FAQ'S About your Service and Basic Configurations
A lot of questions we receive here at First Internet Alliance are general repeats of
common problems and mistakes. For your convenience, we have posted them below. Also, some
people have had their computers crash on them and are now left without configurations to
get on their servers. Print up your configurations for your computer in case of a
emergency or just click on the problem you have and perhaps you can solve your problems
easily!
- 1.It says the mail server or DNS for the mail server can not be found
- 2.I cannot get my email because it says my password is wrong
- 3.I got a timeout when I was downloading a file from my e-mail in Eudora
- 4.When I try and read my mail, I get these network error messages
- 5.I upgraded Netscape and it's sending em old mail
- 6.When I send e-mail..I get this message "Error getting to mail
address for "mail@fiai.net. cause (4407)
- 7.People are trying to send me e-mail but keep getting a error message that
it could not find my address
Check the mail server names under the server settings:
Incoming (POP3) = mail.fiai.net
Outgoing (SMTP) = smtp.fiai.net
In Eudora make sure the POP account name is
"yourusername"@mail.fiai.net
When picking your password use something that you would remember but not
easily discovered, like your dog's name or your favorite movie. If you cannot remember it,
the best course of action it to call up your area office and tell them the situation. They
will take you through steps to find it for you and perhaps change it.
Reason: Sometimes you may find when downloading a large mail attachment
in Eudora that your system times out before the file has fully downloaded. This is
normally due to flow control problems with buffers overflowing caused by incorrect
handshaking between your modem and ours. Also some files can be too big to send over
e-mail for the dialup only gives a ten minute download time for for files. Unfortunately,
this can not be changed but if you FTP the files you have unlimited download time if they
are very large.
Solution: A way to overcome this problem on Hayes modems is turn off error correction
and data compression on your modem. The command string you enter to do this is AT%C0\N0.
For help with this, please click on "How
do I change my initialization string?"
Please note: Not all modems use exactly the same command codes. If the commands we
gave you do not work, please refer to your manual for the correct commands to turn off
data compression and error correction.
This can be one of two things:
Reason: You are still connected and can use Netscape but Eudora brings about your error
messages. This is caused by a socket error in the TCP/IP dialing software. When you are
using Netscape and Eudora at the same time down the same phone line the sys tem at both
ends assigns the two activities a virtual socket to use. This is so the data streams do
not get mixed up. What commonly happens is the socket used by Eudora is lost and you get
network error.
Solution: Your solution is to close down Eudora and start it up again. Doing so will
reestablish a new socket connection. If that does not work, shut down both Netscape and
Eudora and bring up Eudora on its own.
Alternate Solution: Your modem has dropped the line. If this seems to be the problem,
please refer to connection problems above for further assistance.
Reason: A problem arises on occasion with the constant downloads of
newer and newer versions of Netscape Navigator. For when the person has multiple copies of
these browsers, the mail settings are to send to the old browser. The newer version will
not receive the mail even though you asked for the mail sent to it, but there is a option
that disables that function.
Solution: In order to block out that option, you have to go to the Options menu, then
to Mail and News Preferences, then to the servers tab. Halfway down you will see the
following: Messages are copied from the server to local disk. You then click on
"removed from server" to disable.
A common error run across is the address sent on outgoing mail. Make
sure that you outgoing mail server is set to smtp.fiai.net. It may be set to mail@fiai.net
which causes problems.
Reason: One of the most common of email questions is this one: I have
all these people trying to send me stuff, and I am not getting it! Simply stated, make
sure the e-mail address you are telling them to send to is correct.
Solution: Make sure it is put as username"@fiai.net" not as
"@fia.net or @fianet.com or @fiai.net.com" etc. etc.
Example: janedoe@fiai.net
- 1.Why do I get "General Protection Fault"
errors, or other "crash" errors?
Reason: These kinds of errors are usually caused by a conflict between the operating
system and the programs which causes the General Protection Fault (GPF). If something that
has worked normally for a while causes a GPF, try exiting all y our applications and
rebooting your system. If it is a persistent problem that only occurs when using certain
applications, then suspicion usually falls on the offending program.
Solution: Generally, the first option to remedy this is to reinstall the software, in
case the problem is caused by a corrupt file. If this doesn't work, then you'll probably
need to get either a updated or fresh copy of the particular application.
- 1.I am concerned with the safety of my password when I have to send it
over the e-mail or Internet.
- 2.How do I change my password?
Sending passwords, credit card numbers, etc., over the Internet is not completely safe,
there is a risk. However, the risk is so incredibly small that you should not lose any
sleep over it. It would take $40,000 worth of equipment, a lot of spare time(I do mean a
lot of time...we are talking weeks straight here), IP addresses from both sides, and of
course a reason to do this, for someone to intercept this kind of information. In regards
of trying for it, it is too much trouble to even try.
You can call up your area's office and tell them that you wish to change your password.
You will be asked a series of questions in order to verify that it is your account.
Then we will change the password to what you like.
- 1.I can't seem to log onto the newsgroups.
- 2.I cannot receive any messages on my news server because it says NNTP
error-no space left on device writing article file
Reasons: There are two main reasons why people have trouble with getting
onto a newsgroup. The first would be that you are logging onto the wrong one. The second
would be that you are trying to pull news for a location OTHER than a fiai dial in.
Solution: The first thing you want to check is if you are using this as your news
server. If it is, you need to change it to news.fia.net. Here is how you check: From
Netscape, go to the Options menu. Go to Mail and News Preferences. Click on the Servers
tab. Towards the bottom, there is News (NNTP) Server. This News Server Prompt is where you
go to enter the name of your news server. It needs to be set to news.fiai.net.
Reasons: If you get this message; A news NNTP error occured 400 no space
left on device writing article file --throttling. This means that Fiai's news server is
temporarily unable to receive new news messages to be posted. Most often this is resolved
very quickly.
Solution: Retry sending your message in a few minutes. If the situation persists,
contact your area's office and notify them of the problem Basic
configurations for Win 3.1 and Win 95
Sometimes the inevitable crash may happen in your system due to any one of a million
reasons. The follow through below will help you to connect back onto the internet and get
back on track
For Win 3.1: Instructions on getting to the Dialer Setup Applet:
From Program Manager, Go to "Netscape Personal Edition" program group. Go to
"First Internet Dialer" program item. Click on the "properties" button
on the bottom of the window.
You will see 5 tabs :
- Location
- General
- Modem
- Service Provider
- About.
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Tab 1 LOCATIONS
Group 1,Location:
Location's Name: Not Applicable
Location's Area Code: Area code of the number you are dialing
Type of Line:Usually Tone dialing
Group 2,Dialing from Location
For outside line access dial:Leave this blank
Disable call waiting:CHECK THIS IF YOU HAVE CALL WAITING
With:Usually *70,(Check with your phone company to be sure)
Calling card:Self explanatory
Provider phone number:get this from your area's office.
Group 3...Number to dial:###-####(Number is set up in 'dialing from location")
Dial 1 for Long Distance;Use if you are dialing long distance
Dial area code:Usually to be used only if your dialing long distance
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Tab 2 GENERAL
Group 1,When connected
Automatically start Netscape Navigator:When set, this option will automatically start
Netscape after connected to the Internet
Minimize connect-time window:When set, the connection stats window will not be in the
foreground
Disconnect after ??? minutes of inactivity:Enabling this will automatically disconnect you
from the server if your not doing anything for the set amount of time.
Please note that the server will disconnect you from it if your inactive for 20
minutes.
Group 2,Logging in
Manually log in each time:Use this option if you want to type in your login and password
every time you log on
Automatically log on with a script:Use this option if you want to type your login and
password for you
Show scrip t while logging on:In case you want to see the script in action
Record/Edit script:DO NOT GO INTO THESE OPTIONS
Dial on Demand: not applicable
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Tab 3 MODEM
Change Modem Button:This button will change or add a modem. If you do not know what kind
of modem you have, what serial port it is on, what IRQ is is set to, what speed it is,
etc. let it find the modem itself by clicking on the "next" button. Everything
will automatically be installed
Port:Do not touch unless you know what serial port your modem is in
Speaker volume:Self-explanatory
Maximum speed:Leave it at one step above the maximum speed of your modem
Advanced:Do not touch unless you k now what an IRQ or Base address is.
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Tab 4 SERVICE PROVIDER
Group 1...Domain Name Service (DNS) Hosts
Primary DNS: 208.23.90.135 Secondary DNS: 204.117.214.10
Group 2...Service provider domain name
Domain Name: fiai.net
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Tab 5 ABOUT
Nothing is needed here
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Exit by clicking on OK
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