Getting AOL dial-up to dial a 9 prefix

A customer has just move to a new office which has a phone system which
requires her to dial a 9 prefix to get an outside line from the socket which
she will use for dial-up modem access.

How do you configure AOL to dial the 9+pause prefix on the front of its
pre-configured access numbers? Is there a way of editing the access number
so as to add the 9 on the front?

In MsgID<44a416bb$0$69372$(E-Mail Removed)> within
uk.comp.home-networking, 'Martin Underwood' wrote:

>A customer has just move to a new office which has a phone system which
>requires her to dial a 9 prefix to get an outside line from the socket which
>she will use for dial-up modem access.
>
>How do you configure AOL to dial the 9+pause prefix on the front of its
>pre-configured access numbers? Is there a way of editing the access number
>so as to add the 9 on the front?
>

The usual is to put "9,ISP_NUMBER" as the phone number. The comma means a
pause before dialing the rest.

If you can't edit the phone numbers used by the AOL take0ver-kit (AKA
software) then the next best thing would be to acquire a router that can
deal with AOL's slightly unusual packet requirements and include the 9 and
the comma there.

Several commas makes the delay even longer, depending on how long the pbx
needs you to wait before giving the outside line. A
http://groups.google.com search should provide a list of routers that are
known to work. Although most conversation these days will revolve around
ADSL connections, there are routers that will use an external PSTN modem
and maybe even some with such a modem built in. The easiest would be if
you can find a way to get the AOL connection sw to include the 9 and the
comma as a prefix.

Maybe someone else will offer more specific suggestions, but I'm about to
leave the house to my SO (who knows less about such technicalities and
anyhow doesn't subscrbe to this group) for a week or two, and so I won't
be around to follow this up.

Dave J.

Dave J. wrote in message
(E-Mail Removed):

> In MsgID<44a416bb$0$69372$(E-Mail Removed)> within
> uk.comp.home-networking, 'Martin Underwood' wrote:
>
>> A customer has just move to a new office which has a phone system
>> which requires her to dial a 9 prefix to get an outside line from
>> the socket which she will use for dial-up modem access.
>>
>> How do you configure AOL to dial the 9+pause prefix on the front of
>> its pre-configured access numbers? Is there a way of editing the
>> access number so as to add the 9 on the front?
>
> The usual is to put "9,ISP_NUMBER" as the phone number. The comma
> means a pause before dialing the rest.

Yes, I know about the normal "9,ISP" notation: that's what I'd do with the
Windows dialler software. But this is AOL, so all bets are off. I wish they
wouldn't try to take over the PC and re-invent the wheel.

In MsgID<44a8f06e$0$3538$(E-Mail Removed)> within
uk.comp.home-networking, 'Martin Underwood' wrote:

>Dave J. wrote in message
>(E-Mail Removed):
>
>> In MsgID<44a416bb$0$69372$(E-Mail Removed)> within
>> uk.comp.home-networking, 'Martin Underwood' wrote:
>>
>>> A customer has just move to a new office which has a phone system
>>> which requires her to dial a 9 prefix to get an outside line from
>>> the socket which she will use for dial-up modem access.
>>>
>>> How do you configure AOL to dial the 9+pause prefix on the front of
>>> its pre-configured access numbers? Is there a way of editing the
>>> access number so as to add the 9 on the front?
>>
>> The usual is to put "9,ISP_NUMBER" as the phone number. The comma
>> means a pause before dialing the rest.
>
>Yes, I know about the normal "9,ISP" notation: that's what I'd do with the
>Windows dialler software. But this is AOL, so all bets are off. I wish they
>wouldn't try to take over the PC and re-invent the wheel.

Sorry. I'm sure I've had AOL set up using some of the standard 'doze
dialup mechanism, but it was so long ago that the memory's too blurry to
be any help.

Getting AOL broadband to work with one basic firewall I use is a bit of a
nightmare too. There's software that receives packets, from AOL servers,
but the stack doesn't own up to it somehow. As far as that firewall is
concerned the packets are going to 'no application' but if blocked then
AOL refused to work.

Therefore, for the first time in my life (customer was in too much of a
hurry for me to experiment) I had to use the XP builtin inbound filtering
and set 'allow all incoming' on the other firewall. Funnily enough,
despite it usually being a real bad idea to mix firewalls, it all worked.

The additional firewall regulated outbound packets and the 'doze one
prevented inbound stuff (at least according to a web based external scan
service) Maybe the internal FW intercepts at a different point in the
'stack' because *it* could see what application was receiving the packets.

Sorry, OT and not really of any use to you, but it fascinated me at the
time. I'd love to know more about what's really going on there but I only
have one acquaintance who uses it, and I can't tinker as their system is
vitally important to them.

Dave J.