The default is the first option, which coincidentally is the one we want here - "Dial-Up to a private network." The second option, "Dial-up to the Internet" sounds like the option you'd want, but that one is more for if you have no internet account at all, and you'd like this wizard to help find one and help you sign up for it. Click on Next, and you'll see the window where you enter the phone number. It looks like this :
If you check the box "Use Dialing Rules" you'll be able to enter an area code and country/region code. For most users, you're dialing a local number anyway. Click Next to continue. You'll then see a panel where you can choose whether this connection is available for all users of this computer (i.e., anyone that logs on to it) or just for the currently-logged-on user. The default is All Users. Make your selection, then click Next. The final window of this Wizard is where you can type in a name for this connection:
You can check that checkbox at the bottom if you'd like a shortcut to your desktop. Click Finish. Windows will automatically open the connection (assuming that if you just created it, you likely want to use it). You'll see:
To see the advanced settings, open up the Network Connection manager (right-click My Network Places and click on Properties). Find the dial-up connection you want to modify, right-click on it and also select Properties. A window will appear with various tabs - each tab covers a different area of settings. The links to the left correspond to each of those tabs, and have details on the options on each tab.
As you can see, this tab shows mostly the information that was entered into the Wizard for the Basic Setup. It shows which modem is being used (Note - if you have more than one modem you'll see them all listed, with a check box next to the one(s) that can be used with this connection). Clicking the Configure button takes you to the Modem Configuration settings.
By default the "Show icon in taskbar when connected" box is checked - this shows a little icon in the taskbar tray that shows two computers - the screens on the computers light up to indicate transmission/reception of data over the connection.
Dial-Up Networking (DUN) - Advanced Setup - Options Tab
This panel is divided into two sections - Dialing Options and Redialing Options.
Dialing Options
The Dialing options section has four items - the defaults are shown checked above:
Display Progress while Connecting is fairly self-explanatory. If checked, while connecting Windows 2000 will display information on what is going on - Dialing, authenticating, etc.
Prompt for Name and Password - if checked, when you double-click this connection you'll be prompted for User ID and password. If unchecked, Windows 2000 will use the options you've already filled in. Uncheck this if you always enter the same things.
Include Windows Login Domain - Windows 2000 will prefix your user ID with the domain name you logged onto your computer with - for example, if your user ID is "frank" and your domain is "wintest", Windows 2000 will actually attempt to log you on to the computer you are dialing with a user ID of "wintest\frank". This is mostly only useful if you are dialing into a corporate LAN.
Prompt for Phone Number - if checked, when you double-click this connection you'll be prompted for the phone number to dial. If unchecked, Windows 2000 will use the previously used phone number. Like the option to prompt for Name and Password, uncheck this if you always enter the same things.
Redialing Options
This is where you can define how you want Windows 2000 to attempt redials if the computer you are calling is busy. You can also set a time limit for idle connections (connections where no data is being transferred), to have your system automatically drop the connection.
The next tab is Security.
Most of the time, you won't need to alter these settings. By default, the system is set up to allow an unsecured password. This only refers to your dial-out password. It is important to note that if the computer you are dialing requires stronger security (i.e., encrypted passwords) then that method will be used - "Allow unsecured password" only means that if the
dialed computer doesn't request encryption, you'll still connect.
If you know you're dialing a site that requires a secured password, you can select that from the dropdown box to provide yourself an added bit of security. Doing so allows you to also select the checkboxes shown grayed-out above.
If you selected "Advanced (custom settings)" you'll see a panel allowing you to configure Data Encryption, and which specific authentication protocols you'll allow, such as PAP, SPAP, CHAP, MS-CHAP, and others.
The next tab is the Networking tab.
This tab is used to specify which network protocols are used for this connection. The defaults, shown above, are unlikely to need to be changed by most people. The first item is a drop-down box that allows you to select either PPP or SLIP. SLIP is rarely used today. The second section is where you can specify protocols (and also much more rarely, clients and services). If, for example, you needed to use IPX over this connection, you would click on Install, then select Protocols from the option box displayed, then select the IPX option. This is also where you set specific protocol properties. If you click on TCP/IP then click the Properties button, you'll see the following:
These are the proper settings if the computer you are dialing automatically assigns an IP address and sends DNS information. If you have a static IP address, click the appropriate radio button on this panel and type in the numbers. Clicking the "Advanced" button on this panel opens a new one with locations to enter specific items such as WINS addresses, more DNS options, whether to use IP header compression, and more. The next tab is Sharing
These are the proper settings if the computer you are dialing
automatically assigns an IP address and sends DNS information. If you have
a static IP address, click the appropriate radio button on this panel and
type in the numbers. Clicking the "Advanced" button on this panel opens a
new one with locations to enter specific items such as WINS addresses, more
DNS options, whether to use IP header compression, and more.
The next tab is Sharing
In the panel above, I've clicked on the "Enable Internet Connection Sharing
for this connection" checkbox (by default connections are not shared).
This is a special feature of Windows 2000 (a rudimentary version is included
in Windows 98 Second Edition). Enabling Connection Sharing results in the
following happening on your Windows 2000 computer:
A DHCP service is installed and configured to issue 192.xx "fake" IP
addresses
A DNS service is also enabled
Network Address Translation (NAT) is enabled
The idea here is that this computer will now be somewhat of a server for the
other computers on your network. If you do this, and set the other
computers to use DHCP to get their network settings, then those computers
will now be able to access the internet through the internet connection on
this computer.
In fact, if you check the box marked "Enable on-Demand Dialing", then if any
computer on the network tries to access the internet through this computer,
the connection will automatically be dialed if it is not already active.
For example, imagine you have three computers at home - yours, your wife's,
and your kid's. You have them all networked together using a hub. Only
your computer has a modem. You could set up a dial-up connection, and
enable sharing. Then, any time either your wife or your kids tried to
access the internet, their computer would do so through your computer, and
without any manual action your computer would dial the connection. In fact,
all three computers could use the connection at the same time.
Note that Windows 2000 Professional has a limit of 10 such computer
connected to it at a time (there's no official limit on Server other than by
licensing).
By default, Connection Sharing only allows port 80/443 traffic (web pages)
over the connection (sort of a poor-man's firewall). Click the Settings
button to specify other protocols (such as FTP, Telnet, etc). There's also
an option to authorize various applications - if you do that, then Windows
2000 will automatically open any ports needed by those applications.