How to Dial Out with Your Laptop on the Road

When you're away from yourbroadband connection, you can dial out using your laptop's modem. But before you can dial out, you must create a dialing location inWindows.

1

Open the Phone and Modem Options dialog box.

2

Ensure that the Dialing Rules tab is selected.

The Dialing Rules tab lists the locations where you use your laptop. My Location is your home base (unless you already renamed it).

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3

Click the New button.

The New Location dialog box appears. Use it to customize the way the modem dials the phone from any location.

4

Enter a name for the location.

For example, type Cliffordville.

5

Select whichever country where the location is found.

6

Enter the area code.

7

Fill in the Dialing Rules area.

You can leave these items blank if none is required.

If you're creating a location for a hotel and it requires you to dial an 8 before making a local call or a 9 for making a long-distance call, put those numbers into the appropriate boxes.

8

Select the To Disable Call Waiting Dial check box and then select the proper code sequence from the drop-down list.

The call-waiting signal disconnects an active modem connection. You select this box to disable call waiting on a per-phone-call basis.

9

Finally, select whether your connection requires tone or pulse dialing.

Select the Pulse option only if your area is limited to pulse dialing. You'll be painfully aware of this annoyance; otherwise, you can choose Tone.

10

Click OK to save the settings.

Windows uses this information whenever you use the modem. It may seem silly to enter this information now, but eventually you'll have a whole collection of locations. You can save time by using that information rather than have to enter it over and over again when you travel.