You can put anything in this field, but a single word with only alphanumeric characters is best. Something like “cantBeBlank” works fine; so does “feersum-endjun”.

Don’t add your domain to the hostname. In other words, use “cantBeBlank”, not “cantBeBlank.company.com”. Doing so can trigger another bug in the current release…

ftp your.firewall.ip.address (this connects to your firewall)
anonymous@ftp.be.com (this line tells the firewall to FTP elsewhere)
username@email.address (regular address you give as password for anon. FTP)

That should get you in with most proxy servers, but not all of them. Notably, it will probably work with Apache in proxy mode, but won’t work with, for example, SOCKS. Other popular proxies, such as WinGate, have their own syntax for handling similar situations — consult your proxie’s documentation for details.

In addition, Be hosts its own PPP Troubleshooting Guide , which offers information straight from the horse’s mouth

If your modem doesn’t appear in the DUN modems picklist, click the Custom button and give your modem a name (the manufacturer and model would be a good choice). From here, you have two ways to proceed. If you already know your modem’s initialization string (e.g. you’ve got the modem’s documentation or you’ve found the manufacturer’s web site), you can simply type or paste it into the dialog and click OK. You may want to search through the massive database of init strings at http://www.modemhelp.org/.

If you can’t find the init string for you modem, you can try and build a string from scratch. Some of the most basic modem commands are accessible from the new AT commands picklist, while advanced documentation is now provided by Be and can be accessed by clicking the AT Commands… button.

Note: New modems are not added to the modems.ppp file, but are stored in configuration files living in the ~/config/settings/DUN hierarchy.

If you already have a working modem but want to add commands to the existing init string, the same dialog will let you make changes to your existing modem.

The instructions below are for users of BeOS R4 and earlier.

Many (in fact, most) modems not listed by default in the Dial-Up Networking panel can be made to work in BeOS by adding their initialization strings to /boot/beos/etc/modems.ppp. Adding a section or new modem to this file will cause it to appear in the DUN panel. (See also Ultimate init string database).

However, this file is write-protected, so you’ll need to give the file write permissions before you can edit it, then turn them off again when you’re finished. You can do this with the SetPerms Tracker add-on, or via the shell’s chmod command. Alternatively, see the tip Simplified read/write permissions.

1. Open a Terminal window and cd to /boot/beos/etc.
2. Type chmod a+w modems.ppp
3. Open modems.ppp in your favorite text editor.
4. Add a line at the top that reads similar to “MyModem ATZ” with your init string in place of ATZ. If there are any spaces in the modem’s name, replace them with underscores.
5. Save and close the file.

You will need to find a working init string for your modem to make the change useful. The easiest way to find a working init string is to steal it from another operating system on the same computer. Alternatively, read the modem’s manual or check the vendor’s Web site.

Some users may encounter a bug that leaves the net_server in an ambiguous state if your ISP times you out — you may find you’re not able to make a new connection properly. This seems to be an especially pernicious problem for ISDN users.

If this happens, you don’t have to reboot. First, look at all your network apps to make sure none of them are currently requesting network services. For instance, if you’ve tried to check your mail and it’s just sitting there not making the connection, stop it, or quit the mail program.

Open the Network preferences panel and click the Restart Networking button. Wait a few seconds, close the Network panel, and try your connection again. You should now be able to fire up PPP normally.

Alternatively, you can restart networking from the command line by typing /boot/beos/system/boot/Netscript. If you have to run Netscript often, you may want to make a symlink to it in /boot/home/config/bin so you just type Netscript from any prompt.

To make an Internet connection, just establish your TCP/IP settings in the Dial-Up Networking panel and start a service — check your mail, click a link, or start an FTP session… your default PPP connection will be initiated automatically. Note that dial-on-demand services were absent in the R4.0 release, but are restored in R4.1 and later; in R4.0, you’ll need to establish PPP connections via DUN’s Deskbar replicant or from the DUN application itself.

Restart networking and you’ll be good to go. Note that you may need to restart NetPositive as well.

This can be useful if, for instance, you want to hack around with Richard Burgess’ NAT’s hidden features.

Other than hacking around with hidden features, and perhaps learning how networking in the BeOS does its thing, this tip isn’t as useful as it used to be (when a lot of software installs required that you edit your network config file).