Connection Management

No matter what crazy combination of Internet connections you’ve accumulated on your computer, Windows represents each one as a connection icon. You can view them, rename them, change their settings, or just admire them by opening the window shown at top in Figure 8-3.

Top: This lucky individual has three different ways to get to the Internet: a dial-up account (listed first), a wireless network, and (courtesy of an Ethernet cable) a wired network. One of the many ways to go online is to double-click the connection you want to use. Bottom: Double-clicking the dial-up account name produces this dialog box, where you can click Dial to go online. (Turning on “Save this user name and password” eliminates the need to type your password each time—in general, a great idea.)

Figure 8-3. Top: This lucky individual has three different ways to get to the Internet: a dial-up account (listed first), a wireless network, and (courtesy of an Ethernet cable) a wired network. One of the many ways to go online is to double-click the connection you want to use. Bottom: Double-clicking the dial-up account name produces this dialog box, where you can click Dial to go online. (Turning on “Save this user name and password” eliminates the need to type your password each time—in general, a great idea.)

To get there, choose Start→Network. On the toolbar, click Network and Sharing Center. Click “Manage network connections” (in the left-side task pane).

Tip

If you travel frequently between the same couple of cities, consider making a different dial-up connection icon for each city—with the local access phone number already stored in each. To do that, right-click the first dial-up icon (Figure 8-3); from the shortcut menu, choose Create Copy. Authenticate yourself (Section 6.3), then double-click the newly hatched icon to change its built-in phone number.

These icons are handy because their Properties ...

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