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This page contains information about accessing the Internet from home through dialup access.
Scenario: Dialup access from a home in another city or state
If you have a computer with a 56k dialup modem at home, but home is outside the 217 area code, there are still ways that you can access the campus network without running up long-distance telephone fees when you're online.
If your home is in another country, you may also be interested in the Study Abroad scenarios (which discuss connecting to the campus network from anywhere).
Note: Some interfaces, including Illinois Compass, won't work correctly over dialup because the response time is too slow. If you need to use Illinois Compass or other high-bandwidth services, you may need to borrow a computer with a high-speed connection; see Borrowing a Computer for advice.
Getting connected and staying secure
If you don't need access to specific campus resources, using a local ISP will be your most cost-effective and time-effective option.
- Making a local-area phone call is almost always less expensive
than making a long-distance phone call.
- Many campus resources, such as Express Email and NetFiles, allow
you to connect from anywhere in the world without needing a specific
connection to the campus network.
- You will experience higher connection speeds when the data doesn't
need to travel long distances to the Urbana campus before continuing
to its eventual destination.
See the Choosing a Dialup Provider page for suggestions on how to select an ISP in your home area.
If you do need to connect to the campus network from a modem over long-distance telephone lines, you can:
- Use a local ISP in your home area (see the Local Dialup Access page for suggestions on how to select one).
- After connecting to your local ISP, connect to the VPN
server to authenticate yourself for access to
restricted on-campus services.
This will allow you to connect to the campus network in order to receive access to materials that are restricted to campus users, including certain library collections and the on-campus antivirus and anti-spyware updates.