Hi, John.
I never heard of "Tiscali broadband". Is that an ISP? Or a program? Cable
modem, or DSL (telephone line)?
If you've never used DSL before, you may need a mindset adjustment. ;^}
There's no dial, so there's no dial tone. Well, it's there, but you'll
never hear it through your computer. When configured properly, DSL is
"always on". Each time you reboot your computer, your hardware goes through
its configuration routine. In less than a minute after your WinXP Desktop
appears, you should be connected without dialing anything at all. And
you'll stay connected until you shut down (or turn off your external modem
or other hardware - or pull the phone plug out of your computer). Heck, I
gave away my dial-up modem. Now my computer has no way to dial my phone at
all. But I'm still connected to the POTS phone line, and I can still dial
and talk on my telephone through this same phone line while surfing.
I often get lost in the Network Connection dialogs. The key thing is that
it is NOT dial-up and it is NOT LIKE dial-up. You probably should tell
WinXP (in IE | Tools | Internet Options... | Connections) that you are on a
LAN, even if you are not. You will need to configure your NIC and modem in
accordance with instructions from your ISP. In my case, I have a static IP,
so I have to be sure the IP protocol is installed (and the others are
uninstalled), then click Properties for it and key in that number
(xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx), plus the Gateway, DNS, etc., for my NIC. As I said, read
your ISP's instructions; they probably are not the same as mine.
I'm just one guy with just one computer, so I haven't had to worry about
setting up for multiple users. Others here, though, know a lot about that
and can help you. But it would help if you tell us a little more about your
hardware and ISP.
RC
