How? Using CompuServe as ISP through Network pref pane

[DominikHoffmann]

A colleague of mine has to travel to Turkey where our Earthlink dial-up account only provides access in Ankara (the capital) and Izmir. Istanbul, which is by some metrics in the top 10 of largest cities in the world, is not included. Therefore we opted for a trial CompuServe account. Compuserve indeed has decent dial-up coverage in Turkey.

Thus, I spent about 45 min on the phone, yesterday, with three CompuServe representatives. The first was able to set me up with a with a trial account and password. The second couldn't tell me the parameters for PPP. Once I told him that I didn't have Windows, he passed me off to a Mac support specialist. This Mac support specialist informed me that with CompuServe I can't merely configure PPP in the Network preference pane, but that the dial-up service works through the CompuServe application exclusively. We got it to work with some trial and error. One annoying feature is that a non-privileged user can't set up his own dial-up preferences within the application and that the application doesn't allow a per-incident administrator override.

Back to the fact that with CompuServe the use of their application for making the dial-up connection is required, is that really true? Has anyone out there figured out how to bypass the application and go through the Network preference pane?

Dominik

[Taoyst]

CompuServe, like AOL, is a nasty little service that requires you to do things their way or no way at all. You must access the service through their software or not connect. (Accessing the service another way would mean you don't have to look at their ads, etc.)