Section 9.4. Connection Management: All Versions


9.4. Connection Management: All Versions

No matter what crazy combination of Internet connections you've accumulated on your computer, Windows represents each one as a connection icon . You can view them, rename them, change their settings, or just admire them by opening the window shown at top in Figure 9-3.

Figure 9-3. Top: This lucky individual has three different ways to get to the Internet: a dial-up account (listed first), a wireless network, and ( courtesy of an Ethernet cable) a wired network. One of the many ways to go online is to double-click the connection you want to use .
Bottom: Double-clicking the dial-up account name produces this dialog box, where you can click Dial to go online. (Turning on "Save this user name and password" eliminates the need to type your password each timein general, a great idea.)


To get there, choose Start Network. On the toolbar, click Network and Sharing Center. Click "Manage network connections (in the left-side task pane).


Tip: If you travel frequently between the same couple of cities, consider making a different dial-up connection icon for each citywith the local access phone number already stored in each. To do that, right-click the first dial-up icon (Figure 9-3); from the shortcut menu, choose Create Copy. Authenticate yourself (page 191), then double-click the newly hatched icon to change its built-in phone number.

These icons are handy because their Properties dialog boxes are crammed with useful information. A dial-up connection icon stores your name, password, phone number, and so on; a broadband icon stores various technical Internet connection details.

In these and other situations, you need a way to make manual changes to your connections. Here, for example, is how you might change the Internet settings for a cable modem, DSL, or wireless connection.

  1. Right-click a connection icon; from the shortcut menu, choose Properties. Authenticate yourself (page 191) .

    (This assumes that you've started in the Network Connections window shown in Figure 9-3.) You get the dialog box shown at top in Figure 9-4, bottom.

    Figure 9-4. Lower left: In this dialog box, double-click the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) item that corresponds to your Ethernet card .
    Top right: Your cable or phone company generally configures these settings for you. But if a freak solar eclipse wipes out all of your settings, you can re-enter them here. When you click OK, you should be back online .


  2. Double-click the listing that says Internet Protocol Version 4 .

    An even more intimidating dialog box now appears (Figure 9-4, top).

  3. Type in your account information .

    Most of the time, your cable or phone company has instructed you to turn on "Obtain an IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS server address automatically." You don't know how lucky you areyou've been saved from typing in all the other numbers in this dialog box. Otherwise, turn on "Use the following IP address" and type in the appropriate numbers . Do the same with "Use the following DNS server addresses."

  4. Click OK .

    As a courtesy, Vista doesn't make you restart the computer in order for your new network settings to take effect.

9.4.1. The Notification Area Icon

The Network icon in the notification area (Figure 9-5) is a handy status meter, no matter how you're getting online. If it bears a red X, for example, it means that your PC isn't connected to any network at all.

Figure 9-5. Top: If you point to this icon without clicking, you'll see a tooltip showing your WiFi signal strength and, if you're dialing up, whether or not you're connected .
Bottom: If you click it, you get additional links to key control centers. And if you right-click it, you get a shortcut menu that lets you disconnect, troubleshoot, or display "activity animation"blinky screens on the two tiny computers, illustrating the transfer of data. (Figure 9-1 shows that one.)





Windows Vista. The Missing Manual
Windows Vista: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596528272
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 284
Authors: David Pogue

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