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Introduction

Lately, there have been numerous Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which give people access to the Internet for free.  You use a local dial-up number to make a PPP connection with your PC and you're online surfing the web and sending/receiving Emails.  So what's catch?  The catch is the presence of a small window on your monitor containing advertising info. Also in most cases, you are required to use special software which allows the Internet provider to track which web pages you are viewing.  This can be annoying, but hey, you're getting free Internet access!  Here is a list of some of these Free ISPs:
 

www.netzero.net
www.freeatlast.com
www.juno.com
www.bluelight.com
freelane.excite.com

Personally, I've been investigating the use of a free ISP dial-up account to make an Internet connection using my Palm V + SprintPCS cell phone.  Why?  Since I'm currently using a Cox Cable Modem setup for my home Internet connection, I don't have a true phone dial-up ISP account.  I don't want to pay for an account for limited use with my Palm V and modem, so the Free ISPs seem a good possibility.

So can I use one of these Free ISPs with my Palm device to make an Internet connection?  The answer is Yes!

For more information regarding Free ISPs, you can check out the following web pages:

http://nzlist.org/user/freeisp/nopay.sht - (list of FreeISPs)
http://www.cewindows.net/wce/isp.htm - (list of various Free and paid ISPs)

FreeISP web page resource! Check out the following web page for up-to-date info on available FreeISPs at: http://www.freedomlist.com

NOTE: It appears that most of the FreeISPs have caught on and are putting up road blocks to prevent people from dialing into the Internet without using their custom Windows dialer programs. NetZero, for example, will apparently disconnect you after 3 minutes and send you a nasty Email threatening to terminate your account. I'll leave the instructions and tips below if you want to try using a FreeISP at your own risk. 

Free ISP Functionality

The Free ISPs are basically setup to allow your MS-Windows machine to make a PPP connection to their web server.  To ensure that their advertisement window pops up on your screen, these ISPs require the use of special software to make your PPP Internet connection.  They often conceal the actual user login name and sometimes use an encrypted password based on your supplied password, which makes it difficult for you to login without using their login software.  I've figured out how to determine the real login name and password for a few of these Free ISPs which I'll describe below.

Some Free ISP's offer POP3 and SMTP mail servers (so you can receive and send Emails using an appropriate app on your Palm device) while others don't offer such services.  So depending on your usage and needs, you will have to examine each Free ISP to see if they meet your requirements.

Palm-Internet connection

Of the Free ISPs listed above, I've had success using a few of them for making "free" connections to the Internet using my Palm V and external modem (or SprintPCS cell phone).  Currently, the easiest Free ISP to make a connection is freei.com.  You can also use NetZero, but it takes a bit more work figuring out the real password.

How to configure your Palm device for Juno.com 

I've had numerous people Email me asking how to make a PPP connection using their existing Juno dialup account.  Since Juno is taking over for freewwweb.com, I thought I would describe how to make a PPP connection to Juno using a Palm device.  Note, that Juno currently does not offer its own POP3 server for mail support, so you can only retrieve and send Juno mail using a web browser.  You can, however, use other POP3 servers for mail retrieval and sending (e.g., pop.mail.yahoo.com for yahoo mail).

Establish an account - First, you must to go the www.juno.com site to download the necessary software to establish an account.  You will need to specify both a username and password, and fill out lots of info about yourself.  What's difficult about Juno, is that the actual login name and password is encrypted, and you need to find out what the encrypted login name and password is to login using your Palm.  So how do you find this information?  You need to use a program called rasspy.exe which can be found at: http://rasspy.gq.nu.  This program will echo back the actual login name and password that is being sent to an ISP when you initiate the dialup connection from your PC.  Here is what you need to do after downloading and unzipping the rasspy file:

1. Copy the rasspy.exe file to your C:\windows\system32 directory
2. Right-click on the Juno icon on your desktop (which was created when you installed Juno) and select properties.
3. Under the "Shortcut" tab, add "C:\windows\system32\rasspy cmd=" before the string in the "Target" entry.  For example, you might have something as shown in the figure below,



Now when you double-click on that Juno icon to make a dialup connection, rasspy will startup and you will see a new dialogbox which will contain the REAL login name and REAL password.  For example, rasspy showed that my real login name and password was,

Login name:           dadd1234394343@jweb.juno.com
Login password:       UxsIjKNETqeszef83pf

Once you write down the real login name and password, you can stop the login procedure and apply the info to your Palm Network connection.

Select a local dial-up phone number - From the www.juno.com select a local access dial-up number.

Configuring Palm "Connection" Settings (OS 3.3 version) - Once you've connected your Palm to an external modem (or cell phone), you will need to configure the connection settings on you Palm.  This is done under the "Prefs" app on your Palm.  Once you have started the "Prefs" app, select "Connection" using the dropdown list in the upper-right corner of the Palm screen.  You should see a screen similar to Figure 1.

 



Figure 1
Connection settings in the "Prefs" app

If you're using a Palm V modem, then select "Palm V Modem" for the connection configuration.  If you are using an external modem (or SprintPCS cell phone) then tap on the "New" button to configure a new connection device, and enter the information as shown in Figure 2.  Next, tap on the "Details..." button to bring up the form shown in Figure 3, and set the connection speed to the appropriate modem speed. Tap "OK" to save and exit from the connections setup.
 

Figure 2 Defining a new connection device

Figure 3 Specifying device speed

Configuring Palm "Network" Settings - Finally, to make a connection to the Free ISP, you need to configure your Palm's Network settings.  From the "Prefs" app, select Network from the dropdown list in the upper-right corner of the Palm screen.  You should see a screen similar to Figure 4.

 



Figure 4
Network settings in "Prefs" app

This is where you will specify the local ISP dial-up phone number, login name and password, etc.  As an example, we will use the information listed previously to illustrate how to enter the necessary data for Internet dial-up connection.

Start by filling in the info as shown in Figure 5.  Next, tap on the "Details..." button, and modify the settings to match those illustrated in Figure 6.

 

Figure 5 Example Network setup

Figure 6 Example details Network setup (Default)

This should be sufficient for making a PPP connection to the Juno ISP.  

Now, to actually make the PPP connection, you will go back to the Network screen shown in Figure 5 and tap the "Connect" button.  Your Palm should then dial the specified phone number and make your connection!  Once you make a PPP connection, you will see a small vertical line flashing in the upper right corner of your Palm display (Figure 7).  When you disconnect your PPP connection (by either turning off your Palm or tapping the "Disconnect" button in the Prefs - Network screen) the flashing vertical line should disappear.



Figure 7
Flashing vertical bar indicates network connection

Palm usage effectiveness - Below is a summary of the effectiveness of the Juno account based on some informal tests conducted on 7-24-00. 

• No POP3 or SMTP mail servers available through Juno

• Can use the mail servers from Yahoo.com (pop.mail.yahoo.com & smtp.mail.yahoo.com) to receive and send Emails (although, yahoo's SMTP server wasn't connecting during my testing).

• The ProxiWeb browser worked fine.

• The Web Clipping apps worked fine.

How to configure your Palm device for using freeatlast.com

[8-3-00] Recently, I tried to establish an account with Freeatlast using the technique described previously, however, the install application for creating a new account on freeatlast.com defeats the rasspy.exe program, so you can't find out the actual login name and password for direct dialup.

How to configure your Palm device for using NetZero.net

Establish an account - First, you must to go the www.netzero.net site to download the necessary software to establish an account.  You will need to specify both a username and password.  During the signup process, remember to note your Email name, password, and login phone number.  When I signed up, I noted the following information:

Dial-up access:       (602) 889-0102

Login name:           johndoe
Login password:       doggie

SMTP mail server:     smtp.netzero.net
POP mail server:      pop.netzero.net
News server:          ??

Domain name:          netzero.net
Primary DNS server:   208.184.153.30
Secondary DNS server: 208.184.153.31

Select a local dial-up phone number - From the www.netzero.net site select a local access dial-up number.

Configuring the Palm settings - Follow the same setup as described previously for the Juno.com configuration as illustrated in Figures 1 through 4.  Also, use the same technique described in the Juno section for finding the real login name and password (using the rasspy.exe program).
 

Figure 12 NetZero network setup

Figure 13 NetZero network setup

Palm usage effectiveness - Below is a summary of the effectiveness of the NetZero account based on some informal tests conducted on 7-24-00. 

• POP3 and SMTP mail servers are available through NetZero, and they both worked fine for sending and receiving NetZero emails.

• The ProxiWeb browser worked fine.

• The Web Clipping apps worked fine.

Overall, the NetZero account seemed to work very well with the Palm device.  NetZero has numerous dialup numbers throughout the US, so you shouldn't have problems with busy signals.  I did get an Email from a person who stated that NetZero is closing down accounts which do not use their dialup software, so it might be a good thing to occassionally dial into NetZero using your PC to keep your account active.

What about the other various Free ISPs?

So, is it possible to use other Free ISPs to make an Internet connection using your Palm?  Probably.  As I mentioned previously, the key to making a PPP connection with the Free ISPs is to determine the real login name and password being sent from your PC (or Palm) to the Free ISP's server.  The best way to find this information is to use a freeware program called "Rasspy", which was designed to echo back the login name and password for a Dialup connection for users who may have forgotten their password (since it is displayed as "*****" in MS-Windows dialup adapter dialog box).  You can get this program at: http://rasspy.gq.nu or by clicking this link: rasspy.exe.
 

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