Creating a Network Connection for an Existing Account | Windows Vista: The Complete Reference (Complete Reference Series)

To create a new network connection to a dial-up Internet account, you use the Connect To The Internet Wizard. For ISDN accounts, see "Creating a Network Connection for an ISDN Line" later in this section. For DSL accounts, your DSL installer should already have set up Windows to work with your account: some DSL accounts appear as dial-up connections in the Network Connection window, and you use this connection to log in.

Tip	If you installed Windows Vista, the Setup Wizard may have created a network connection for your Internet account during Windows setup. Check the Network Connections window to find out.

Creating a Dial-up Connection

The Connect To The Internet Wizard can create a network connection, using easy-to-follow straightforward questions. Run it by following the instructions in the section "Running the Connect To The Internet Wizard" earlier in this chapter. If you know you want to set up a dial-up account, simply click the Set Up A Dial-Up Connection link when you see the Choose A Connection Option window. Click Next to move from screen to screen and answer the following prompts:

Choose A Connection Type Choose Connect To The Internet.
Do You Want To Use A Connection That You Already Have? Choose Create A New Connection, if the Do You Want To Use A Connection That You Already Have? window appears. This enables you to create a new connection even if you have an existing one set up.
How Do You Want To Connect? Choose the type of connection you use, broadband or dial-up. For this example, use the Dial-Up option.
Type The Information From Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) Type the ISP's access phone number, your username and password, and a name that you want to use for this connection. It doesn't have to be your ISP's name-it's the name that Windows will assign to the connection icon. Click Connect after you fill out this window. Windows connects to your ISP. If it cannot find the ISP, or if you do not have your modem connected to a phone line yet, when the Internet Connectivity Test Was Unsuccessful window appears, click Set Up The Connection Anyway.
The Connection To The Internet Is Ready To Use Click Close when you see this window, to indicate that you are finished setting up the new dial-up account.

The wizard creates a new icon in the Network Connections window.

Creating a Network Connection for an ISDN Line

To create a dial-up connection for an ISDN line, run the Connect To The Internet Wizard by following the instructions in the section "Running the Connect To The Internet Wizard" earlier in this chapter. Click Next to move from screen to screen and answer the following prompts:

Choose A Connection Type Choose Connect To The Internet.
Do You Want To Use A Connection That You Already Have? Choose Create A New Connection, if the Do You Want To Use A Connection That You Already Have? window appears. This enables you to create a new connection even if you have an existing one set up.
How Do You Want To Connect? Choose the type of connection you use, broadband or dial-up. For this example, use the Dial-Up option.
Type The Information From Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) Type your username and password, and a name that you want to use for this connection. It doesn't have to be your ISP's name-it's the name that Windows will assign to the connection icon. If you want to share your broadband connection, click Allow Other People To Use This Connection. Click Connect after you fill out this window. Windows connects to your ISP. If it cannot find the ISP, or if you do not have your modem connected to a phone line yet, when the Internet Connectivity Test Was Unsuccessful window appears, click Set Up The Connection Anyway.
The Connection To The Internet Is Ready To Use Click Close when you see this window, to indicate that you are finished setting up the new dial-up account.

The wizard creates a new icon in the Network Connections window.

The wizard creates the dial-up connection for the ISDN line. Now you can configure the ISDN line type to use. The following procedure shows how to configure your ISDN adapter (note that your adapter may have different settings than the ones described here):

Right-click the dial-up connection icon in the Network Connections window. Choose Properties from the menu that appears. You see the Properties dialog box for the ISDN connection.
On the General tab, select the ISDN channel that you want to configure. Click the Configure button to display the ISDN Configuration dialog box.
Set the Line Type, Negotiate Line Type, and other settings according to the instructions you receive from your phone company or ISP.

Tip	Some phone companies charge "data" calls by the minute, while "voice" calls are free. For that reason, some ISPs allow you to connect with the 56 K Voice line type, which disguises the connection as a "voice" call to the phone company. This method is called Data over Voice (DoV).

If you create a multilinked ISDN connection that bundles both of your ISDN channels, you can also configure the bundling. Click the Options tab of your dial-up connection's Properties dialog box and select the bundling behavior under Multiple Devices:

Dial Only First Available Device Uses only the first free ISDN channel and leaves the other one available, so you can still make or receive phone calls.
Dial All Devices Creates a "static" 128-kbps connection that uses both ISDN channels all of the time.
Dial Devices Only As Needed Allows dynamic use of the ISDN channels, which you can configure by clicking the Configure button. With this setting, Windows initially uses only one ISDN channel, and starts using the second one when you fully exploit the bandwidth of this channel for an extended time period (for example, when you start downloading a big file). When the download is finished, Windows automatically disconnects the second ISDN channel again.