Alachua Freenet Known Problems With SLIP/PPP

These are some of the more common problems known about using the SLIP/PPP feed and how, if possible, to correct them. This information was compiled July 13th, 1995. It was updated on June 29th, 1997.

"Unable to locate host"

This problem occurs after you've sucessfully connected to the AFN SLIP/PPP feed. When attempting to follow a link in a Web page, or using the Email program, you may get a dialog box with an error message such as: 
                          Unable to locate host

Common Causes

The most common causes of this problem are usually fairly simple things. Go over this check list:
  1. Make sure you are properly connected to the SLIP or PPP feed on AFN. If the connection only came-up part way, or if the software never fully logged into your AFN account, you may think you are connected when you really aren't.
  2. Make sure you entered the URL of the site you wish to go to correctly. slashes (/) are different from backslashes (\), and you can also have problems if you forget to put in the appropiate prefix, or simply type part of the URL wrong.
  3. Make sure you are entering a URL that is current. If you looked up the URL from a very old reference, chances are that the host no longer exists because the organization associated with it changed servers, went under a new name, or may simply have folded.

RPI Problem

It has been found that modems that use RPI (Rockwell Protocol Interface) do not function properly with the SLIP/PPP feed, primarily for Windows 3.1 users. RPI is not a brand, but a particular type of modem, and many major modem manufacturers make RPI modems.
The easiest way to tell if your modem uses RPI is to check your manual and look for the term "RPI" or "Rockwell".

The solution is to turn off the modem's RPI functions and data compression. This is done by specifying one of the following as the initialization string for the Connect program (Trumpet Winsock):

Note that those are zero's, not the letter "O". You may need to use a combination of the strings, such as: AT%C0+H0 Some brands may use a different set of commands to accomplish this. If the above commands do not work, consult your menual for how to disable RPI and/or data compression.

Unfortunately, some of these types of modems do not allow you to disable the RPI functions at all. In such cases, the solution is to obtain a modem with true hardware data compression.

No Intitialization String Works

For Trumpet Winsock users:
If you have tried numerous different initialization strings and none of them work, and you have verified that the Connect program (Trumpet Winsock) is set to the correct COM port, it maybe that your COM port itself is not configured correctly under Windows.

To check, and if necessary correct, your Windows COM port settings:

  1. Go into the Program Manager and open up the Main program group if it is not already open.
  2. Double-click on the Control Panel icon.
  3. When the Control Panel window comes up, double-click on the Ports icon. It is a picture of a serial cable facing a serial plug.
  4. In the Ports window that appears, double-click on the COM port that you have your modem hooked to. In general, this will be COM2 but may be COM1, COM3, or COM4.
  5. In the Settings For COMx window (where x is your COM port number), you should verify (and change if necessary) these settings:
  6. When you have verified (and changed if necessary) the settings, click on the OK button.
  7. Click on the CLOSE button in the Ports window.
  8. Double-click on the close-box of the Control Panel window (the upper- left corner of the box which has a dash in it).
You can then go back into the Connect program and try setting the intialization string again. If it works, then you're set. If not, consult the rest of this page to make sure the problem might not be caused by something else.

"Unable to negotiate a compatible set of protocols"

This is a problem for some folks who use Windows95 Dial-Up Networking. This error occurs because the Dial-Up Networking support is either not set to use the correct network protocol (TCP/IP), or because TCP/IP support is not installed for some reason on your machine.

To make sure your settings are correct:

  1. Right-click on the icon for your AFN connection in the Dial-Up Networking folder.
  2. Select the "Properties" item from the pop-up menu.
  3. In the connection dialog-box, click on the tab that says "Server Types"
  4. Make sure the entry for the "Type of Dial-Up Server" is set to "PPP: Windows95, Windows NT 3.5, Internet".
  5. Make sure that under the "Allowed network protocols" section, the checkbox for "TCP/IP" is checked.
  6. Click on the OK button.
If you found a setting was incorrect and fixed it, chances are the error will go away. If your settings were correct or if the error persists, you do not have TCP/IP support installed for Windows95. You can follow these instructions for installing TCP/IP support under Windows95.
AFN Webmaster