"Can I access my America OnLine account through Coastal Telco Services?"

We get this question frequently and we're happy to say the answer is "yes". America OnLine (AOL) is one of the most used online services in the US. They have local phone numbers all over the country and also have access to the Internet. The problem is that there are no local phone numbers in the Lincolnville, Union, and Damariscotta regions so AOL users in these areas have to dial long distance to get connected.

Since AOL has access to the Internet, it can also be accessed from the Internet. All one needs is an account with Coastal Telco Services' Internet service and the proper changes in the AOL software.

First, configure your access to Coastal's Internet service. When you receive the software from Coastal, set it to dial your local internet access number. Make sure it's working properly before proceeding.

Now start up the AOL software and choose Setup from the opening screen. Choose Edit Location and change both Network settings to TCP/IP. Then close each window until you're back to the AOL startup screen. Choose SignOn and you should see the message: Initializing TCP/IP. Once the AOL software detects it has a network connection, it will continue on to Verifying Username and Password.

One common problem that will cause this not to work is if the AOL software cannot find the dialup networking software. It looks for a file called winsock.dll. If it cannot be found, the AOL software will give an error, even if your connection to Coastal is already dialed. The fix is to edit the file called autoexec.bat in the root directory and add the winsock directory to the path. Look for a line something like:
PATH=C:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS
and add the winsock directory to the end of the line. If you received software from Coastal, the example path statement would be changed to:
PATH=C:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\NETSCAPE\N
Don't forget the semi-colon that separates the entries. This may only need doing if you're using Windows 3.1 or 3.11 for Workgroups. Windows95 and Macintosh users will not have this problem.

Once all the pieces are set properly, connecting to AOL should be easy. Just start up the AOL software and choose SignOn. If the connection to the Internet is not already dialed, the AOL software will call the Internet dialer automatically.

Tuesday, 14-Aug-2001 09:58:37 EDT		For info, contact Webmaster@Tidewater.Net