then "Logging on to network…". The "Logging on to network…" can take several seconds.

At this point, if everything went well, you are connected and have the two joined computers icon in the system tray (where the time is displayed). The green computer screens will flicker when data is being sent/received with the modem. You can hover the mouse pointer over the icon to see your connection speed. Connections slower than 14,400 bps should be disconnected then try again for a faster connection. If you have a 56K modem, you should know that you won't actually get a 56,000 bps connection. Due to FCC regulations, receiving speeds are limited to 53,000 bps. There are very strict requirements for the phone lines and service provider equipment to achieve the higher speed connections. See your modem documentation for details.

If you're not connected, start over and try again a couple of times. Consider trying to connect from a different location. If you still can't get through, call the Help Desk at at 541-552-6900 or x2-6900. Tell them at what point, in the steps above, the process fails. When you are through with your connection to the campus network, especially when you're calling long distance, you should disconnect. To disconnect, double click on the system tray icon or the Dial-up Networking icon then click the Disconnect button. Most service providers will automatically disconnect after a period of inactivity.

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