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- Springboard Modules (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=10)
-- Visor Modem w/WINS (vs. DNS) Server (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=8078)

I'm interested in the new Thincom modem, but kind of wondering about the ability to use our company intranet. Looking at the Windows dial-up networking connection, TCP/IP properties I see we use fixed IP address WINS server (rather than the more normal DNS server).

Can I use Visor/Thincom modem (or any springboard modem) to dial into our network? Has anybody tried this with success?

I sent e-mail to Thincom, they replied that the network portion is part of the operating system (and that they had no experience with WINS server).

TIA,

-JAPI-

Jarmo Kaila

Success is going to depend on the Access server you folks are using and on how your IP network is configured. If it really is configured without DNS, then you may be out of luck. I find this hard to believe, but folks can do strange things . . .

quote:

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Originally posted by yucca
Success is going to depend on the Access server you folks are using and on how your IP network is configured. If it really is configured without DNS, then you may be out of luck.

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I am assuming that you are trying to dial into your company's intranet, and that you are not trying to access your intranet via an Internet gateway. An access server supports the dial-in connection that you seek, and your IT folks should have the phone number that you would call to reach it (and any specific settings you will need to make in Prefs - Network - Service). You might want to meet with a tech, and go through creating the new service with the tech.

There is one potential issue that you should be aware of. I don't believe that the Palm OS supports dial-back connections. This is a common security feature where the access server takes your user name and password, and then dials back to a predetermined phone number before actually giving you access to the network. Since this feature is hard to support with users on the go, it shouldn't be an issue if your company already supports mobile remote users (e.g. laptop equipped traveling sales staff). This is a policy issue, not necessarily a technical issue, and you should be prepared to deal with it should it arise.

WINS, the Windows Internet Name Service, is not supported by any non-Windows clients except for Windows-replacement products like Samba or Data OnTap.

I don't understand what this has to do with dial-in, though. I don't think there are any services you can use from a Visor that you'd look the name up in a WINS database. It's not used by browsers and the like, just the Windows networking protocols (what used to be called SMB or Lan Manager, and now is just Windows Networking or CIFS). If you can access anything in your Intranet via Netscape, say, then you must have a DNS server somewhere.

If all else fails, anyway, you can always find the raw IP addresses of the servers you want to get to and access them that way.

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Thanks, works OK

Thanks for all the replies I got. I really wasn't sure if there is a different dial-up protocol for a network w/WINS server rather than a DNS server (ie. network where a static IP address is dedicated for either server).

Got the modem (Thincom) today, and dial-up works just fine for both "standard ISP" (with static DNS server) and our intranet (with static WINS server).

Just as a comment, the built-in Browse-It browser works pretty well. Much better than what I expected it to be. Multi-Mail apparently gets some getting used to.

Jarmo