ServiceLink Manual

Chapter 6. Installing And Configuring Your SME Server V5 with ServiceLink Software
• modem initialization screen - most users can simply leave this blank, but with some particular modems, additional information
may need to be entered here
• the dialup access phone number
• username
• password
• connection policy
This last item may be of special interest. As shown in the screen below, you can configure what type of policy you wish to have in
place during typical work hours. If you are in a small office and wish to share your phone line between your computer and phone or
fax, you may wish to minimize the time you are online. This is also true if your ISP charges a fee on a per-minute basis. On the other
hand, if you have a separate phone line or unlimited time with your ISP, you might want to have long connection times or a
continuous connection.
Warning
If you are using a dial-on-demand link to your ISP, please be aware that you can incur very steep phone charges due to
dialup connection attempts to the ISP. We are aware of at least one case in which a failed modem link at the ISP resulted
in several thousand connection attempts over a couple of days - and a hefty phone bill. If your telephone carrier charges
you per-call or per-minute fees, we suggest that you contact your ISP and ask whether it is willing to assume
responsibility if a failure at their end results in a large phone bill.
After configuring this policy for "work" hours, you can then configure the policy for time outside of office hours and additionally for
the weekend. Notice that you do have the choice of never , which would allow you to restrict your system from connecting on
weekends or during off-hours.
The connection policy defines several choices including Short, Medium or Long. These specify how long the server should wait
before disconnecting the dialup connection. If your office only shares a single phone line, the Short option minimizes the amount of
connection time and frees up the phone line for later use. The down side to this is that if someone is reading a long page on the web
site or steps away from their computer for a brief moment, when they want to then go to another web page, the server will probably
have disconnected and will need to redial and connect. On the other hand, setting the Long connection time will result in users
experiencing fewer delays while waiting for the server to reconnect. However, the phone line will used for a larger amount of time.
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