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3. Web browsing and connecting to Internet sites.

3.1 What can I do to protect my kids from seeing all that bad stuff I hear is on the web?

We suggest checking out our parental control web page at http://www.coinet.com/parent.php

3.2 How can I change my browser's default start page so that it loads Coinet's home page?

It's a good idea to do this because we often post announcements and information for all there, and you will very likely see faster start up times for your browser, because it doesn't have to connect to someplace out on the Internet. Loading our home page, which you are close to, will be much quicker.

Here are instructions for the popular browsers:

Netscape Navigator

Click on Options, then General Preferences, and enter http://www.coinet.com/ in the text area next to Browser Starts With.

Netscape Communicator

Click on Edit, choose Preferences, then click on Navigator, then enter http://www.coinet.com/ in the text area within the Home Page section.

Internet Explorer

Go to View, then Options, choose the Navigation tab, and enter http://www.coinet.com/ as the Start Page.

3.3 When I try to surf the web with my browser, I get an error that says there was no DNS entry.

This happens quite often with Windows and Mac users alike. Chances are, you can fix it by simply rebooting your computer and trying again.

If after doing that it still doesn't fix it, double-check that your network configuration lists the two DNS servers that were given to you when you signed up. These are:

If these numbers are mistyped or missing, then you have problems. Enter them in the appropriate place and try again.

Sometimes it may happen that the DNS (Domain Name Server(s)) you have specified in your network setup are unreachable (possible, but this is a very rare occurance). Don't fear, however--if our DNS is down for some reason, it will be working shortly.

Another reason for this error is that you have mistyped the URL. Always double-check your spelling before anything else.

3.4 A site I just connected to earlier in the day is now impossible to bring up! It says the server may be down.

Like all machines, computers sometimes break down or need maintenance. Web servers are no different, and occasionally they may be offline for whatever reason. There is nothing we can do when you see this error. You'll just have to try again later.

3.5 Connecting to some web sites is really slow. What's wrong with Coinet's connection to the Internet?

Packets of data traveling over the Internet are often slowed down or stopped due to hardware problems or traffic saturation at routers outside of our network. Such slowdowns are particularly prevalant during the evening hours in the U.S. There is not a thing we can do to prevent this since your data needs to pass through multiple routers we do not control on the way to its destination.

The major backbone networks (MCI, AT&T, Sprint, UUnet, etc.) carry the majority of Internet traffic, so the rest of us are affected by problems they have with their equipment.

You can go to the Coinet User Services web pages at http://usercenter.coinet.com/ and use the Traceroute and Ping tools to help you find the cause of your connection problems yourself. If you are having problems reaching some or most web sites you try to reach, it's likely those tools will clearly show some packet loss and the router that is causing you grief.

3.6 When I type in a web address, I don't get any results!

It's possible, and happens to new users all the time, that you are typing a web address at a search engine (Yahoo, Altavista, etc.). If you already know the URL of a web site, then there is no need to do any searching for it.

Enter the address into your web browser's URL area and hit Enter. In Netscape, this is called ``Location'' or ``Netsite.'' With Internet Explorer, it's called ``Address.''

3.7 I can't connect to AOL, what's going on?

We hear this just about every day. So does every other ISP in the country. Really.

Nothing is going on, in fact that's just the nature of the Internet. Remember, AOL is not the Internet, they are just a destination on the Internet.

See Connecting to Internet sites above for some possible reasons. Another big reason connecting to AOL can be difficult at times is the obvious fact that there are likely a few hundred thousand or even a million people trying to get to AOL at the same time you are, and even AOL's Internet connection has its failures. This is especially true during the evening hours.

You can try going to Coinet User Services and using the traceroute tool. For the host to trace to, use americaonline.aol.com.

The gist of this is we can't do anything to help, unfortunately. If you can connect to web sites via your Coinet account using your web browser, but can't get to AOL, there isn't anything we can really do. If you call AOL, however, they will no doubt tell you to call us. They do that all the time.


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