Dial Up Access Notes Modem & Phone

These notes are intended to provide basic information only and are based on my limited experience. I am in no way an expert on any of this stuff and so there may be better ways to tackle many of the problems/steps involved. The following notes are based on experience with an IBM compatible PC running Windows 3.1 hence some of the software etc discussed will not be relevant to MAC or Windows95 users. However the basic principles will probably be similar.
What is Dial Up or Remote Access?   •   Why Would I want it?   •   What do I need before I can use Dial Up Access?   •   How do I set it up and get it to work?   •   Other Local Sources of Basic Dial Up Information

What is Dial Up or Remote Access?

Dial up access allows you to link your home computer or laptop/notebook into the Departmental & University network via a telephone line. A modem is used to make this link with a simple local telephone call and then your computer can use many of the programs that you would normally use on your office/lab machine that require the network eg. read your mail using Eudora.

Why Would I Want it?

The main reasons for wanting Dial Up Access are that you can:-

What do I need before I can use dial up access?

The following sections provide a brief outline of the basic items of hardware, software and account required. Each section also links to a more detailed discussion, including "How to" notes and links to locally archived software you may need.

Other Local Sources of Dial Up Information

Below are links to other UWA sites that provide info on Dial Up Access and Using SLIP/PPP

Computer

The minimum requirements will depend on what software you want to run. Probably you want at the very least a 386 with 4 mB of RAM. I am using a 486 DX4 with 12 meg.

Modem

Modems allow your computer to communicate with other computers via a telephone line. They come in several forms. The most common is a little box, usually with blinking lights, which connects to your computer & telephone. It is now becoming more common to have a modem that may be part of an internal card in your computer (usually as part of some communications/office answering system package). Your phone connects directly to the computer. Credit card style slot in modems are also available for laptop/notebook computers.

Modems vary in the speed at which they transfer information. Generally, the faster the better. You'll probably want at least a 14.4k (14.4 kB per second transfer or "baud" rate) modem (that's what I have) though 28.8k seem to be all the rage now. If you are buying a new modem it is unlikely to be anything slower than a 14.4 k. Modems can be relatively inexpensive, depending what you want. Most new ones will also allow your computer to send & receive faxes.

Your modem should come with instructions. Generally the default settings should not need to be altered unless you want to do something fancy.

Telephone

Your modem plugs into your telephone & your computer. When you are connected via your modem you obviously cannot use the phone ie. you can't ring out and no one can ring in. Your computer communicates with the University modems with a series of tones & sounds similar to a fax machine. In theory it doesn't matter what kind of telephone you have. However, I couldn't get my modem to work with a standard rental Telecom (oops sorry, Telstra) phone. However, I doubt that this is a common problem.

Applying for Dial Up Access

SLIP/PPP Access

Restricted Access SLIP/PPP - Any Alternatives?

The Psychology Department currently allows only restricted SLIP/PPP access to users through Dial Up. Restricted Access means you can't really "surf the net" using your dial up account. You can receive your email etc but when using Netscape etc you won't be able to access pages/links outside of the UWA network. (At least that is my understanding & experience thus far).

However, the UWA Graduates Society (Slow link) has recently announced (Uniview) that it is providing full internet access for $12-$15 per month (depending on whether you are a member or not) for UWA graduates & members of the UWA Graduates Society (I think anyone with a degree can join). My impression is that access is through UCS using the same lines etc as for a departmental dial up account. The main difference being you will have unrestricted web access. The fee is low compared to most commercial internet providers. However, you should also note that the system is pretty much unsupported. For more information email Meredith Chesterton at uwaga@cyllene.uwa.edu.au.

You may also consider getting an account through a commerical internet provider. You could get such an account in addition to your UCS dial up account & perhaps use it exclusively for web browsing while reading your mail etc through your uni account. This would save having mutliple email addresses to check etc. Links to a list of local commerical internet providers.

A cursory glance at the providers around suggested quite a surprisingly wide variation in fees, how you are charged etc. Some basic things to keep in mind when checking out providers are:-

Windows 3.x

If you are using an IBM clone you will obviously need Windows to run Windows software. You can use dial up access without having Windows but it means you will have to use the UNIX shell to read mail etc. Under these circumstances you would not require SLIP/PPP access.

Trumpet

Trumpet Winsock is software that allows you to connect easily to your dial up account and run SLIP/PPP. I guess it performs some of the functions that PCNFS performs on our networked departmental machines. Basically you can write a small script for Trumpet to run and it will dial up the UCS modems, log in for you, and set SLIP/PPP running without you having to do anything. It then runs in the background and you don't have to think about it until you are ready to log off.

Software

The software you choose will depend on what you want to do and what you are used to. Most software you will need can be found in our local software archive. Notes on installing these packages are beyond the scope of this page however installation is usually straightforward. Most come in either self-extracting archives or zipped archives & usually include a setup program. You can either copy these packages onto floppies and transfer them to you home machine that way or you can transfer them from the network using FTP once you have the your basic Dial Up account working. Here are links to the most common software.

Last updated 24/01/96

Go to top of page

Back to UWA Psychology    Back to UWA Psychology Home Page

Linda Jeffery / dialup.htm / linda@psy.uwa.edu.au