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Problem: I cannot connect to the Net at all.
See also - My connection drops out at random times.
Solution: Is your modem dialing? If not there may be something wrong with the
dialer software "Easynet Internet" or is the modem plugged in and powered on? Is it's telephone lead plugged in? Is someone else making a call on the same phone line that the modem hoped to use, or is your fax machine mid call? Is some other software on your computer currently using the modem e.g. fax software.
If the modem dials but you don't get connected one of the following could be the cause:
When entering the password you cannot tell if it is accidentally in capitals. Make sure the caps lock light is not showing on your keyboard when you type the password. If your
dialing window remembers your password, try re-entering it.
Make sure the phone number looks correct and that it is using the "default" or "local" number only.
Where possible connect by clicking on the dialer icon ("Easynet" or "Easynet Internet") rather than clicking on the browser or mail program icons, this way you can tell you are connected. Once connected you run the browser, mail, chat or other programs as appropriate. (The best way to prove you are connected is to run your browser and after a web page comes up click "refresh" and ensure the web page comes up again.) At the end of a session you then need to disconnect using the connected icon, not just by closing the mail or browser programs.
Do you have someone other than Telstra providing the local phone connection to your house. Some of the other well known ones do not support Internet modem dial up connections, or they work at very slow speeds.
If your internet software was manually set up without our CD, get the person who set it up to re-confirm all settings are correct, including DNS and proxy settings, per our summary sheet of standard settings.
Your browser software, email software or dialer software could have become corrupted on your hard disc. If you decide to re-load them don't forget to then configure them.
Have you loaded new software on your computer recently that may use your modem, or
dialed via the modem to register itself. Or have you upgraded your operating system?
Problem: I get a no dial tone error message.
Solution: Make sure the modem is connected to your computer (or is an internal modem), it is powered on, and the phone line that connects to the back of the modem is plugged in at both ends. You can then check if there is a dial tone by picking up another phone on the same line or even better by temporarily unplugging the phoned line from the modem and connecting it to a phone and listening for dial tone. If there is dial tone, then at the time you try to connect to the Net there will not be if someone is using a telephone, a fax or an answering machine on the same line at the time you are trying to connect.
Another possibility is that you have a non-standard dial tone that the modem cannot
recognize. For example if you have voice mail facilities, when messages have not been listened to, your Telco changes the sound of the dial tone. Listen to your messages to get the tone back to the normal dial tone.
Problem: I can't get into my accounts/usage details.
Solution: Your account and usage details are accessed via our Easynet web pages, going to the appropriate page and entering your user name and password. There is an Internet Service Provider in North Queensland with a similar address to us that also has customer details linked to their web pages. If you go to their web page accounts and enter your user name and password, you do not have an account with them and will not get in.
While our company name is Easynet Pty Ltd, our web pages are at www.easy.com.au not at www.easynet.com.au so we can give you those "easy" to remember email addresses. www.easy.com.au is our home page where you, our customers go to check your account details, account usage, web email etc. I.E. the web site you are looking at now!
If you are not a customer of Easynet, Sydney, Australia you cannot check you accounts here, try your own ISP.
Problem: My connection drops out soon after connection.
See also - My connection drops out at random times. Below
Solution: This is usually within the first 5 minutes. It is usually caused by a "noisy" phone line and is more common if you have a 56K modem. The "noise" is not necessarily in the human hearing range so you may not know your phone line is noisy.
Dirty or corroded phone line wiring or connectors may be the problem, either in your home or in the underground wires from your home to the local telephone exchange. These often exhibit another symptom, see - My modem says it is connected at a slow speed. Connectors can often be cleaned using a pencil eraser on the metal parts. (watch out for shocks from wall sockets). Your Telco can do some tests on the lines from them to your house.
56K modems try to connect at the absolute fastest speed they think your phone line will handle. If the noise levels on your line fluctuate slightly, sometimes they select too high a rate and soon drop out. This can be quickly checked by temporarily running at a slower speed. If this seems to fix the problem then a more permanent solution at a higher speed is possible. The modem speed can be capped. This is done by putting an initialisation string into your modem set-up parameters, following the manufacturers instructions. eg
&F+MS=56,1,300,42000,1,0
This string as is would set your modem to connect at a maximum speed of 42K. If this stops the drop outs you could experiment with higher maximum speeds, replacing 42000 in the string with say 46000 or 48000 and see if it stays stable. For more details see the modem section of our on-line reference manual.
Problem: My connection drops out at random times.
See also - My connection drops out soon after connection. Above.
Solution: At our end of the connection we do not run any software to disconnect you after period of time. Many of our permanent customers stay logged on for weeks at a time before a random click on their home phone line drops them off. Easynet upgrades that affects log in only happen once every couple of months, usually after midnight. (If we notice a modem is still logged on after a few days, and there is no activity we assume that you may have forgotten to log off, or not logged off correctly. In that case we may manually rest our modem to log you off as a courtesy. There is no guarantee we will do this so try to log off correctly each time, before turning your computer off. Permanent line customers are not reset at all.)
Nearly all drop outs are caused by things in your computer or along your telephone line to your local exchange. With modern digital exchanges few drop outs are caused between telephone exchanges or on the digital links to us. The reasons for drop outs listed below start with the most common. Only try the things suggested if you are competent to do so, we accept no liability in regard to these suggestions. If you would like Easynet Engineers to look into problems with your computer, call for a quote.
Do you have call waiting on the phone line you are using for the net? While your modem is using the line connected to the Net a second call will frustrate the caller because it just rings and you don't know to answer AND the call waiting tones will cause your modem to drop out and you will loose connection to us. Either don't use a phone line with call waiting, or live with drop outs, or disable call waiting at least for the duration of the internet call. (With Telstra #43# disables call waiting, and *43# turns it back on)
If you have other extensions on the same line, someone may pick up the phone to make a call
realize the computer is on, and so replace the receiver. Similarly your fax machine may try for the line for a re-attempt to send an earlier Fax. Anything that tries for the line like lifting a phone handset will usually drop the internet connection.
Other devices connected to the telephone line may be loading your modem down too much. Unplug everything else on the same line (all telephones including your main phone, answering machine, FAX machine etc) see if the problem goes away. If so experiment to find which device causes the problem.
You may not have the correct modem driver software installed for your modem. Often this problem shows up when you upgrade windows. Use the discs that came with the modem, or if they are not new, download the latest most compatible and bug free driver from the modem manufacturers site on the Net, then install it as the active driver for the Easynet
dialing icon. (You may need to re-run our disc)
Some modem drivers have defaults to look for tones from banks rather than Internet connection. To check for this problem in windows machines, click on my computer, dial up networking, right click and select properties on the Easynet icon, under the modem type select configure, in the options tab, dial control, "wait for credit card tone" should be
grayed out, if not set it to 0 second, and apply the change)
Quite often when modems fail they do so gradually, rather than suddenly, so a faulty modem is also a possibility. Try a friend's modem (remember to set the driver).
Your computer may not have enough RAM and depending what you are looking at on the Net, it may run out and crash. As an example on an IBM if you have windows 98 and/or are running Internet Explorer 5, 32MB of RAM is not enough. Either get more RAM or use software that is less hungry of your computer's recourses.
Your computer may be too slow for the revisions of software you have upgraded to. For example a Pentium 133 would barely do justice to Windows 98 with Internet Explorer 5.
Problem: My modem says it is connected at a slow speed.
Solution: Once connected check what speed your computer thinks you are connected to us at. A 28.8K modem should say 28K, a 33.6 K modem should say 33k or 31.5K etc, and a 56k modem should say something between 40K and 52K depending on how far you are from your local telephone exchange. If it is slower than this there are five main reasons.
The modem driver software has not been set-up correctly in your computer, or went wrong when you upgraded windows, or loaded other software.
The phone line is noisy or loaded down by other things on the same line (phones, faxes, answering machines) See - My connection drops out at random times.
The modem is gradually going faulty.
Problem: I can connect but cannot collect mail.
Solution: This means your mail program has not logged into our mail server or no mail has arrived for you. Five common reasons follow:
Our set-up CD does not remove email accounts set up for other ISPs in your mail program, it only adds ours. If you were previously with another ISP or if you have tried one of the free discs you get in the post, your mail program is trying to collect mail from the other mail boxes on other ISPs as well as ours. ISPs often don't close old mail boxes for some months after you leave them so for a while you may not see a problem. When they finally block access to the old mail account your mail program indicates messages like "unable to access mail server" or "wrong username/password" and may request you re-enter the password. When this fails your mail program stops and may not even try to collect your mail from your Easynet mail box. To fix the problem you need to delete all mail accounts that are not required (i.e. just leave the Easynet one). One of the drop down boxes at the top of the mail program is for mail "accounts". In here is where you find the ones to delete. If in doubt delete them all then re-run our set up CD "internet configuration" to set up the correct one.
In the accounts box referred to above if the password is not correct, you will be able to log into us, but not collect email. This often happens if a friend collects their email from your computer and does not set everything back correctly. You could re-enter your user name and password into this mail account's properties. Make sure there are no incorrect capital letters. Also if you change your password on our system you of course change it when logging onto the Net. It also has to be changed in your email program in a section usually called "accounts" (then select properties to get in)
Our mail program has hacker protection. If your mail program attempts to log in and uses account details with the wrong username or password, the mail program blocks all attempts to log in for one hour. (This would of course also happen if a hacker had been trying to log in and see your mail, or if someone else on the Net made a mistake in the settings in their mail program, although we have not experienced instances through these reasons). If your mail program is logged into our mail server and you stop the program, or the connection is dropped before mail delivery is complete, you will be blocked from receiving mail for 1 hour for the same security reason - to protect your mail.
If the first message in the current batch being downloaded is corrupt you will not be able to receive any messages - see corrupt mail messages below.
Your mail program can operate while you are disconnected from the Net, you may only think you are connected. (The best way to prove you are connected is to run your browser and after a web page comes up click "refresh" and ensure the web page comes up again.) In general to connect to the Net use the "Easynet Internet"
dialer icon to connect, then after you are connected click on the mail program. (At the end of a session you then need to disconnect using the connected icon, not just by closing the mail program.) Even better, it is best to set the options in your mail program to not automatically log into the Net and collect mail at start up. This way you control when you log onto the Net and control when you wish to collect mail.
Your email software could have become corrupted on your hard disc. If you decide to re-load it don't forget to configure it
afterwards.
Problem: I keep receiving the same emails over & over.
Solution: Normally your email program and the web mail access programs are set to delete the messages from your mail box on our server after they have been delivered to you. It is possible that someone has set them to leave the copy on the server, in which case you will keep getting them each time you click on receive mail or its equivalent. (Go into their settings options and set them to delete after you receive them).
However the more common reason is that you have logged out of the mail program before all messages are received. They are only deleted from your mail box in our server once ALL messages currently in the mail box have been copied successfully into your local mail box. Thus the same messages then keep getting loaded down to you every time you check for mail. The first time customers receive a very large message, say one that takes 20min to download, as nothing much seems to be happening, they often assume mail delivery is complete and they log out of the mail program. Most mail programs can show status of how many messages have downloaded and how many are still coming and most tell you when sending and receiving has completed.
Corrupt messages that stop the copy process can cause the same problem - see paragraph further down.
Problem: I can connect but mail only sometimes works.
Solution:
1. When mail is sent to you it arrives in a mail box on our system and stays there until you log in and have your email program collect it and transfer it to your computer, usually to the 'in box' in your email program.
The default option on most email programs on your computer is to automatically check for mail every 10 minutes while the mail program is open and logged on to the Net (Manufactures such as
Microsoft, set the defaults to suit computers on networks in offices, not stand alone computers). As a result when you are using your email program if you happen to keep it open longer than 10 minutes some mail arrives giving the impression mail is arriving without needing to specifically collect it. Because of this, many users do not
realize (or forget) that there is a button to tell the email program to check for email Now. See Email takes days to arrive for more details.
This makes for a hit and miss mail reception process, relying on how long you happen to keep the mail program open. The recommended procedure is to turn off the automatic mail checking completely, (unless your computer is connected to the Net all the time, such as via some office networks). Then you click on the button to send and collect mail only when you want to. This way you know if you have actually collected your emails from our system. It also means you can read emails and prepare responses while you a r not logged onto the Net using up your monthly hours, only logging onto the Net when you actually want to send and receive.
Many of the default options in your mail program (Microsoft, Netscape, Eudora etc) are not efficient for home users. If you are having difficulty resetting them, you should consider an Easynet email training course.
2. Our mail program has hacker protection. If your mail program attempts to log in and uses account details with the wrong username or password, the mail program blocks all attempts to log in for one hour. (This would of course also happen if a hacker had been trying to log in and see your mail, or if someone else on the Net made a mistake with the settings in their mail program and accidentally tried to access yours - we have not observed instances for these reasons). If your mail program is logged into our mail server and you stop the program, or the connection is dropped before mail delivery is complete, you will be blocked from receiving mail for 1 hour for the same security reason - to protect your mail.
3. If the first message in the current batch being downloaded is corrupt you will not be able to receive any messages - see corrupt mail messages below.
4. Your mail program can operate while you are disconnected from the Net, you may only think you are connected. In general to connect to the Net use the "Easynet Internet"
dialer icon to connect, then after you are connected click on the email program. (At the end of a session you then need to disconnect using the connected icon, not just by closing the email program.) Even better it is best not to set your mail program to automatically log into the Net and collect mail when it is first open. This way you control when you log onto the Net and when you wish to collect mail.
Problem: I can't send a message to a particular person.
Solution: The person has given you their email address incorrectly. Often when based on their name, they automatically include capitals where there are none when they write it out for you. If using "reply to sender" does not work this usually means the senders reply email address is not set up correctly in their email program and the message they sent you has an invalid or incorrect return address imbedded in it. Sometimes with junk mail this is on purpose. Our set-up CD sets your correct return address automatically. If using our web mail option you should set up your return email address - in the mail web page click on the options button and enter the relevant details.
Problem: People can't send emails to me.
Solution: If they can send emails to others but not to you, they probably have the wrong email address for you, perhaps with capitals where there shouldn't be. Usually their system will tell them their email was to an "unknown address", but of course the address they use may belong to someone else, and would appear as though it sent OK. Our company name is Easynet so our customers sometimes make the mistake of telling people that their address is username@easynet.com.au This is another ISP in North Queensland, your email address is username@easy.com.au If the message they are trying to send you is bigger than 3MBytes it will not arrive.
Problem: I have a corrupt message locking my mail box.
Solution: Email Internet technology was never intended to handle the large files that are now commonly sent. Sometimes messages get corrupted on their way through the Net, especially ones with large attachments. Some corrupt messages will download to your computer OK while others will keep locking up your mail program. Messages much larger than 2MB may always lock your mail program - see next paragraph. You can usually clear the offending message by accessing our mail using our web mail option. This lists the titles of each message without downloading them, so the offending message(s) can usually be deleted from your mail box on pour server without you loosing other messages. If this fails we can
edit your mail files to try to fix it. If this fails we delete the mail
box to clear it, and you loose any mail in the interim.
Problem: I cannot send or receive large emails.
Solution: When a message or its attachments total more than about 3MB many home computer email programs crash and will not receive any
mail, so try to stay lower than this. Also we set a maximum size for a mail message of
10MB through our mail server. Larger emails will not be accepted by our system, so will not lock your mail box or your computer. If you need to send or receive attachments larger than this they should be broken into smaller files and sent in separate email messages. Any large file should be zipped up first to make it smaller, as a convenience for the person receiving it. If a single zipped up file is larger than 10MB you should use the internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP) instead of email. This will also be faster.
At the other end some ISPs set much lower limits on maximum email size
(1MB)
Problem: Email takes days to arrive.
Solution: Some ISPs have delays set in their email systems and only send and receive messages to the Net in batches often once every 1 - 4 hours, or even less often. We have no such delay, so messages sent by you should arrive
at the remote mail box within minutes after they have completed sending.
The most common reason is that our customers, or the people sending you messages, don't fully understand the mail process.
In most cases once a message is composed or forwarded, and is addressed and has a subject, there is a 'send' button. Pushing this does not usually send the email, it is merely gets placed in an outbox on the computer ready for sending. Many people think they have sent it after composing it and pushing the send button. It usually only gets sent after they happen to specifically tell their email program to send it or happen to keep the email program open a long time. Because of this people often think they have sent a message when in fact they may sit in their out-box for days or weeks before they happen to accidentally send it.
Email coming to you is received into an email folder for you on our system. To collect mail from our system or for you to send the mail from your out-box it is usually necessary to execute the above mentioned command. (In Internet Explorer/Outlook Express this is done by clicking a button called "send/Receive" AND waiting until all messages have completed sending AND all incoming messages have arrived before logging off or closing the mail program.) (In Eudora it is in the File drop down, and is called 'Check Mail')
Your email program can be set up to start sending and receiving as soon as it is open and/or to check for mail in your mail box on our server every 10
minutes while you are connected. This is a hit and miss process as it is dependent on how long you happen to keep your email program
open, and runs the risk of your email program logging you back onto the
net every 10 minutes for more hours used and more phone calls.
The lack of understanding of the best settings for email and how to use it can be at your end for collecting messages or could be at the senders end.
Email is becoming more and more important. We recommend you do one of our training courses to improve your proficiency and allow you to fine tune your mail program's many optional settings.
Problem: I can connect but cannot surf.
Solution: You may not actually be connected. In windows machines there should be an icon with two computers or a box in the bar along the bottom of the screen. Open it and see if you are connected and at what speed. See - My modem says it is connected at a slow speed.
If you are connected but get an error message as soon as you run the browser, the browser default start up web page may be set to a page no longer on the Net. (For some reason, a common problem with Netscape and with browsers originally loaded off some ISPs set-up discs.) In the web address box type in http://www.easy.com.au to get to our Easynet home page, then click on refresh, to ensure the browser gets it from the Net and not from its own copy on your computer. If our home page comes up but you cannot get to other pages out on the Net, either the DNS settings are wrong or missing in your "Easynet" Internet dial-up icon or the Proxy settings are incorrect in your browser program. Use our set-up CD to fix them.
Your browser software could have become corrupted on your hard disc. If you decide to re-load it don't forget to configure it for Easynet afterwards.
Have you loaded new software on your computer recently that may use your modem, or
dialed the modem to register itself. Or have you upgraded your operating system? If so you may need to re-configure your internet software.
Problem: Some web pages seem slow.
Solution: The 100 million computers connected to the Net don't all connect at one point. They are a complex web of connections. (Hence the term "World wide web") On your computer when you request a web page, a download or other information, the web finds a path through the cables,
fibers and satellite links to connect a data path from where in the world the pages are stored through to our server, then to you. If any of these links are congested, or if the remote web server is popular and many people are accessing it at the same time, the information will get to you slowly.
For minimum congestion and maximum speed, try to access popular sites at times of day when the USA and Europe are asleep. Even for sites in Australia connection is often via USA, as there are multiple web trunks in Australia and not all link to each other but all connect to USA.
Your neighbor may find some pages fast to download and others slow, and you may find the reverse. If the pages you want happen to be with ISPs on the same trunk network as your ISP they will be faster while those on different trunks will often be slower due to inter-trunk backbone congestion. We connect to one of the three major competing trunks in Australia rather than to a smaller trunk, so that the maximum percentage of web sites are as fast as their ISP's servers allow.
Web page downloads can also be slow if there is not enough RAM on your computer to buffer them as they arrive, or if your modem is connecting at a reduced speed. These are dealt with in other paragraphs. Try closing programs not being used to free up RAM.
Problem: When surfing I keep getting Error 404, or other errors.
Solution: This is one of the error messages Internet Explorer gives if you try to call up a page that does not exist on the Net at the time. Other browsers have similar messages.
As you surf you will see it often and there can be many reasons - You may have typed the address incorrectly (remember correct capitals, and full suffixes and full stops) The server the page resides on may be down, or their link to the Net may be down. The owner of the page may be behind in payments to their ISP. The owner may have removed the page (i.e. it does not exist any more). However the most common reason is that the page has moved to a new address. As a page gains popularity the owner invests in their own domain name on the Net and moves the page there, or the owner may have changed ISPs. If you are trying to get to a page from a search engine, or a link from another web page, or an index, often the links are out of date and point to the old addresses for the page, hence the error messages.
If you are considering your own web pages the best strategy is to get your domain name up-front so your web site addresses don't change in the future even if you change ISPs. This way links from other web sites and from search engines will always work.
Additional Help:
Having read the relevant sections about your difficulties, if you are still unable to resolve a problem, please contact the Easynet Support Department as soon as possible for quick resolution.
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