Computing for the Bewildered. By Bill Hayles Hello again. The same topic seems to arrive in my mail box month after month: "How do I get a Spanish internet connection?", or "I've got an account, how do I use it?". What follows assumes that you are connecting to the Internet through your normal telephone line with an analogue modem - this is true for almost all of you, and if you're one of the exceptions you'll already know it! I hope to cover these faster connections, RDSI (ISDN) and ADSL in the future. SPANISH ISPs --------------- The three main Spanish ISPs are Terra (aka Teleline) http://www.terra.es owned by the Spanish telephone company Telefonica, Wanadoo, http://www.wanadoo.es owned by its French parent of the same name, and Eresmas and Telepolis, who are essentially the same http://www.telepolis.com http://www.eresmas.com and it is on these that we will concentrate. There are many other providers, large and small AOL also have a presence in Spain (http://www.aol.es). However, AOL work differently from everybody else. You cannot (as far as I can see) sign up on line. You have to go to one of their sales agents, who include (in the Alicante Province) branches of Media Markt and Carrefour. AOL use their own software, and are more like an independent network with content of their own with Internet access tagged on. Almost none of what follows applies to AOL! ACCOUNTS -------- All the ISPs offer "free" accounts. With these, you pay the ISP nothing, but connect through a phone call charged at local rates. Other offers vary from month to month - you will need to check the websites of the ISPs. Currently, Terra are not offering any sort of flat rate deal (tarifa plana), but these can be bought from Wanadoo, Eresmas and Telepolis at a rate of between 16 and 18 Euros per month. For this sum, you have unlimited access through a free number at off peak times (1800 to 0800 Monday to Friday, all day Saturdays and Sunday). Wanadoo allow you to couple this with "bonos", which give you varying amounts of peak rate access, ranging from 22 Euros for 6 hours per month to 37 Euros for 30 hours. The bonos can be contracted without the Tarifa Plana, should you so wish. Telepolis also allow you 30 minutes of national calls per month included in your Tarifa Plana. TECHNICAL SUPPORT ----------------- Both Terra and Wanadoo advertise telephone and e-mail support in English 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. Feedback I've received is that this facility is indeed available, although you may need to wait. I believe that this is also available with Telepolis, although I've never used it. Be warned that telephone support for the "free" accounts, and also some tarifa plana accounts,in whatever language, is by means of a premium rate number! SIGNING UP FOR AN ACCOUNT ------------------------- This couldn't be easier, provided you have a basic understanding of Spanish or have somebody with you who does. Go to the web page of your chosen ISP, and follow the instructions. For example, for Wanadoo, click on "Acceso Internet" from the home page, pick your account type, and click on "Quiero Darme de Alta. You will be confronted with several pages of electronic forms, which will ask you (usually) your name, (Spanish) address, NIE, date of birth, requested user name, requested password, and interests (the latter for marketing purposes! It makes sense to think of a user name that hasn't been used before, as this must be unique to you. For example, I would never be able to get the user name "Bill", but I have usually been able to get "Billnot", my nickname, simply because nobody has used it before. Fill in the forms, and that's that. If you get anything wrong, or your user name is already taken, you'll be invited to fill the form in again. Once your details have been accepted, it's generally about half an hour before your account is activated. Make sure you make a note of the information given (listed below) which you will need to establish your connection. SETTING UP THE CONNECTION. -------------------------- I will be assuming that you are using Windows 95 or Windows 98, and that you have just obtained an account with one of the major Spanish ISPs. I will also assume that your modem is correctly set up and working. The procedure is very much the same for more recent versions of Windows. The ISP will have supplied you with the following information (items marked with * are what you give to them!) Your user name to make the connection (and password *) Your local access node (the number you need to dial to connect) Your IP address Their DNS (name server) addresses. Although you don't need them just to connect and browse the web, you will also be given details of: Your user name to access your e-mail (and password *) Your e-mail address Their POP3 server Their SMTP server Their news server OK, so what do we do with this information? HOW DO WE CONFIGURE OUR CONNECTION? ----------------------------------- Open "My Computer", then "Dial-up Networking". Click on the "Make New Connection" icon. In the "Type a name for the computer you are dialing", put whatever you like - this will be the icon description when the connection configuration is completed. The "Select a device" box should already be filled in. Unless you have more than one modem, there will be no reason (or easy way) of changing this. There is no need to click the "configure" box, unless you know what you're doing. The default settings are reliable rather than lightning fast. Click "next" You will be asked to type in the number of your local connection. Put all nine digits in the "telephone number" box, and nothing in the area code - this makes life easier later! Make sure the country or region code is showing "Spain (34)". If not, your computer is incorrectly set up! Click "next" and you will be told you have successfully created a new connection - but your work's only just starting!! What next? CONFIGURATION - SECOND STAGE Go back to the "Dial-up Networking" folder. Your new connection should be shown there. Right click on the icon and select "Properties" On the first page, "General", make sure no digits are displayed in the area code box, and make sure "Use area code and dialing properties" is unchecked (it's checked by default) On the next page, "Server Types", the server type can be various things (if it's greyed out, it's unchangeable and right!), but should refer to some sort of PPP connection. If not, continue anyway and if you have no luck call for help. The boxes underneath are where Windows gets it wrong! Only "Enable Software Compression" and "TCP/IP" should be checked. Uncheck all others. Now click on the TCP/IP settings box. This is where the fun starts! The "addresses" you are being asked to input consist of a set of four numbers, between 0 and 255. Your ISP will have given you these. Unless you have an ADSL connection, you will be using a dynamic IP. Check the "server assigned IP" box, and that's all you will need to do for that. However, some Spanish ISPs do not use server assigned DNS (name server) addresses, and you will need to enter these. On the major ISPs, I understand only Terra still work like this, but if you know the numbers for your ISP, it will give you a more reliable connection if you can put them in. The WINS settings will always be 0.0.0.0 For Wanadoo, the Primary DNS is 62.37.228.20 and the secondary DNS 62.36.220.75 For Terra, the Primary DNS is 195.235.113.3 and the secondary DNS 195.235.96.90 For Eresmas or Telepolis, the Primary DNS is 62.81.16.197 and the secondary DNS 62.81.0.1 "Use IP compression header" and "Use default gateway" should both be checked. Click on "OK". Don't touch the scripting and multilink pages. Go back to the "General" page and click OK. Now it's time to connect! CONNECTING! Double click the icon for your connection. You will be confronted by a dialog box with some fields filled in. The user name will (probably) be wrong. You need to change it to the user name for logging on to your account. This is NOT the same as your e-mail or pop3 name. I can't tell you what it will be - you will have been told when you signed up for your account, and I hope you made a note of it, but it's probably something like myusername@wanadoo or myusername@uni2 (both Wanadoo) MYUSERNAME@telelineb (Terra) myusername@eresmas.com (Eresmas)or myusername@telepolis.com (Telepolis) The password is whatever you chose. If you have followed these instructions correctly, the number to call should be filled in correctly, but if not, correct it. Click on the "connect" button and you should be connected. You will know you've successfully connected by the dialog box disappearing, and a little icon of two connected screens appearing in your System Tray. No news is good news - if the connection fails, you will be told. Also, most (but not all) modems make noises as they connect. I HAVEN'T CONNECTED. WHY? If you've heard no noise from your modem, then it probably isn't connected to your phone line! Check all connections, and that somebody else isn't using your phone. If you're told "wrong user name or password", check both for errors of spelling and case. The Internet is, in general, case sensitive. If you hear "¡Digame!"coming from the modem, you've dialled the wrong number and have a real person at the other end!! In all cases, check everything and try again. When successfully connected, you can start browsing. If you have been, thanks for reading this.