Windows 95/98

Special: How To Change Your Dial-Up Number, Password, Username & Domain Tail

This website will show you how to change your most common Internet connection settings. This is actually a fairly easy and fast process. There is only one thing to keep in mind. If you are using Internet Explorer 5.X to automatically connect to the Internet then you will want configure that program separately for the domain tail, username and password. You still follow the instructions below for changing the dial-up number. 

Netscape, Outlook & Outlook Express' automatic connection options are still setup with the instructions on this page so you won't need to change those programs. If you are using automatic Internet Explorer connections then you still need to follow the instructions below in addition to using the separate Internet Explorer instructions for setting your username, password & domain tail. <Internet Explorer Instructions>

No matter which of these changes are needed, you will still start the process with these initial steps. Begin by opening your "My Computer" icon then open the Dial-Up Networking folder:

If you see the following window pop-up then click the "Cancel" button.

You should now see the following screen:

Right-click the dialer (known as a "DUN Client") and choose "Properties" to get the screen below.

Note: You can also get to these properties by clicking to highlight the connection and then clicking File Menu -> Properties.

Leave the area code blank. Put in the phone number that is your connection to the internet with 3 or 4 commas on the end for more stable connections.

If you are at work or in a hotel then you may need to dial 9 to get an outside line. In that case, place a 9,, in front of the phone number. Be sure to put one or two commas after the 9 so that the phone line will transfer before the modem starts dialing. You may also need a comma at the front of the number to force the modem to wait for a dial tone.

For 10-digit dialing, put the area code in the phone number box (not the area code box). Remove the checkmark in the "use area code and dialing properties" checkbox.

Click OK to return to the following window.

Double-click your internet company's dialer icon to open the "connect to" window below:

This window shows you exactly how the number will be dialed. You have to go into the properties of the dialer to change the number permanently but you've already done that so the number should be correct. You can do a temporary change from here but it will revert to the old setting next time that you try to connect.

Domain Tail: Make sure that you have @ispname.com on the end of the username. Otherwise, you might get lost on an internet hub somewhere. In such cases, you will get a "server not responding error" because you won't be reaching your ISP's server.

Click the "Connect" button and wait for your computer to dial-out and exchange password information. Once connected, you will need to open your Web browser such as IE5 or Netscape. You can now put in a website address such as www.google.com to start surfing the Internet.