Dial-up Internet Helpful Hints & Tips

Using other telephones

When you are connected to the Internet with Dial-up, remember that you are using your telephone line. If you pick up another telephone in the house and hear the modem transmitting (it sounds like a fax machine), this could potentially interrupt the connection and you may need to refresh the page or click the link you were opening.

Call Waiting

If you have the Call Waiting Star Service applied to your telephone line, the notification you receive when an incoming call is waiting for you can interrupt your modem and make your Internet connection 'hang' or freeze. You may need to refresh your page click the link you were opening.

Speeding up your connection

To give your dial-up connection the best conditions possible you can contact our Service Centre on 624624 at any time and request that the Gain on your telephone line is set for Internet use. Setting the Gain for Internet use is free and completed by our engineers so you don't need to do anything else.

Connection drops without your knowledge

Dial-up connections can disconnect you from the Internet after a period of no Internet activity. If you are writing a long e-mail in Manxnet Webmail for instance, you may lose the mail you have typed as there will not be a connection to the Internet to transmit your mail. This can be very frustrating.
You should write any long messages in a word processor program and then copy/paste in to the email when you are connected. Alternatively, you can configure an e-mail client, like Outlook Express and compose your e-mails 'offline' so there is no chance that you will lose that e-mail you've been typing.

Premium Rate Dial-Up Numbers

It is possible to incur call charges on the Internet by using an incorrect dial-up number. There are also certain web sites that can drop your connection and re-connect using a premium rate number, a non-geographic or an international dial up number. You may or may not be warned before this happens. You should install an Internet Security Application that can detect dial up hijack. We would also recommend using programs that prevent the installation of spyware and adware software on your computer.
In addition Premium Rate Call Barring and International Call Barring options are available, contact Manx Telecom on 624624 for more details.