WINDOWS 95 PPP CONNECTION INSTRUCTIONS by Steve Jenkins http://www.windows95.com WHAT YOU NEED TO GET STARTED: A PPP account from your Internet Provider, as well as the following information: Your user name Your password Whether you have a static (dedicated) or a dynamic (variable) IP address : PC-Ohio has dynamic IP Their local access telephone number : 381-3320 Your host name (your username as a single word, such as jsmith) Their domain name : pcohio.com Their IP subnet mask : 255.255.255.0 Their gateway IP address : 207.25.207.1 Their DNS address : 204.248.180.25 and alternate DNS address : 204.248.180.15 Once you have this information, you're ready to proceed to step 1. STEP 1: VERIFY THAT DIAL-UP NETWORKING IS INSTALLED Press the 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 button, select Settings..., then Control Panel. Double-click the Network icon. You'll see a dialog box like this. Make sure the Configuration tab is selected. Both Dial-Up Adapter and TCP/IP should be present (like in the picture), 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: DETERMINE HOW YOUR INTERNET PROVIDER HANDLES IP ADDRESSING Is your PC's IP address static (stays the same every time) or dynamic (changes each time you log on)? (PC-Ohio uses dynamic addressing). STEP 4: CONFIGURE YOUR TCP/IP PROTOCOL FOR DYNAMIC IP ADDRESSING Now that the driver is installed, you need to configure it so it will work with Windows 95. Go to the Control Panel and double-click the Network icon. You should get a dialog box like this. Click on the TCP/IP protocol (highlighted in the picture) 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. In each case, you can click on the section title to get a picture of the dialog box with the correct options selected. IP ADDRESS Select the Obtain an IP address automatically option. Note: however, if you obtain your IP address from a Windows NT DHCP server, Netscape will no longer get the gateway or DNS server IP address from the information set up under the Network options. The DHCP server options on the NT machine need to specify the DNS server IP Address and set the router address to your gateway. WINS CONFIGURATION Select the Disable WINS Resolution option for now, you can enable it later when you want to run peer to peer networking. GATEWAY Type in the gateway for your access provider. If you were using Trumpet Winsock, this number is the Default Gateway value in the Trumpet Winsock Setup dialog box. Once you've entered this number, press the Add button. BINDINGS By default, the Client for Microsoft Networks option is checked. Leave it alone. ADVANCED No changes needed from the default. DNS CONFIGURATION This is probably what has been giving you the most trouble. Select the Enable DNS option. This stands for Domain Name Service. Enter your user name in the Host box. In the Domain, put in the name of your provider, like abc.com or partyon.com or whatever. In the DNS Server Search Order section, put in the IP address of your provider's name server and press the Add button. If you were previously using Trumpet Winsock, the DNS is the Name server value in the Trumpet Winsock Setup dialog box. In the Domain Suffix Search Order section, type in the domain suffix (usually the same as the domain) and press the Add button. If you were using Trumpet Winsock, this is the Domain Suffix value in the Trumpet Winsock Setup dialog box. When you're all done setting these options, press the OK button. Then press the OK button in the Network dialog box. Windows 95 will ask you to reboot. Press Yes and run to the fridge for a quick snack. You're almost done! STEP 5: 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. The first dialog box looks like this. Type in "PPP Internet Access", "Internet Connection", 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 that looks like this. 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 57600. 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. Depending on how your provider handles login, there are a couple of ways to configure this dialog. For your first connection attempt, leave the Bring up terminal window after dialing unchecked. If you have connection problems later on, try checking the Bring up terminal window after dialing box, as shown in this picture. Now hit the OK button. Click the Next button in the Make New Connection wizard. Enter in the phone number of your access provider. You don't need to put in an area code if it's a local call. Press the Finish button and your icon will be created. Your Dial-Up Networking folder should now look something like this. STEP 6: SETTING THE DIAL-UP PROPERTIES Select your newly-created connection icon, press the right mouse button and choose Properties... You should get a dialog box named whatever name you gave your icon (I gave mine the name of Dial-up SLIP), which looks like this. Press the Server Type... button. You'll get the Server Types dialog box. It should look like this. In the Type of Dial-Up Server section, press the down arrow to drop down the list box. The list box options look like this. Since you're planning to use PPP, choose that server type in the list box. Make sure that Log on to network in the Advanced options: section is not checked (this makes for an easier inital install, you can check it off later when you want to try some of the more advanced peer to peer capabilities of Windows 95). Also, make sure that TCP/IP in the Allowed network protocols: section is checked. Then press the OK button. Hit the OK button in the remaining dialog box, and you're almost ready to dial! STEP 7: CONFIGURE DIAL-UP NETWORKING TO AUTOMATICALLY REDIAL A BUSY NUMBER Since most ISP phone numbers are CONSTANTLY busy, you should configure your dial-up sessions to automatically redial when they encounter a busy signal. 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 8: DIALING IN AND GETTING CONNECTED Double-click your session icon that you recently made. You'll get the Connect To dialog, which looks like this. Put your username and password in the appropriate text areas. Press the Connect button and your modem should start dialing. After a few rings, your provider's host machine should answer. If you didn't check the Bring up terminal window after dialing option back in the Connection section, Windows 95 should take care of the rest! Go ahead and fire up those 32-bit apps! If you had problems getting logged in, try going back and checking the Bring up terminal window after dialing option. Once you dial in, a post-dial terminal window will appear after the handshaking signals. It will probably look somewhat like this. 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 session from (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx beginning.... My connection message looks like this. MAKE SURE YOU WRITE DOWN OR REMEMBER THE NUMBER IT'S CONNECTING TO Depending on your provider, your screen may look different, or may ask for the type of connection you wish to make. You can type PPP if that is the case. If you're not sure, check with your provider. If you get some garbled characters after entering your connection information, ignore it - it won't affect the connection. Press F7 or click the Continue (F7) button. You'll get a PPP Connection IP Address dialog. It looks like this. Enter in the number that the terminal window displayed as connecting to. Click the OK button, and you should be connected! If all went well, you'll see a Connected to Dial-up PPP dialog box like this one. Go ahead and fire up those 32-bit Winsock apps! You can get the latest Windows 95 apps from my 32-bit Shareware Collection. If you think everything is set up correctly, but you're still having problems, try the Windows95.com Internet Troubleshooting Page. AUTOMATING INTERNET DIAL-UP If you'd like Windows 95 to automatically dial your provider and establish a connection whenever you use an Internet application, you can edit the Windows 95 registry to enable AutoConnect. Press the button, select Run..., then type REGEDIT.EXE and hit ENTER. This will open the Windows Registry Editor. NOTE: The registry contains all of the settings for Windows 95's operation. Be careful to only change settings that are mentioned in this tutorial. On the left, you'll see the My Computer icon, with nested folders beneath it. It should look something like this. Click on the + sign to open the following folders, in this order: HKEY CURRENT USER Software Microsoft Windows Current Version In the Current Version folder, you'll see a folder called Internet Settings. Select it, and the folder's contents will be displayed in the right side window of the Registry Editor. It should look something like this. Double click the EnableAutodial option, and change the value to 01 00 00 00. When you've made the changes, the box in which you made the changes should look like this. Now, when you open your favorite 32-bit Internet application, the Windows 95 dialer will fire up automatically! ADDING SCRIPTING CAPABILITY Now that you're up and running, you may want to try adding scripting capability if your ISP makes you type in your username and password each time to login. For information on scripting your dial-up connections, try the Windows95.com Dial-up Scripting Page. WINDOWS95.COM DIAL-UP SCRIPTING PAGE In order to automate the repetitive manual steps that must be completed to log into many ISPs around the world, more and more users are looking to scripts as a way to facilitate their login process. This section of Windows95.com discusses how to create scripts and how to use the Windows 95 built-in scripting tool to attach a script to a Windows 95 dial-up session. In addition, I have also created a page with example scripts that work with real-world connections. Click here to jump directly to the example scripts page now. NOTE ABOUT THE MICROSOFT SCRIPTING TOOL Many scripting users have been having trouble getting some of the Microsoft scripting commands to work. This is because there are two versions of the scripting tool available. The basic scripting tool (which ships on the Windows 95 CD-ROM and is available for download on this page) supports simple scripts only, like the sample script provided in this tutorial. The default scripting tool should be sufficient for the majority of script users. Using the more advanced scripting commands requires the scripting tool available in Microsoft PLUS!, which is available at your local software retailer. Any script that uses the integer command requires the Microsoft PLUS! version of the scripting tool. STEP 1: CREATE A DIAL-UP CONNECTION Before writing your script, make sure that you have a working dial-up connection to your Internet provider. If you do not, use the information on the Windows95.com TCP/IP Setup Page to help you set one up. Once you have a working connection, proceed to step 2. STEP 2: CREATE A LOGIN SCRIPT Using a text editor (Notepad will work fine), create a script that will issue the commands necessary to log you into your Internet provider. If you have a PPP connection, many providers do not require manual log in steps - your username and password in the Connect To dialog box will be sufficient, and you won't need dial-up scripting at all. However, all SLIP/CSLIP connections, some PPP connections, and any other connection that requires menu selections, advanced input, or that does not strip information from the initial dialog box will require a script. If you have a PPP connection that you think requires a script, try putting ppp:your_username in the username text area in the Connect To dialog box. Some providers will accept this to initiate a PPP connection. If that doesn't work, try a script. In most cases, you will most probably be able to modify an existing script to connect successfully with your provider. Sample scripts are available here. All scripts must begin with the following line: proc main and end with: endproc These are the commands to tell Windows 95 to start and stop the script. Use the waitfor and transmit commands to wait for certain information from your provider (such as a login: prompt or a password: prompt) and to transmit your username, password, and any other necessary information. The variables $USERID and $PASSWORD will send the username and password entered in the Connect To dialog box at the beginning of the dial-up session. To send a carriage return to you provider, use a ^M. To wait for any amount of time, use delay followed by the number of seconds. You can put comment lines in your scripts by beginning the line with a semicolon (;). For example: a simple script that starts, waits for a login: prompt, sends your username, hits ENTER, waits for a password prompt, sends your password, hits ENTER then ends, would look like this: ;This will begin the script proc main ;Enable the following to delay for 3 seconds first to ;allow host time to send initial characters (not needed by many ISPs). delay 3 ;Sometimes, ISP's need a carriage return to initiate the login process. ;If your ISP requires this, uncomment the following line: ;transmit "^M" ;Wait for the login prompt before entering the user ID and carriage return ;(I left off the first letter since login is case-sensitive) ;The $USERID variable is taken from the dial-up connection dialog box waitfor "ogin:" transmit $USERID transmit "^M" ;Enter your password (I left off the first letter since login is case-sensitive) ;and send a carriage return waitfor "assword:" transmit $PASSWORD transmit "^M" ;Finish the script! endproc In fact, the above is the exact script I use to connect to my provider! If your login requires more advanced input, click here for an online version of the scripting language text file included with the Dial-up Scripting files from Microsoft. If you use the integer command in your script, you will need the version of the Dial-up Scripting Tool available in Microsoft PLUS!. If your provider requires PPP callback, try inserting these lines into your script: delay 1 transmit "++++" delay 1 transmit "at&c0q0o^M" Once you're finished with your script, save it in the \Program Files\Accessories\ folder, with a file extension of scp (i.e. ppp.scp). STEP 3: VERIFY THAT THE DIAL-UP SCRIPTING TOOL IS INSTALLED Press the button, select Programs, then Accessories. If the Dial-Up Scripting Tool shows up, you're ready to proceed to step 4. If it is not there, and you have the Windows 95 CD, press the button, select Settings..., then Control Panel. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon. Select the Windows Setup tab, then click on the Have Disk.. option. Assuming your CD-ROM drive is E:, enter the path of e:\Admin\Apptools\Dscript. Press OK and the SLIP/CSLIP drivers and Dial-up Scripting Tool will be installed. If you have Windows 95 on floppies, you can click here to download the Dial-up Scripting Tool and SLIP drivers directly from Microsoft (be aware, however, that their server is VERY busy). Then install the Dial-up Scripting Tool as shown in the above paragraph. STEP 4: ATTACH YOUR SCRIPT TO A DIAL-UP PROFILE Press the button, select Programs, Accessories, then Dial-Up Scripting Tool. You'll see the utility's dialog box, which looks like this. Your current dial-up profile(s) will be listed in the text area on the left (as shown in the picture). Select the profile for which you wrote the script, and then press the Browse button. If you saved your script in the Accessories folder, it should appear in the dialog box. Select it and press Open. If you'd like to troubleshoot your script (recommended for the first time through), select the Step through script option. Upon connection, this will allow you to "step through" each line of your script and see the result in a terminal screen. When your script is working properly, select the Start terminal screen minimized option to keep the script window minimized when you connect. Press the Apply button (it's best to keep the Dial-up Scripting Tool dialog box open until you finish troubleshooting your script) and get ready to try your script! When you are certain it works, you can press OK to close the Dial-up Scripting Tool. It does not have to be open when you connect for the script to work. STEP 5: CONNECT AND TROUBLESHOOT YOUR SCRIPT IMPORTANT! Before you connect and use your script, go to My Computer, double-click Dial-up Networking, select your dial-up profile, click the right mouse button, and select Properties. Underneath your modem (in the Connect using section), press the Configure button. Select the Options tab and make sure that in the Connection Control area, NEITHER OPTION IS SELECTED. Even though you probably had the Bring up terminal window after dialing option selected previously, the Dial-up Scripting Tool opens a terminal window anyway. Leaving this option checked will cause your script to fail. Using Dial-up Networking, connect to your Internet service provider. Make sure your username and password are entered into the dialog box, since your script will need these variables to connect. If you chose to step through the script, a terminal window will appear upon connect and let you step through your script by pressing F7. Watch the result closely to track down errors in your script. You can press F3 during this process to cancel at any time. Once your script connects reliably, turn off the Step through script option in the Dial-up Scripting Tool dialog box. You can also close the Dial-up Scripting Tool. It does not need to be open for the script to run. It will run automatically with your dial-up connection as long as it is attached properly. EXAMPLE SCRIPTS I have put together a collection of sample scripts that work with Internet Service Providers around the world. You can find them in my Sample Scripts page. All of them are easily modifiable to work with your particular provider. WINDOWS95.COM INTERNET TROUBLESHOOTING If (even after following the instructions at the Windows95.com TCP/IP Setup Page religiously) you are still having problems, try some of the steps on this page. If you're looking for a definition of a word or acronym, try the Windows95.com Hyper-Glossary of Internet Terms. Another great resource for Windows 95 networking troubleshooting information is the Windows 95 Networking FAQ maintained by Rich Graves. If your problem isn't solved by following the steps on this page, check Rich's FAQ. BEFORE CHANGING ANY SETTINGS, VERIFY THAT THE CONNECTION WORKS: Go to the DOS prompt Type ping 198.105.232.1 (that's Microsoft's FTP server) or try 128.95.1.4 (their DNS server) If you get a response, then the TCP/IP protocol is working over your connection. Type ping FTP.MICROSOFT.COM If you get a response, then your DNS settings are correct and working. Try firing up those 32-bit Winsock apps! IF YOUR CONNECTION ISN'T WORKING PROPERLY, TRY THE FOLLOWING: If you have a PPP account, make sure the server type in the connection properties is set to PPP, not SLIP or CSLIP. You can also try disabling software compression in the Server Type... dialog box. If you have a SLIP account, make sure you have changed the server type to SLIP or CSLIP (PPP is the default). Make sure you typed in the correct IP address when prompted during the login process. For SLIP users: If you can use PING, but you can't use Winsock applications after you're connected, you probably need to switch the server type. Try changing the server type in the connection properties from SLIP to CSLIP or CSLIP to SLIP, depending on the current setting. IF ONE OF YOUR WINSOCK APPS ISN'T WORKING PROPERLY, TRY THE FOLLOWING: First, check to see if the application requires a specific WINSOCK.DLL file. Some Winsock apps out there copy their own WINSOCK.DLL file into their directory, which may be the cause of your troubles. Rename the application's WINSOCK.DLL so that Windows 95 only uses the Windows 95 winsock (it's called WSOCK32.DLL). If the application doesn't work with Microsoft's Windows 95 winsock, you may have to rename Windows 95's winsock, and copy the application's WINSOCK.DLL file into the Windows directory. Caution: this will probably cause other Winsock applications not to work, so I only recommend it as a last resort, and only if you really want to run that application. Try contacting the application's vendor and ask if they can send you an updated version that will work with Windows 95's WINSOCK.DLL. Make sure that a version of WINSOCK.DLL doesn't show up in the path. If Windows 95 encounters the Trumpet WINSOCK.DLL file, for example, intstead of its own, 32-bit apps have a tendency to crash. If you're getting an error like "Can't Find TCPMAN.EXE" then WIndows 95 is finding the Trumpet Winsock before it can find the Windows 95 winsock file. Rename the old WINSOCK.DLL file. OTHER TCP/IP ISSUES: For current release notes on using TCP/IP and Dial-Up Networking with Windows 95, double-click on the Windows 95 Release Notes icon on your desktop. If you deleted it (like I did!) you can use NOTEPAD to view the README.TXT file in the Windows directory. If you are using TCP/IP on a Wide Area Network, but it is bound to both the LAN and PPP adapter and no DHCP server is present on the LAN, you may notice a 2 to 3 second pause when the computer accesses the network. To get rid of the pause, unbind the TCP/IP protocol from your LAN adapter. To do this, go into the Network control panel, select Properties, then uncheck TCP/IP in the bindings property area. To change MTU and/or RWIN values for your connection, you'll have to edit the registry. In order to simplify this task, you can download these two registry update files (press SHIFT while you click to download to disk): MTU Change and RWIN Change. To set these parameters, simply download the files, then select one, press the right mouse button, then choose Edit. Change the number value of the registry setting to the desired value, then save and exit. Simply double-clicking the .REG will update the registry with the new setting. You'll have to reboot for the change to take effect.