Tutorials 

Roundup your dialup in OS X!

By Kevin White, Contributing Editor

So you're a grizzled PowerBook slinging Road WarriorŠ fastest configuration changes this side of the Pecos. You can single handedly change dozens of network settings at the flick of a track pad. You are a bonified Remote Access sharp shooter and your weapon of choice is Apple's Location Manager.

Well, your going to have to hand over that weapon, hombre. This is OS X territory and the sheriff up in Cupertino has outlawed Location Manager. There's a new law in town and its name is Network Locations.

Love it or hate it, Apple's Location Manager is the default solution for multiple dialup locations in OS 9. Location Manger is a great idea with a horrible interface. Configuration of Location Manager settings is quite confounding. Fortunately, Mac OS X changes all of this. Multiple network locations are integrated, quite elegantly I might add, into the Network Preference Pane. Configuring multiple network locations is straightforward and changing locations is easily accessible via the Apple menu. However, a seemingly hidden feature in OS X is the ability to quickly change dialup settings via the Modem Menuing. (According to Apple Certified OS X trainers those little menus next to the clock are called Menulings.) Check out the screenshot below to see what I'm talking about.

Think you can handle this much OS X goodness? Then saddle up, partner! Follow these steps to roundup your dialup in OS XŠ YEE-HAW!!!!

Open the Network Preference Pane and find the Location pull down menu. The default selection for this menu is Automatic. (You should note, the items in this menu also appear in the Apple menu under the Location sub-menu.) Create a new network location by choosing New Location in this pull down menu.

Give this new network location a name. You can set up several locations for various situations. On this Mac I have the default Automatic location, a setting for my @Home service, and one setting to turn networking off. In the example below I am creating a network location for a fictional ISP.

Once you have created your new network location find the Show pull down menu. The default for the Show pull down is Internal Modem. This is a menu of your active network ports. Choose Active Network Ports to configure the port settings.

The following is list of the active network pots. This list is by no means set in stone. In fact, when you start to fiddle with these list things get interesting. For instance, as you can see below I have renamed the Internal Modem port to a city name. Double click on the port name to do this. Remember, this port is still the internal modem, all you have done is rename the port to something more useful. Also in this example I have turned off the Built-In Ethernet port. (Wink, winkŠnudge, nudgeŠ can you guess how to create the Network Off location?)

You will notice the contents of the Show pull down menu changed based how you reconfigured the network ports. Use the Show pull down to select the city name and enter the ISP settings.

Generally, when dialing up abroad, the only network settings that change are the phone numbers. So, to save some time, navigate back to the Active Network Ports and simply duplicate the first city. Once you have set up several cities, go through each and make the necessary changes.

Once you have all of your locations created and configured its time to engage the Modem Menuling. Show one of your dialup locations. Chose the Modem tab and at the bottom select Show modem status in menu bar.

Close the System Preferences and select Save at the prompt. Finally, go to the Apple menu and select your ISP from the Locations sub-menu. Now your Modem Menuling is ready for action. Change your dialup locations, initiate connections, and disconnect with this handy menuling. Behold the awesome Modem Menuling animation as your modem initiates the connection!

Extra credit! Do you miss Remote Access Status? I don't and neither should you. Your new friend is the Internet Connect application. Note all of your modem settings from the Network Preference Pane are already there!

If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to e-mail me at kevin_white@osxfaq.com