19.3. Broadband Connections

19.2. Connecting by Dial-up Modem

If you intend to connect to the Internet via ordinary phone lines, courtesy of your Mac's built-in modem, you need to sign up for an Internet service. Hundreds of companies, large and small, would love to become your Internet service provider (ISP), generally charging $20 per month for the privilege of connecting you to the great Internet.

A setup program for EarthLink, a popular ISP, presents itself as part of the Setup Assistant program that runs the first time you turn on a new Mac.

But if you aren't starting in such virgin territory (or if you want to sign up with a different ISP), you must plug a series of settings into the Network pane of System Preferences. You'll need to get this information directly from your ISP by consulting either its Web page, the little instruction sheets that came with your account, or a help-desk agent on the phone.

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Note: The following instructions don't pertain to America Online. It comes with its own setup program and doesn't involve any settings in System Preferences.

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19.2.1. The PPP Tab

Start by opening System Preferences and clicking the Network icon. You're shown the view pictured in Figure 19-1: a Network Status screen that summarizes the various ways your Mac can connect to the Internet or an office network, and how each connection is doing.

From the Show pop-up menu, choose Internal Modem. (Or just double-click the Internal Modem "row" of the status screen.) You should be facing the PPP tab, where you fill in the blanks like this:

• Service Provider . Type in the name of your ISP ( EarthLink , for example).

• Account Name . This is your account name, as assigned by the ISP. If you're [e-mail], for example, type BillG here.

• Password . Specify your ISP account password here. Turn on "Save password" if you'd rather not retype it every time you connect.

• Telephone Number . This is the local access number that your modem is supposed to dial to connect to your ISP.

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  Tip: If you need your Mac to dial a 9 or an 8 for an outside line (as you would from within a hotel), or *70 to turn off Call Waiting, add it to the beginning of the phone number followed by a comma. The comma means "pause for two seconds." You can also put the comma to good use when typing in the dialing sequence for a calling-card number.

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• Alternate Number . This blank lets you type in a number to dial if the first one is busy.

• PPP Options . Click this button to bring up a special Options dialog box. Here, for example, you can specify how long the Mac waits before hanging up the phone line after your last online activity, and how many times the Mac should redial if the ISP phone number is busy.

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Tip: In the Session Options, one checkbox you'll almost certainly want to turn on is "Connect automatically when needed." It makes your Mac dial the Internet automatically whenever you call manually, using the Internet Connect program described on Section 10.14. Only then could you check your email or open your Web browser.)

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Figure 19-1. The Network Status screen shows you how each of your network connections are doing at the moment. (The status messages actually change as circumstances change.) To adjust the network settings for a connection, double-click its "row."

19.2.2. The Other Tabs

Most people using a dial-up modem can ignore TCP/IP and Proxies tabs altogether. (The TCP/IP tab comes already set to "Using PPP," which is what you want. And proxy servers are computers used primarily by corporations to accelerate or filter the delivery of Internet information. Of course, if you work in a corporation, you probably don't connect to the Internet with a dial-up modem anyway. If you are that rare exception, ask your network administrator to show you how to set up this screen.)

On the Modem tab, you specify which kind of modem you have. Most Mac OS X “ compatible Macs have built-in Apple modems, which is why the pop-up menu already says "Apple Internal 56K Modem." If you, the heretic, have some other kind of modem, choose its name from the pop-up menu.

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Tip: This list of modems corresponds to configuration files in your Library Modem Scripts folder. You can save some disk space and simplify your life by throwing away the scripts for all of the modems except the one you actually use.

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Some of the other settings that can be handy include:

• Wait for dial tone before dialing . This is for you, North American laptop owners . Because the dial tones in certain foreign countries sound weird to the Mac, it therefore won't dial; it's still listening for that good old North American dial tone. In that case, turning off this checkbox makes the Mac dial bravely even though it hasn't heard the sound it's listening for.

• Dialing . Specify what kind of phone service you have ”Tone, or in a few rural locations, Pulse.

• Sound . By clicking Off, you make your Mac dial the Internet silently, sparing sleeping family members or dorm roommates from having to listen to your modem shriek as it connects.

19.2.3. Going Online

That's all there is to it. If you've turned on "Connect automatically when needed," your Mac dials and connects to the Internet automatically whenever an Internet- related program tries to connect (a Web browser or email program, for example).

If you didn't turn on that option, then you can make your Mac dial the Internet in one of two ways:

• Using Internet Connect . This little program is in your Applications folder. The main item of interest here is the Connect button, which makes the Mac dial. Once Internet Connect indicates that you're online, open your Web browser, email program, or other Internet software and get surfing.

  If you're smart, however, you'll turn on the "Show modem status on menu bar" checkbox. It adds a tiny telephone icon ”the Modem Status menulet ”to the upper-right corner of your screen, which lets you completely bypass Internet Connect the next time you want to go online (Figure 19-2).

• Use the menu-bar icon . Just click the Modem Status menulet and choose Connect from the pop-up menu. Your Mac dials without even blocking your desktop picture with a window.

  

  Figure 19-2. Going online automatically (by launching an Internet program) is by far the most convenient method, but you can also go online on command, in one of these two ways.
  Top: The quick way to dial or hang up is to use this menulet (which doesn't appear until you turn on "Show modem status on menu bar" in Internet Connect or on the Network pane's PPP screen).
  Bottom: You can also go online (or disconnect) the long way ”using Internet Connect.

  
  

19.2.4. Disconnecting

The Mac automatically drops the phone line 15 minutes after your last activity online (or whatever interval you specified in the PPP Options dialog box). In fact, if other people have accounts on your Mac (Chapter 12), the Mac doesn't even hang up when you log out. It maintains the connection so that the next person can surf the Net without redialing.

Of course, if other people in your household are screaming for you to get off the line so that they can make a call, you can also disconnect manually. Either choose Disconnect from the Modem Status menulet or click Disconnect in the Internet Connect window (both shown in Figure 19-2).

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Tip: If you have more than one ISP, or if you travel between locations with your laptop, don't miss the Location feature. It lets you switch sets of dial-up modem settings ”including the local phone number ”with a simple menu selection. It's described on Section 19.5.

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