Windows Me Annoyances

Dealing with Dialing

Dial-Up Networking differs most from other types of Internet connections in that one must dial to connect, which introduces issues with dialing and managing dial-up connections. The following topics should be helpful in improving your experience with Dial-Up Networking.

Exporting Dial-Up Networking Connections

There’s no reason why you should have to open the Dial-Up Networking (DUN) window every time you want to connect to the Internet. Windows allows you to make shortcuts to your connection icons on your desktop or taskbar toolbars or in your Start Menu, just as you can make shortcuts to any other file, folder, or Windows object (such as a Control Panel icon).

The problem is that the process used to make shortcuts to DUN connections is not exactly consistent with the process in other parts of Windows Me. You might expect that if you drag an icon from the Dial-Up Networking folder onto your desktop or into another folder, a shortcut to the connection will be created. Unfortunately, that’s not the case—instead, you’ll end up with a “Dial-Up Networking Exported File” (with the extension .dun).

A Dial-Up Networking Exported File is simply an INI file (see Section 3.10 in Chapter 3), which, instead of just being a shortcut to the connection, actually contains all of the properties of the connection, allowing you to then easily copy the connection to another computer by simply copying the file. Once you create an exported file, it becomes a standalone connection; ...