Because of our ongoing move into the cloud, most of the information on this page is out of date or will soon become so. Please follow our move into the cloud in our forum website at https://discourse.rahul.net/.

Dial-up access to the Internet is also called PPP access. in some of our documentation this is also called NW56 service. Once you connect via this service, by dialing in with a modem, you will have Internet connectivity.

This service is available in nearly all parts of the United States via the Globalpops network. Please see their list of access numbers at this URL:

• http://www.globalpops.com/coverage.html

Please do not contact Globalpops directly – they deal only with ISPs and not with end users.

Important telephone charge warning. Please double-check with your local phone company to make sure that the number you dial is a local call for you. You are responsible for all phone charges that you incur when dialing into our service, even if you are calling a number listed above as local to you.

All listed Globalpops numbers are expected to be available to you.

Some numbers are listed as “Off-Net”. In most cases you can use these too, by following the “Off-Net Instructions” below.

Important outage precaution warning. in addition to looking up dial-in numbers local to you, please keep a few additional numbers handy that are in distant area codes. For example, if you are in California, you can keep some New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut numbers handy. This way, in case of any network issues in the dial-up system close to you, you can still make brief Internet connections by dialing the alternate long distance numbers. Otherwise a local outage will completely lock you out.

Dial-up access is for PPP only, i.e., no direct terminal logins. Once you connect for PPP you can, of course, ssh to the a2i machines and log in for UNIX access.

Dial-up access is included automatically at no additional charge with selected Classic Linux account types: Drop-in, Budget, Economy, Advanced, and Premium. For dial-up use, please use the following settings:

• Login name: USER@rahul.net (where USER is your normal login name used for email).
• Password: Same as your password used for email.
• IP address is assigned by the server.
• DNS is assigned by the server.
• POP server for incoming mail is: pop.rahul.net.
  • POP server will take insecure connections, or secure connections using TLS, on port 110.
• IMAP server for incoming mail is: imap.rahul.net.
  • IMAP server will take insecure connections, or secure connections using TLS, on port 143.
• SMTP server for outgoing mail is: smtp.rahul.net.
  • SMTP server takes insecure connections only, with no authentication. Use port 25 or port 2525. If one is blocked try the other.

If you have any type of DirectAdmin account, it does not automatically include dial-up access. However, you can add dial-up access by going to the billing system and using the Order link. When access is added you will be supplied the login information. Please use the following additional information:

• Login name: As supplied to you.
• Password: As supplied to you.
• IP address is assigned by the server.
• DNS is assigned by the server.
• POP server for incoming mail is: mail.example.com, where example.com is your domain.
  • POP server will take insecure connections, or secure connections using TLS, on port 110.
  • POP server will take secure connections using SSL on port 995.
• IMAP server for incoming mail is: mail.example.com, where example.com is your domain.
  • IMAP server will take insecure connections, or secure connections using TLS, on port 143.
  • IMAP server will take secure connections using SSL on port 993.
• SMTP server for outgoing mail is: mail.example.com, where example.com is your domain.
  • SMTP server takes insecure connections only, using authentication, on port 587.

If you get a certificate error trying to use TLS or SSL, try connecting to sunshine.rahul.net or jade.rahul.net instead (whichever is the right one for your account).

Some of the Globalpops numbers will be listed as “Off-Net”. In most cases you should be able to use these just as well as other numbers, but you will need to log in slightly differently. Instead of using a login name of the form “USER@rahul.net”, log in as: “USER@rahul.net.1dial.com”. (That's a digit 1 before the word “dial”.) Other than this difference, all Off-Net numbers should give you exactly the same access.

There may be some Off-Net numbers that will not let you log in. In that case, look for alternate numbers to use.

Some protocols or ports, e.g., ping, traceroute, port 25, may be blocked when you dial in. This is done to minimize spam and virus propagation. Normal web browsing should be unhindered. If you use the email parameters for POP, IMAP, and SMTP given above, your email should function normally.

If you added dial-up access to your DirectAdmin account, your access may be limited to about 200 hours per month. Regardless of any limit enforced or not enforced by the network, we expect you to use dial-up access only while you are physically present at your machine, and not for automated networking purposes and not for use as a dedicated Internet connection.

For dial-up access bundled with Drop-in, Budget, Advanced, and Premium accounts, expected usage levels are described elsewhere in our web pages.

Dial-up connectivity will be quite a bit slower than DSL or cable modem connectivity. However, it is possible to do web browsing quite well over a dial-up link, if you visit web sites with few graphics. It's also possible to do web browsing through proxy servers that feed you simplified versions of web pages and eliminate most of the graphics. Here are some open web sites designed for mobile devices that will let you efficiently browse the web over a dial-up link. Not each of these proxies does equally well with all web sites, so try more than one.

• Phonifier. (Down as of 2009-10-19.)
• Google Web Transcoder. (Down as of 2010-04-14? Try it and see.)
• Google Mobile Search.
• Skweezer.
• Mowser.