RISC OS Freeserve Connectivity

Using the Ant Internet Suite

Last updated: 5th Aug 1999

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 Install the Freeserve Provider File

Before you work through these instructions you need to install the Freeserve 'ISP Provider file' for the Ant Suite. You can be downloaded by clicking here.
Open !InetSuite.Internet.Providers.UK_a-m in !SparkFS and copy the Freeserve provider file into it.
N.B. If you don't have !SparkFS you can actually just create a new directory inside !InetSuite.Internet.Providers and call it NewISPs or something, and copy the new script into it.
 
 Configuring the Ant Suite for Freeserve

  1. Load !InetSuite so that it appears as normal on the left side of the icon bar.
  2. Click on it and load the Configuration application.
  3. Click on Provider setup and select Country 'UK_a-m' and IS Provider 'Freeserve' (which should now be in the list).
  4. Confirm that the other settings are as follows (changing them as neccessary):-
    • Town/City: Local
    • Telephone:08450796699
    • Host name: freeserve.co.uk
    • IP Address: Dynamic (greyed out)
    • Login name: freeservesignup
    • Password: signup
    • Name server: 194.152.64.68, 194.152.64.35
  5. Close the window.
  6. Click 'Save' in the Internet Suite configuration window.
  7. Now try connecting. If all is well the suite should go online ok.
  8. Now load !Browse and Acorn's SSL module (unfortunately !Fresco doesn't yet support SSL) and go to https://join.freeserve.net/welcome.shtml
  9. If all is well you should see the "Welcome to Freeserve" banner and a 'Create new account' option. Click on where it says "Click here" to create a new account.
  10. You should see their terms and conditions. Click 'Accept' if you accept them.
  11. Fill in the form of personal information you get presented with next, and click 'Continue' at the bottom of the form. This will probably produce a 'File not found' error. If it does, click in the URL bar at the top and delete the bit which says 'perl/' so that it reads 'http://signup.freeserve.net/node.shtml' and press return.
  12. You should now get a page of advice on choosing an email address. Click 'Continue'.
  13. You now need to choose your email address and subdomain name. Your Freeserve email address will be user@subdomain.freeserve.co.uk so you need to choose settings for 'user' and 'subdomain' and choose a suitable password. Click 'Continue'.
    N.B. You should choose a name which allows the total username (i.e. "user@subdomain.freeserve.co.uk") to be LESS than 32 characters. This is because the Ant Suite is restricted to 32 chars in it's configuration template.
    N.N.B. If you get a system error returned (or Freeserve tries to take you to another non-existent 'system error' page - you can see this by examining the URL bar), then it is likely that you have a version of Acorn's SSL module which is too old. I received an error using version 0.04 but it worked ok using v0.06
  14. Again, even if all is well you are likely to get another 'File not found' error because of an additional 'perl/' word. Delete it, so the URL reads 'https://signup/freeserve.net/details.shtml' and continue.
    N.B. If the email address you chose has already been claimed by someone else you are likely to get a 'duplicate name' error. However, again you will get the 'File not found' error and you need to delete the 'perl/' part.
  15. You should now get the 'You have completed your signup process' screen. Make a note of your details and click 'Finished'.
  16. After a while a small 'save' window will open (as if you've downloaded a file). This actually contains the information needed in order to finish setting up your computer - if you were using a Windoze PC. Save this onto your disc somewhere safe. You may need it later - However, by making these instructions as simple as possible I hope I may help you to avoid anything too technical.
  17. Your account should now be setup and ready to use. Tell Ant INS to disconnect and hangup now.

 Using your new Freeserve account via the Ant Suite

You now basically need to re-edit your Freeserve configuration to make it into a regular account rather than logging onto their new account site. This involves repeating part of the previous section on configuring Ant INS.
  1. Go back to the Configuration utility and call up the 'Provider setup' window. You should see the parameters you set in step 4 You now need to edit your 'Login name' and 'Password' so that it contains the following information:-
    • Login name: subdomain.freeserve.co.uk
    • Password: your password (note that this is case sensitive)

    Make sure you include the .freeserve.co.uk bit after your subdomain bit and type your password in the correct case that you created it in at step 12 above.
  2. Close the window and save the configuration settings.
  3. You can now connect and surf the web using !Browse, !Fresco or !ArcWeb. Happy surfing with your new Freeserve account - and hopefully you'll never need to ring Dixons premium rate telephone help line.

 Setting up the Ant Suite to receive Email/News via Freeserve

Assuming you have created your account ok and got this far, it's relatively easy to finish off configuring the Ant Suite to enable you to send and receive Email/News messages.
  1. Go back to the Configuration utility and call up the 'Mail setup' window. You should see a window containing a couple of entries; a line ending in <POP3 and a line ending in >SEND. These two lines define the email receive and send parameters respectively.
  2. Edit the top one so that it reads:-

    pop.freeserve.net/ucbuser@subdomain.freeserve.co.uk<POP3


  3. Edit the bottom one so that it reads:-

    smtp.freeserve.net >SEND


  4. Click on 'Close' to close the mail configuration window.
  5. Open the 'News setup' window and ensure that the news server (the top icon) is set to 'news.freeserve.net' and click on 'Close' to close the news configuration window.
  6. Now click on 'Save' in the main congifuration window to save the settings. Your computer should now be setup to receive email and news.
    For more information on using the Ant Suite, please consult the Ant Suite user manual.


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© Paul Vigay