After You Choose: Installation and Configuration

• Get an ACCC netid and password. You'll need an ACCC account to use any ACCC service, including the ACCC dialin lines, and also many UIC and U of I services.
• Get and install the ACCC Network Services Kit. It has all the software you'll need to use the Internet and configuration tools to help you use the ACCC dialin lines.

• See Connecting Using the ACCC Dialin Services for further instructions.

• When you sign up for a commercial ISP, the ISP should give you the software and installation instructions that you need to get started using their services. And, if you've chosen a broadband ISP, they will probably provide hardware and installation services as well. You should contact the ISP's service people if you have any general questions or connection problems.
  
  
• The ACCC document You are not "on the UIC campus" explains how to use UIC-only resources when you're connecting with a commercial ISP.
  
  
• If you use Eudora or any other personal computer email program when you're connecting through a commercial ISP, you can read your UIC email and use your UIC email address as your return address, but you cannot use the ACCC's regular outgoing SMTP servers; for more information, see Changing to Your ISP's SMTP Server. But you can use the ACCC's authorized SMTP server mail.uic.edu from on- or off-campus because you login to use it. See Using the mail.uic.edu Authenticated SMTP Server.
  
  
• If you chose an always-on connection method (broadband services such as cable models or DSL), you must give some thought to keeping it private. Be sure to read Securing Your Always-On Internet Connection.
  
  
• If you have a question that your ISP can't answer, or if you'd rather do it on your own, the ACCC "how to connect" documentation might be useful:
  • For broadband connections: Connecting to the UIC Network via Ethernet
  • For dialin connections: Connecting Using the ACCC Dialin Services

How many computers do you have in your home? We have four, and when the kids are home we have up to three more. And we have only one Internet connection -- a cable modem. But we all live happily together, sharing it, because we have a home network. (Actually two -- a wired network and a wireless one.) Home networks, in particular wireless ones, are a snap to set up, and they are the way to go when you need to share an Internet connection.

If you use a Macintosh: We used to say here that not all broadband service providers support Macs yet and if you planned to use a Mac, you should ask whether they're supported before you signed up for anything. Macs probably still aren't supported as well as Windows machines. But if you have a home network, your can plug your connection into a router and share it with your Mac and all the other computers in your home.

See A Home LAN Is a LOT Easier Than You Think.

After you choose your connection method (broadband or dialin), make sure it's secure: Securing Your Internet Connection.

If you can use other network services (such as email and your Web browser), but can't login to argo, icarus, or tigger, chances are your machine isn't reporting its name correctly.

For security reasons, the ACCC UNIX servers do a reverse-DNS lookup on every machine that attempts to telnet to them. That means that they check the IP address of the calling machine to make sure that it has a properly published Internet domain name to go with it. A reverse-DNS lookup works like this: first the UNIX server uses gethostname to get the hostname -- the Internet domain name -- of the machine that's contacting it. Then, it calls gethostbyname to get the contacting machine's primary IP address. After that, it does a gethostbyaddr on the primary address. If the two names don't match, you won't be allowed to connect.

What does this mean to you? You have to make sure that your machine has a proper Internet host name to go with your IP address. If this all means nothing to you, contact your ISP's service people; they can tell you what hostname to use.

Want to check what a reverse DNS lookup on your IP address gives you?

• The Reverse DSN Lookup page will do one for you, and it will automatically pick up your IP address. Note that if you are on a home network, your local IP address won't be the same IP address that you will show to the Internet.
• If that reverse DNS lookup page doesn't work, try: http://www.dnsstuff.com/. If you don't know what your IP address, click the WHOIS button in WHOIS Lookup in the first column. The results will be for your IP address. Reverse DNS is the second box in the second column.