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Dialing Manually From The Road 
Q:  In Haiti, connections abroad are expensive, poor and difficult to get in the first place. However, AT&T is there and provides access to the USA via a local number. All calls are operator-assisted. 
 
Assume the AT&T operator has just put you through to your ISP in Miami. You can hear the modem hissing and screeching at the other end. You are holding the phone in your hand. How can you pass the call on to your modem? And when the modem picks up the line, how can you convince the dial-up software in Windows 95 to go immediately ahead with the PPP negotiation instead of dialing a number? 
 
Gianfranco Accardo 
 
A:  As the headline of this article implies, you won't just have this problem when making an operator-assisted call from Haiti. It may also crop up when you dial an 800 number to reach a long distance carrier (for example, 1-800-CALL-ATT), in some hotels, in offices with switchboards, or even when you try to use the modem jack in a pay phone at an airport. (AT&T's Pay Phone 2000, for example, once let you dial calls from the computer, but no longer. For some reason, it now inconveniences computer users by forcing them to dial manually.) 
 
Fortunately, Windows 95 has a poorly documented feature that you can use for manual dialing. Here's how to use it. First, unless you always dial manually, create a new icon in your Dial-Up Networking folder (a "connectoid," as it's often called) specifically for use when dialing your ISP manually. This will save you the trouble of changing settings as you travel. To do this, click on the "Make New Connection" icon in the Dial-Up Networking window and let the wizard ask you for information about your ISP. Name the icon something like "My ISP manual dial". When you're asked for a phone number, just enter "1." (It doesn't actually matter what you enter, since the computer won't be dialing. But for some reason Windows forces you to enter something.) 
 
When you get out of the wizard, you'll find a new icon in the Dial-Up Networking window. Right-click on it, select "Properties," and set the parameters as you would if you were dialing the same ISP automatically. (You can copy them from the other icon.) Then, click the "Configure..." button on the first page of the property sheet and select the "Options" tab. You'll see a page that looks like this: 
 
[This is a picture of the Windows property sheet used to set the modem options.]
 
See the check box near the mouse pointer? The one labeled "Operator assisted or manual dial?" That's the one you must make sure to check. Press the OK buttons until you've closed all the property sheets, and you're ready to dial. 

When you double-click on the new icon you've created and press the "Connect" button in the dialogue box that appears, Windows will no longer try to dial a number. Instead, it'll display another dialogue box that looks like this: 
 

[This is a picture of the dialogue box that Windows displays when it's waiting for you to dial manually.]
 
Make your operator-assisted or manually dialed call. As soon as the call starts to go through (it's best not to wait until you hear the modem tone), press the "Connect" button and hang up. Your computer will make a connection immediately without trying to dial. 
 
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