CISCO USED EQUIPMENT SERVICE POLICY

Q. What is the Cisco® definition of used equipment?
A. Cisco defines used equipment as previously owned equipment, now owned by a party
other than the original customer. This includes both opened and unopened equipment.

Q. Is a Cisco software license transferable?
A. No. Cisco software licenses are not transferable from user to user.

Q. Is the Cisco product warranty transferable?
A. No. The Cisco product warranty is non-transferable. A warranty is provided solely to the
original end user of the equipment.

Q. Are service maintenance contracts transferable (for example, Cisco SMARTnet® and
Cisco SP Base contracts)?
A. No. Standard service maintenance contracts are not transferable from user to user. Please
contact your local legal counsel or contracts manager if you have questions regarding any
specially negotiated terms.

Q. If I am a Cisco Service Account Manager (SAM), Service Sales Representative (SSR), or
Account Manager (AM) and a customer contacts me to purchase a service contract, how do
I know if they have used equipment?
A. Customers may volunteer that they have purchased used equipment, or account
managers who have lost product bids may pass that information to SAMs/SSRs. When
unsure, simply ask the customer in a non-intrusive manner.

Q. Will Cisco support used equipment?
A. Cisco will offer support services for used equipment, if the following criteria are met:
• Proof of registration of software license
• Successful completion of equipment inspection

Q. How does one show proof of a valid software license?
A. Proof of a valid software license can be in the form of:
• Digital License Agreement (DLA) number
• Sales order number for the standalone software license
• A receipt from an authorized Cisco reseller detailing proof of the software license

Q. Is the equipment inspection a certification that the product is operating according to manufacturer specifications?
A. No. The equipment inspection verifies basic operational and physical equipment requirements that will be supported
through a Cisco service contract.

Q. Does the equipment inspection come with a guarantee or additional warranty?
A. No. The equipment inspection verifies basic operational and physical equipment requirements that will be supported
through a Cisco service contract.

Q. Is the equipment inspection available globally?
A. Yes. Equipment inspections are orderable globally.

Q. Are equipment inspections available through all authorized channels?
A. Yes. Equipment inspections are available thorough all Cisco authorized channels.

Q. Is the equipment inspection available in all major cities?
A. The equipment inspection is available for a fixed fee within 50 miles or 75 kilometers of the nearest Cisco Service Center. Coverage for the equipment inspection is the same as that for Cisco SMARTnet Onsite 8x5x4 on the Service Availability Tool at the Service Contract Center (SCC). Any inspection outside of the above coverage will be based on a custom quote. The Service Availability Tool can be accessed at:
http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/front.x/agents/SAM/cca_sam_landing.cgi

Q. What are the steps for ordering and the engagement process for the equipment inspection?
A. The engagement process is as follows:
• Provide the equipment inspection quote to the customer.
• Customer provides a purchase order (PO) for the amount quoted. Customer must ensure that a current contact name and phone number is noted on the PO.
• The PO is entered and a sales order (SO) number is issued.
• Within 24 hours, a Cisco Onsite Services (OSS) coordinator will contact the customer to collect necessary information, schedule the date and time of the inspection, and log a case.
• OSS will schedule an onsite field engineer to visit the site on the agreed-upon date and time.
• Field engineer completes inspection and sends results back to the Cisco OSS coordinator.
• Cisco OSS forwards the results of the equipment inspection to the customer contact.
• Customer provides the results to the Cisco sales team, if they wish to place the equipment under a service maintenance contract.

Q. How much advanced notice is needed to schedule an equipment inspection?
A. The following notice is required:
• For U.S. locations, a minimum of five business days advanced notice
• For international locations, a minimum of seven business days advanced notice
• All inspections will be scheduled Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time

Q. Who receives the results of an equipment inspection?
A. The requestor (seller or buyer of used equipment) of the equipment inspection will receive results indicating if the product is supportable. It is the responsibility of the owner to provide this information to the SAM sales team.

Q. What if the equipment does not pass inspection? Does the customer still need to pay the inspection fee?
A. Yes. The inspection fee covers the onsite inspection cost, which is incurred prior to the results of inspection.

Q. What product codes are available for ordering the inspection service?
A. The product codes for ordering the inspection service are as follows:
OSS-INSPECT-CAT.A
OSS-INSPECT-CAT.B
OSS-INSPECT-CAT.C
OSS-INSPECT-CAT.D
OSS-INSPECT-CAT.E

Q. Are the prices of inspections chassis-based?
A. No. While at one time they were chassis-based, effective January 5, 2004, inspection prices are chassis plus card. An inspection will need to be purchased for each component (chassis, card, module, port adapter, and gigabit interface converter [GBIC]) separately.

Q. If my customer has numerous cards to be inspected, can multiple cards be inserted into a chassis so the customer is not charged an inspection fee for each individual card?
A. No. While at one time they could, effective January 5, 2004, each individual card will be charged a separate inspection fee.

Q. How do I quote an inspection for a chassis with four cards in it?
A. Each component (chassis, card, module, port adapter and GBIC) will need a separate inspection purchased for it. So, in this example, five inspection part numbers will need to be purchased.

Q. What are the inspection fees and part numbers?
A. Inspection fees are dependent on the list price of the component (chassis, card, module, port adapter, and GBIC) to be inspected. The fees and inspection part number are as follows:

Q. How are inspection fees determined for products that are End of Sale?
A. The inspection fees for products that are End of Sale are determined using the last product list price.

Q. If the customer has purchased used cards only, and not a used chassis, is the customer still required to purchase an inspection in order for the cards to be covered under a service contract?
A. Yes. The customer must purchase an inspection on all used components (cards, modules, port adapters, and GBICs), in order for them to be covered under any service contract, regardless of whether the non-used chassis in which they will be running is already covered under a service contract.

Q. If Cisco equipment has been declared permanently damaged, out of commission, or permanently non-useable, can it be inspected, and then be declared usable and serviceable?
A. No. Once equipment has been declared permanently damaged, out of commission or permanently non-useable, it cannot be inspected, and it cannot be placed under a service contract.

Q. Whom do I contact if I need further assistance?
A. For further assistance, please contact:
• Program information: tss-inspections@cisco.com
• Delivery information (once the order has been placed): gps-pds-west@cisco.com

Q. Who receives sales credit for the inspection fee?
A. The inspection fee is a non-contract service charge. Non-contract services are not commissionable.

Q. How do I price the service contract for the used hardware or software equipment?
A. Upon meeting the requirements within the used equipment policy, standard service pricing applies as if it were a new product.

Price lists are available at the following locations:

• Enterprise service price list:
http://wwwin.cisco.com/cmc/cc/serv/mkt/sup/ent/gen/spric_pe.xls

• Service provider service price list:
http://wwwin.cisco.com/cmc/cc/serv/mkt/sup/sp/gen/ssnsp_pe.xls

Q. If a customer purchases a service contract from Cisco for used equipment, what are the costs that the customer may incur?
A. The customer may incur the following types of fees:
• Fees associated with getting a new user software license
• Fees associated with equipment inspection services
• Fees associated with service and support maintenance

Q. If a customer has multiple pieces of Cisco equipment at a single location, is the inspection fee charged per site location or per chassis?
A. Inspection fees are charged per chassis.

ADDITIONAL LINKS

Description of the Cisco Used Equipment Service Policy:
http://wwwin.cisco.com/CustAdv/GSM/dashboard/misc/used_equip/used_equip_annc.htm

Cisco Software Digital License Agreement:
http://wwwin.cisco.com/ios/relicense.shtml

Cisco Software License Policy:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/csc/refurb_equipment/swpolicy.html

Description of Cisco Warranties:
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/es_inpck/

Brand Protection Homepage:
http://wwwin.cisco.com/wwchannels/operations/brand_protection/

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What are bandwidth, latency, and speed?

Bandwidth and latency are attributes that characterize the speed of a network.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth, typically measured in bits, kilobits, or megabits per second, is the rate at which data flows over the network. This is a measure of throughput (amount per second) rather than speed (distance traveled per second). Just as more water flows through a wide river than a small, narrow creek, a high bandwidth network generally can deliver more information than a low bandwidth network given the same amount of a time. Because this can make the network feel faster, high bandwidth networks and connections often are called "high-speed". Residential cable and DSL Internet connections often are advertised as high-speed connections, even though the actual speed of the information traveling from one end to another is roughly the same for cable, DSL, and normal phone connections.

Latency

Latency, usually measured in milliseconds, is the time that elapses between a request for information and its arrival. A high latency can degrade the performance of even the largest capacity network to a tremendous degree. Because it takes time for a signal to pass through wire, some latency will always be present, but slow servers, inefficient data packing, and excessive network hopping can collectively increase transmission delay.

Excess latency gives a network a low-speed feel. If a connection takes three or four seconds to respond, many users will complain the connection is "slow", even though the bandwidth is high, and even though the data comes in such a large chunk that it appears to arrive all at once.

Speed

A network's speed is essentially a subjective evaluation of the combination of bandwidth and latency. As mentioned above, the term is often used in place of bandwidth, even by technicians and professionals; many times a network administrator or hardware technician will talk about a 10BaseT, 100BaseT, or gigabit "speed" in reference to products or networks with 10KB/sec, 100KB/sec, or 1,000KB/sec bandwidths.

Most vendors advertise the theoretical bandwidths of their networking products, but due to bottlenecks, hardware problems, and high processing loads, the effective throughput is usually much less. A gigabit (1000BaseT) Ethernet card will be lucky to achieve 800Mb/s in real-world use, and in many situations will achieve far less than that.

For a scorecard of bandwidths and other networking characteristics, see:

http://www.csgnetwork.com/bandwidth.html

The page above doesn't address latencies, but modems typically have values of around 100 milliseconds, vastly higher than any of the technologies reviewed on the scorecard. For a good overview of latency and its effects, read Stuart Cheshire's It's the Latency, Stupid at:

http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/rants/Latency.html

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AirPort, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Express?

Introduced by Apple Computer in 1999, AirPort is a wireless networking technology based on the 802.11b standard. In 2003, Apple upgraded the AirPort product line to the faster 802.11g standard, renamed it AirPort Extreme, and ceased development of the original AirPort.

There are actually three current AirPort products: a wireless router called the AirPort Extreme Base Station, a mini Base Station called AirPort Express, and a special kind of wireless card called the AirPort Extreme Card. The Base Station is a wireless hub through which as many as 50 computers may communicate at up to 11Mbps (AirPort) or 54Mbps (AirPort Extreme). The Base Station can extend the network to a LAN or the Internet through its built-in Ethernet or modem port.

AirPort Express is a sort of mini Base Station which allows you to set up an instant wireless network, and to use a feature called AirTunes, which allows you to play your iTunes playlists wirelessly from your computer to your stereo. Although it supports fewer users at at time than the Base Station, AirPort Express can also function as a bridge to extend the range of an AirPort Extreme Base Station.

With an AirPort or AirPort Extreme Card installed, a Macintosh may participate in an AirPort network or any other wireless LAN that conforms to the 802.11 DSSS standard. All Macintosh computers manufactured after 2003 support AirPort Extreme; to determine whether your computer supports AirPort or AirPort Extreme, you can visit Apple's product specifications pages below:

http://support.apple.com/specs/ http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25953?viewlocale=en_US

Both the Airport Extreme Card and Base Station have a range of about 150 feet and are not limited to line-of-sight; the range of the AirPort Express is from 50 to 150 feet and is also not limited to line-of-sight. Additional products such as antenna attachments, bridges, and extenders can extend the range even further. The network can even be sustained through closed doors and walls. However, the range and quality of the connection will be affected by the surrounding building material.

For more information about AirPort Extreme, visit: http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/

For more information about AirPort Express, visit: http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

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Abilene

The Abilene network is a high-performance backbone network that connects regional network aggregation points, called GigaPoPs. Abilene is a partnership of Internet2, Qwest Communications, Nortel Networks, Juniper Networks, and Indiana University. The Abilene network supports the development and deployment of advanced Internet applications and network services by Internet2 universities and research labs. Abilene complements existing research networks around the world.

IU is one of a select number of universities that participated in Abilene's Launch Group. IU runs the Abilene Network Operations Center; for more information, see the Abilene NOC web site and the Chronicle of Higher Education article on IU as the nerve center for Internet2.

For more, see the Internet2 site.

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Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Application-Oriented Networking Module

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Application-Oriented Networking Module

Available for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series, the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Application-Oriented Networking Module (AON SM) is a service module that can be installed in any Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switch to take full advantage of the switch's high availability, security, and traffic-management capabilities. Cisco AON SM provides application-level intelligence, improved message visibility and security, and reduces total cost of ownership by consolidating elements of the network and application infrastructures and providing centralized management capabilities. All technical documentation and support information for the Cisco AON SM can be found from http://www.cisco.com/.

For ordering information in North America and Europe, please call your Cisco account representative or contact your local Cisco sales office for further details.

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Cisco 2600/2800/3700/3800 Series AON Module

Cisco 2600/2800/3700/3800 Series AON Module

The Cisco 2600/2800/3700/3800 Series Application-Oriented Networking Module (Cisco AON NM) can be installed in any Cisco 2600/2800/3700/3800 Series of routers. Cisco AON NM provides application-level intelligence, improved message visibility and security, and reduces total cost of ownership by consolidating elements of network and application infrastructures and providing centralized management capabilities. Cisco AON NM enables dramatically higher levels of application and service integration at the branch office, which extends enterprise- and provider-class versatility, integration, and power to branch offices. For ordering information in North America and Europe, please call your Cisco account representative or contact your local Cisco sales office for details.

The Cisco AON Network Module (NM) can be installed in any Cisco 2600 or 3700 Series of routers as well as the Cisco 2800 Integrated Services Router and the Cisco 3800 Integrated Services Router. All technical documentation and support information for the AON Network Module can be found from http://www.cisco.com

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Cisco AON Networking Appliance Routes Application Messages

The Cisco AON 8340 Series Appliance is a standalone device that provides routing capabilities for application messages traveling on the network. The network's ability to identify and intelligently route application messages, such as customer orders, can help your company improve efficiency of business processes. Benefits of the appliance include:

• Offers an additional deployment option to existing Cisco AON interface modules, which are available for Catalyst 6500 Series switches and Cisco 2600/2800/3700/3800 series routers
• Leverages AON feature breadth to support multiple applications
• Offers High performance augmented by custom hardware acceleration
• Integrates with existing infrastructure and network management applications

The Cisco AON 8340 Series Appliance has several deployment options including:

• High-performance message routing
• Application-to-application security gateway (A2A)
• Application services offload

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Application-Oriented Networking

Component Integration Allows Flexibility

The Cisco AON state-of-the-art design pre-integrates hardware and software components into a complete subsystem that can be flexibly deployed as an embedded network function in enterprise data centers, service-provider networks, branch offices, or other deployments.

Cisco AON is available in two versions that integrate into the Cisco family of switches and routers:

• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Application-Oriented Networking Module, which is a service module that is primarily deployed in the enterprise core and enterprise data centers
  
  
• Cisco 2600/2800/3700/3800 Series Application-Oriented Networking Module, which is a network module that is primarily deployed at the branch office

Both the AON SM and the AON NM offer a high level of performance while providing a cost-effective solution to meet enterprise, service provider, and small-and-medium business organization needs. The Cisco AON modules also include software tools for managing and provisioning AON nodes, as well as for designing application policies using a library of "bladelets" that can be configured in different sequences as required. The modules also include a software development kit and API for flexible extension to any custom environment, operation, or format.

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The Telephone Network

The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the world-wide telephone system and usually this network system uses the digital technology. In the past, it was used for voice communication only but now it is playing very important role for data communication in the computer network such as in the Internet. There are different types of telephone lines that are used for data communication in the network. These are discussed below.

1. Dial-Up Lines

It is a temporary connection that uses one or more analog telephone lines for communication. Modem is used at the sending end as well as at the receiving end. A telephone number is dialed from the sending end through modem and the modem at the receiving end answers the call. In this way, connection is established for data communication between computers or electronic devices. In dial up line connection, the cost of data communication is very low. The mobile users can also access the Internet through this connection.

2. Dedicated Lines

It is a permanent connection that is used to establish connection between two devices permanently. It is better than dial-up line connection because dedicated lines provide a constant connection. These types of connections may be digital or analog. The data transmission speed, of digital lines is very fast as compare to analog dedicated line. The data transmission speed is also measured in bits per second (bps). In dial-up and dedicated lines, it is up to 56 Kbps. The dedicated lines are mostly used for business purposes. The most important digital dedicated lines are described below.

1) ISDN Lines

ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network. It is a set of standards used for digital transmission over telephone line. The ISDN uses the multiplexing technique to carry three or more data signals at once through the telephone line. It is because the data transmission speed of ISDN line is very fast. In ISDN line, both ends of connections require the ISDN modem and a special telephone set for voice communication. Its data transmission speed is up to 128 Kbps.

2) DSL

DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It is another digital line. In DSL, both ends of connections require the network cards and DSL modems for data communication. The data transmission speed and other functions are similar as ISDN line. DSL transmits data on existing standard copper telephone wiring. Some DSLs provide a dial tone, which allows both voice an4 data communication.

3) ADSL

The ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is another digital connection. It is faster than DSL. ADSL is much easier to install and provides much faster data transfer rate. Its data transmission speed is from 128 Kbps up to 10 Mbps. This connection is ideal for Internet access.

4) Cable Television Line

The Cable Television (CATV) line is not a standard telephone line. It is a dedicated line used to access the Internet. Its data transmission speed is 128 Kbps to 3 Mbps.

A cable modem is used with the CATV. it provides a high speed Internet connections through the cable television network. A cable modem sends and receives digital data over the cable television network.

To access the Internet using the CATV network, the CATV Company installs a splitter inside your house. From the splitter, one part of the cable runs to your television and other part connects to the cable modem. A cable modem usually is an external device, in which one end of a cable connects to a CATV wall outlet while the other end plugs into a port (such as on an Ethernet card) in the system unit.

5) T-Carrier Lines

It is very fast digital line that can carry multiple signals over a single communication line whereas a standard dialup telephone line carries only one signal. T-carrier lines use multiplexing so that multiple signals share the line. T-carrier lines provide very fast data transfer rates. The T-carrier lines are very expensive and large companies can afford these lines. The most popular T-carrier lines are:

1. TI Line
2. T3 Line
   
   

i) T1 Line

The most popular T-carrier line is the Ti line (dedicated line). Its data transmission speed is 1.5 Mbps. Businesses often use Ti lines to connect to the Internet. Many ISPs use Ti, lines to connect to the Internet backbone. Another type of TI line is the fractional TI line. It is slower than TI line but it is less expensive. The home and business users use this line to connect to the Internet and share a connection to the Ti line with other users.

ii) T3 Line

Another most popular and faster T-carrier line is T3 line. Its data transmission speed is 44 Mbps. It is more expensive than Ti line. The main users of T3 line are telephone companies and ISPs. The Internet backbone itself also uses T3 lines.

6) Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

It is very, fast data transmission connection line that can carry data, voice, video, multimedia etc. Telephone networks, Internet and other network use ATM. In near future, ATM will become the Internet standard for data transmission instead of T3 lines. Its data transmission speed is from 155 Mbps to 600 Mbps.

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Network Topologies

In networking, the term topology is the way of connecting computers or nodes on a network. There are many ways in which computers are connected together in a computer network. Therefore network topology is defined as: the schemes of joining a number of computers in the form of a network are called Network Topologies.

We know that two or more devices are connected to a link for data communication. Similarly, two or more links form a topology. The topology of a network is the geometric representation of the relationship of all the links and the nodes (communication devices) to one another.

There are three commonly used network topologies. These are:

1. Star topology
2. Ring topology
3. Bus topology

1. Star Topology

In a star network, each node (computer or other device) is directly connected to the central computer or Hub that provides connection points for nodes on the network. The star topology is the most common topology in use today. In star network, information or data is communicated from one computer to another through Hub. This form of network configuration looks like a star as shown in figure below.

Advantages

The main advantages of star topology are:

• It is easy to install and to maintain.
• You can easily add and remove nodes to and from the network without affecting the network.
• If any node fails, other nodes are not affected.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantages of star topology are:

• This type of network depends upon the central Hub. If Hub fails the entire network is failed.
• Each computer is directly connected to the Hub through a cable, so it becomes more costly.

2. Ring Topology

In ring network, each node is connected to two adjacent nodes in the form a closed ring or loop. In ring topology, the last node connects to the first node to complete the ring. In ring topology, each node has a dedicated point-to-point connection only with the two devices on either side of it.

In this network, data is communicated in one direction from node to node around the entire ring. When a computer in ring network sends message to another computer on the network, the message travels to each node or computer until it reaches its destination. The ring network configuration is shown in figure below.

Advantages

The main advantages of ring topology are:

• It is less expensive than star topology.
• Nodes can be easily added or removed.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantages of ring topology are:

• It is more difficult to install and maintain.
• If a node fails, it affects the entire network.

3. Bus Topology

In bus network, all nodes are connected to a common communication medium or central cable. The central physical cable that connects the nodes is called Bus. The data is communicated between nodes in both directions through bus. A bus topology uses the multipoint connection. The central single cable (or bus) acts as backbone to link all the devices to the network.

In bus network, when a computer sends a message to another computer it also attaches the address of the destination computer. In bus topology, a special device called a terminator is attached at the cable’s start and end points. A terminator stops the network signals.

In LAN, bus topology is mostly used. In this topology, each computer is assigned a unique address. The bus network configuration is given in figure image.

Advantages

The main advantages of bus topology are:

• It is less expensive and easy to install and maintain.
• When nodes are added and removed to and from the network, the network is not affected.
• If one node fails other nodes are not affected.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantages of bus topology are:

• It supports only a small number of nodes.
• Entire network fails if there is any problem in the central cable.

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Unable to Browse the Network

If you do not have a logon password, Windows95 might have problems when you try and browse the network.
Try the following steps to solve the problem.

1. Start REGEDIT
2. Go to Hkey_Local_Machine \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current_version \ Network \ Real mode net
3. Delete the line that says AUTOLOGON=0
4. Save the changes and reboot the system

Download reg file

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Disabling File and Print Sharing

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKLM,SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network
3. Add a new DWORD Value
4. Rename it to NoPrintSharing or NoFileSharing
5. Assign it a value of 1

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Device Contention when trying to use a Modem

Occasionally, when trying to use your modem, you might get the following errors:

Another program is using the selected Telephony device. Try again after the other program completes.
or
Cannot initialize port

The state of Windows 95 device contention is determined by the value for the "COM n AutoAssign=x"
setting in the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file,
where n is the number of the serial port and x is a value from -1 to 1000.

The default setting in Windows 95 is -1. This setting causes Windows 95 to not release a serial port previously used
by a non-Windows-based program.

If you need hot-swapping capability between an MS-DOS-based communications program and a Windows-based communication program,
add the following entry to the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file:

Com n AutoAssign=0

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Changing the MaxMTU and other Network Settings

There are four network settings that can be configured so when dialing to an ISP, you should get somewhat greater throughput.
They are the MaxMTU, MaxMSS and DefaultRcvWindow, and DefaultTTL

MaxMTU and MaxMSS

1. Start REGEDIT
2. Go to Hkey_Local_Machine / System / CurrentControlset / Services / Class / netTrans / 000n
   (where n is your particular network adapter binding.)
3. Right click on the right panel
4. Select New / String Value
5. Type in MaxMTU
6. Double click on it and enter then the number you want. The usual change is to 576
7. Similarly, you can add MaxMSS and give it a value of 536 (or 40 less that your Max MTU setting)

DefaultRcvWindows and DefaultTTL

1. Start REGEDIT
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ VxD \ MSTCP
3. Add a new string DefaultRcvWindow and give it a value of 2144 (or 4 times your MaxMSS setting)
4. Add a new string DefaultTTL and give it a value of 60-64

To find out the optimal setting, go to Determining Optimal MaxMTU Setting to Use

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Monitoring Your Dial-Up Connection

There are some system checks you can use to see how good your ISP and Phone lines are.
You either net OEM SR2 or the ISDN Accelerator Pack 1.1 installed

1. Make sure SYSMON is installed. You can add this through the Control Panel / Add New Programs
2. Run SYSMON
3. Select Edit / Add Item
4. Click on Dial-Up Networking Adapter
5. Select CRC Errors
6. Click on OK

If you have lots of CRC errors, either the phone lines or your modem is having problems.

You can also add Framing Errors and Timeout Errors if you are still having problems and your phone line appears ok.

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No Network Logon Prompt

If you are not being prompted for a logon when starting Windows95,
and you need to be, there are some possible solutions:

1. Your password may be set to be blank
To correct this:

1. Open up the Control Panel
2. Open up Passwords
3. Click on Change Windows Password
4. Your Old Password is blank
5. Enter your password in the New Password and Confirm New Password boxes

2. Registry Setting
You may have an AutoLogon key set in the Registry which needs to be removed

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Network \ Real Mode Net
3. If the key AutoLogon=x appears, delete it

Download reg file

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Faster Access to the Network Properties Box

1. Right click on the Network Neighborhood icon
2. Select Properties to see network configurations.

This is the same result as click on the Start / Settings / Control Panel / Network Icon

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Using UNC Network Names with Files

As already mentioned, you can use long file names in an MS DOS Box.
But you can even use UNC-style network names.

Example: DIR \\server\share1\dir1
will give you all files on the computer named "server", in the share named "share1" and in the directory "dir1".

This does not work with CD, but it will work with MD, RD, DIR, COPY, MOVE, REN, and so on.
I use this in combination with a batch file to copy files to a number of computers on a network.

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Determine the Optimal MAX MTU Setting

There are several programs available that will change you MAX MTU setting for you or you can do it by editing the registry directly
An easy way to determine what that setting should be is to use the PING command.
You basically want to start out with a MAX MTU of 1500 then use the PING command as follows:

PING HOST_IP_ADDRESS -f -l PACKET_SIZE

where HOST_IP_ADDRESS is the IP address of the site you want to ping and
PACKET_SIZE is the size of the MAX MTU setting you are trying to test

Keep decreasing the packet size until you don't get any messages regarding fragmentation

To change the MAX MTU setting, see the section on Changing the MaxMTU and other Network Settings

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To Find Your IP Address

To find your IP address when connected:

1. Open Explorer
2. In the Windows folder find the file WINIPCFG.
3. Drag a shortcut onto your screen.
4. Now when you are online you can double click the shortcut to see your IP address and other data.

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