Abstract
Working with Exchange is largely a matter of making connections. This chapter reviews some of the essential skills involved in making and maintaining those necessary connections. You will learn how to tell Windows where you’re dialing from, instruct Windows how to dial with your credit card, adjust your international dialing code, make dial-up connections to the Internet or to a network mail server, and create a shared folder for network faxing or for a Microsoft Mail postoffice.
FOCUS ON THE BASICS
Even if your computer is on a desk by itself, with no network to plug into, working with Exchange is still largely a matter of making connections. You dial a fax machine across town or connect to the Internet to send mail around the globe. Perhaps you travel and need to reach your Microsoft Exchange server to get your mail and check essential public folders. You can connect not only with a dedicated bank of dial-up modems, but also via the Internet.
In this chapter, we’ll review some of the essential skills involved in making and maintaining such connections. For the most part, I assume that, if you’re working in a network environment, the network is already set up and running fine; or if you’re connecting via modem, you have the modem installed and working. We’ll concentrate mostly on issues using modem connections, but we’ll also highlight the skill of sharing network folders. You’ll learn how to
Tell Windows where you’re dialing from
Instruct Windows how to dial with your credit card
Adjust your international dialing code if it changes in your country
Make dial-up connections to the Internet or to a network mail server
Create a shared folder for network faxing or for a Microsoft Mail postoffice
While Windows 95 and NT dialing locations, calling cards, and dial-up networking (DUN) work more or less the same, there are some differences in the dialog boxes that I’ll highlight as we go along.
CONFIGURING DIALING LOCATIONS
Windows keeps phone numbers separate from dialing location settings, then puts the two together when you dial.
Have you ever traveled from city to city and reset the settings for a half-dozen communications programs at every stop? You need to change the code to get an outside line in every program and turn off the call-waiting code you had on your office phone. Windows solves that problem with the concept of dialing locations, which are completely separate from phone numbers. Each time you need to call from somewhere different, you configure all the dialing settings in one place, then they automatically apply to every number you dial with any Windows communications program that supports the Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI).
In the next few sections, you’ll learn how to set up a dialing location, how to switch between different locations, and how to set up calling cards.
Basic Settings
To work with dialing locations, you need to display the Dialing Properties dialog box. This can be done from any dialog box where you see a Dialing Properties button, such as the one in the Microsoft Fax Properties dialog box’s Modem tab. You can also get to the Dialing Properties dialog box from the Control Panel. In Windows NT, run the Telephony applet. In Windows 95, you can use the Telephony applet if you have one, or choose Modems, then click the Dialing Properties button. You’ll see a dialog box like that in Figure 3.1.
Each location is a collection of dialing settings specific to a particular place, such as your office, your home, a hotel room in Poughkeepsie, or a client’s office in Bonn. By switching locations, you can change all the dialing settings at once, rather than having to change each one individually.
Let’s first complete the setup of your default location. If you work at a desktop computer that never travels, this is all you need. First, in the Dialing Properties dialog box (Figure 3.1), enter your area code in the “The area code is” box and select a country from the “I am in” list if they’re not already filled in. You can also change the name of the location, if you like, in the “I am dialing from” box.
Next, consider what changes you may need to make under “How I dial from this location.” Some examples are
If you need to dial a number to obtain an outside line for both local and long distance calls, enter that number in the “for local” box and again in the “for long dist.” box.
If you dial two different numbers for local and long distance access, enter the appropriate numbers in the “for local” and “for long dist.” boxes.
Special Note: Do not enter 1 in the “for long dist.” box, even if all your long distance calls must start with a 1, as they generally do in the U.S. and Canada. Windows 95 has a table of codes for each country that indicate what number(s) to dial for long distance and even for international long distance. We’ll look at these in more detail later in this chapter, when we discuss calling cards.
If your line has call waiting, check the box labeled “This location has call waiting.” Then either pick a code from the “To disable it, dial” list (such as *70) or enter a different code.
If your phone system uses pulse dialing rather than the default tone dialing, click “Pulse dialing.”
Special Note: The dialing properties are global within Windows; they affect all Windows communications programs that support TAPI, not just dial-up networking (DUN) and Microsoft Fax.
You’ve probably realized by now that we have skipped the “Dial using Calling Card” settings. Calling cards cover virtually any type of dialing situation that doesn’t fit the normal area code + number format. This includes telephone credit cards, PBX dialing without a 1 in front of long distance numbers, accounting codes after a number, and new international long distance codes. We’re going to explore calling cards later in the chapter.
When you’ve finished setting up the default location, click OK to close the Dialing Properties dialog box.
Working with Locations
To create a new location,
Click the New button in the Dialing Properties dialog box (Figure 3.1).
In Windows 95, give the location a name in the Create New Location dialog box, then click OK. In Windows NT, the name New Location is entered for you in the “I am dialing from” box; change this name to something more meaningful.
Enter the country, area code, call waiting, and other settings for the new location in the Dialing Properties dialog box.
To switch locations, choose a location from the “I am dialing from” list. To remove a location, select it in the “I am dialing from” list, then click Remove.
Calling Cards
A Windows calling card is more than a telephone credit card; the calling card can solve a number of dialing-code problems.
A calling card in the context of Windows dialing is not the same as a telephone credit card. Calling cards are used in a variety of situations to apply extra settings beyond those available in the Dialing Properties dialog box. Examples include the following:
Calls made through a preferred long distance provider
Telephone credit card calls
An accounting code added to the end of the number dialed
A change in the international access code within a country
A PBX where you need to omit the 1 before making long distance calls
Each calling card consists of three sets of codes that define the way calls are dialed:
Within the same area code
Outside the same area code, but within the same country (long distance calls)
To another country (international calls)
To use a calling card as part of a dialing location, follow these steps:
Open the Dialing Properties dialog box, as described above under “Configuring Dialing Locations.”
Check the box marked “Dial using Calling Card,” or click the Change button.
In the Change Calling Card dialog box (Figure 3.2), select the “Calling Card to use.”
If the calling card incorporates a credit card, the “Calling Card number” box will become active. Enter your number.
Click OK to save that calling card as part of the current dialing location.
Next, we’ll create some examples of different types of calling cards, starting with dialing long distance. When you create a new calling card, you generally use an existing card as a template.
Dialing a Preferred Long Distance Provider
The calling cards provided with Windows include several used to dial long distance through a specific provider with a special code. For example, in the U.S., you can prefix a long distance call with 10ATT (or 10288) to force the call to go through AT&T.
Here are the long distance calling cards included with Windows and how each dials a long distance number:
AT&T Direct Dial via 10ATT1
10288 + 1 + area code + number
MCI Direct Dial via 102221
10222 + 1 + area code + number
Sprint Direct Dial via 103331
10333 + 1 + area code + number
Like all the calling cards installed with Windows, these can be copied but not directly edited. Instead of changing one of these calling cards, you can create a new card, copy the settings from an existing card, then make any desired changes.
To create and use a new calling card by copying one of the cards included with Windows, follow these steps:
In the Dialing Properties dialog box (Figure 3.1), click the Change button. (In Windows 95, you first must check the “Dial using Calling Card” box.)
In the Change Calling Card dialog box (Figure 3.2), click the New button.
Give your new calling card a name, then click OK to return to the Change Calling Card dialog box, where the new card is now selected.
In Windows 95, click the Advanced button. In Windows NT, click the Rules button.
In the Dialing Rules dialog box, click the Copy From button.
In the Copy Dialing Rules dialog box, choose the card you want to use as a template, specifically one of the three listed above, then click OK. Figure 3.3 shows the result of copying the dialing rules for the AT&T Direct Dial Via 10ATT1 card. You see the three different sets of codes for three kinds of calls. Table 3.1 lists the meanings of the different codes you’ll see in the Dialing Rules dialog box.
Under “Long distance calls” and “International calls,” change the 288 (or other code, if you didn’t use AT&T as the template) to the dialing code for the long distance provider you prefer.
Click Close when you’ve finished with the Dialing Rules dialog box, then click OK to close the Change Calling Card dialog box and return to Dialing Properties.
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