Municipal
Utilities & City Cable
Internet
Setup Guide
Complete
Step by Step Instructions – recommended for most new users.
(Refer to the picture pages for screen shots of each step)
** While every effort has been made to ensure completeness and accuracy of information contained within this document, no guarantees are made or should be implied to the documents completeness, accuracy or fitness for use in any particular situation. Municipal Utilities and City Cable cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of the information contained within this document. If you are uncomfortable making the necessary changes or updates to your system, please contact City Cable for a service call to your home to perform these tasks or seek another qualified system technician to assist you. **
Basic Overview:
Setup Your Browser
To
set your homepage location to Mycitycable or any other address following these
instructions.
1)
Open
Internet Explorer
2)
Go
to Tools, then Internet Options.
3)
In
the big white box at the top of the window that appears, enter the full address
of where you want to start each time the browser is opened. For example, you could put www.mycitycable.com
Outlook Express
1)
Start
out with all windows closed and viewing your desktop.
2)
Click
the Outlook Express icon on your desktop, on your quick launch toolbar, or find
it in your start menu to open the program.
3)
When
the program opens, it may start the wizard automatically and present you with a
screen to enter your account information, if it does skip to number _9_ to
enter the appropriate information.
4)
To
start the setup wizard and enter your account information, go to Tools, then
Accounts.
5)
The
accounts window will appear, click the Tab that says MAIL.
6)
You
should have a list of mail accounts that are setup. It may be empty if no accounts are setup yet.
7)
Please
delete the accounts that you no longer need.
If you do not specifically know of an account you are currently using
and still need, you should probably remove the ones that exist as they are
likely old ones that are not being used.
8)
Click
the ADD button, then select Mail, a setup wizard will appear.
9)
In
the setup wizard, the first screen asks for your name as you would like it to
appear. Most people simply put their
first and last name. Click next to
continue.
10)
The
second screen needs to know your e-mail address. Please enter all letters in lower case. Click next to continue.
11)
This
screen requires the incoming and outgoing mail server names. The top line (incoming) should have pop.mycitycable.com placed in the box. The bottom line (outgoing) should have smtp.mycitycable.com placed in it. Click next to continue.
12)
Now
enter your account name, which is the first part of your e-mail address. Then enter the password in the box
below. Ensure there is a check in the
Remember Password box if you do not want to put in your password each time it
checks your e-mail. Then click next.
13)
The
next screen is a congratulations screen and signals the end of the wizard. Click Finish to complete the e-mail setup
wizard.
14)
After
clicking Finish on the previous screen, you may still have the accounts window
showing, if so, click Close to close that window.
15)
You
should now be back to your Outlook Express window and ready to send and receive
e-mail.
Troubleshooting
Connection
Troubles
If you cannot make a connection, try these troubleshooting tips.
First, try your connection a few times to ensure it is not a temporary glitch, then proceed with the tips. You may also contact Technical Support at 888-394-4772. Obtain a case number and the name of the technician to whom you are speaking.
Modem
Lights:
Terayon Modem TJ715 & VCG Silver Modem
1)
Make
sure the cable modem lights are correct by verifying you have a solid (not
blinking) Power, Cable (or Online), and PC (or LAN) light on the front.
2)
If
you do not have a Power light, the modem has lost electrical power, ensure it
is fully plugged into the outlet. If
that is not the problem, try another outlet on another wall. Try plugging a lamp or other device into an
outlet to ensure the outlet is functioning.
If you still have no Power light on a known good outlet, call City Cable
at 686-8020 or bring the modem and power cord to the office to exchange it.
3)
If
the Cable light is blinking and you have not just connected the modem to power,
wait about one minute to see if the light goes solid. If it does not, disconnect the modem from power and wait one
minute, then reconnect it and let it resynchronize with the cable plant a few
minutes to see if the light goes solid.
If it still does not, or if the light goes solid but regularly loses
sync and starts blinking again, contact City Cable at 686-8020 to arrange for a
technician to check your service.
4)
If
the PC (or LAN) light is not lit, check the Ethernet cable the connects the
modem to your computer to ensure it is fully plugged in. Also ensure your computer is powered on and
running in Windows. If the cable is
securely connected between the computer and the modem, try unplugging the power
from the modem, then restart your computer, after your computer is back in
Windows again, plug in the modem and let it sync back to the cable plant. The lights will flash until it is
synchronized to the cable plant. After
the cable light goes solid, check the PC (or LAN) light to see if it is now
on. If it is still off, one of several
possibilities exist. Either the modem’s
network interface has failed in which case the modem needs replaced, the cable
connecting the modem to the computer has failed and needs replaced, the network
adapter inside the computer has failed or is not installed properly and will
need changed or reinstalled. A
technician can assist you in checking these things.
Motorola Surfboard 5120
5)
If
your modem is a black Motorola modem, the normal light configuration is Power,
Receive, Send, and Online are on solid.
PC/Activity will be lit if your computer is connected to the modem and
turned on. If any of the top 4 lights
are flashing, please try unplugging the power, waiting a minute and plugging it
back in then wait several minutes for the modem to resync. If it does not go to the normal light
configuration after 5 minutes, please call City Cable at 686-8020.
Network
Adapter:
1)
Ensure
your network adapter is installed properly and the drivers are loading. Click the Start button, select Settings,
then Control Panel.
2)
Make
sure you are in Classic view (you may
need to click the switch to classic view link at the left).
3)
Click
the System icon
4)
Click
the Hardware tab
5)
Click
the Device Manager Button
6)
Find
the green icon labeled Network Adapters.
7)
If
you see a minus sign beside it and something branched out under it with a red X
or a Yellow circle and ( ! ) showing then either the network card may be
disabled or has a problem. You will
need to have a technician check your system for you.
8)
If
you see a plus sign beside it and nothing branched out under it, click the plus
sign to make it a minus sign and one or more devices will appear branched out
under it. Make sure you have a network
adapter installed, each network adapter is listed a little differently but many
will have “10/100” or “Ethernet” or “NIC” appearing in the name. If you do not see anything like this, you
may not have a network adapter installed or it may not be recognized by
Windows. Entries such as Dialup
Adapter, and 1394 are not the ones you will need for your cable Internet
connection. You must have something in
addition to either of those. In the
case of no Network Adapter, please have a technician assist you.
9)
After
checking the Device Manager, you can close it by clicking the Cancel button.
10)
After
closing Device Manager close the System Properties window by clicking Cancel.
11)
You
should now be back to Control Panel.
12)
Click
the Network Connections Icon.
13)
You
should see Local Area Connection and at least one icon labeled as such.
14)
If
you see no connections at all under the Local Area Connection section, that is
further evidence the Network Adapter is not installed or is not functioning
properly. A technician will need to
assist you.
Pop Ups, Pop Ups, and More Pop-Ups, - Adware/Spyware related issues.
If you are seeing a multitude of pop-ups, system sluggishness, slow transfer rates on your connection, system freeze-ups, new programs appearing in your start menu, and new toolbars showing up on Internet Explorer you may have adware or spyware on your computer. (Adware should not be confused with the software product Adaware which works to remove adware.) If you suspect you have adware or spyware on your computer and wish to remove it, follow these steps.
1)
Connect
to the Internet
2)
Go
to http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
and read about the product they offer called Spybot Search and Destroy. It is offered for free, seems to work great
and may save you from having to completely erase and reload all your
software. An important note: City Cable does not make this product, does
not accept liability for its use, and does not have technical support for it. If after reading about the software at the
company site you wish to download it and clean your computer, there are
download links provided on that companies website. If you do not wish to use their product, stop here.
3)
Otherwise,
after downloading Spybot, run the install program and restart your computer
after install (if necessary).
4)
Open
the program, ensure you are connected to the Internet and go to Search for
Updates. It will probably have a few
updates to download, select a USA mirror site and click Download Updates.
5)
Depending
on what updates are necessary, it may have to restart itself, be patient while
it updates, closes and reopens the program.
6)
After
it has finished the update process, click
Check for Problems button and allow it to fully scan your computer for
problems.
7)
Once
finished you should end up with a list (probably long) with many entries in Red
with check marks in the boxes. Make a
note on paper of the names of the different items in Red (many will have the
same name).
8)
After
you have completed your list, close the program without removing the items yet.
9)
Disconnect
from the Internet if your are currently connected.
10)
Click
the Start button, select Settings and then Control Panel.
11)
Open
Add/Remove Programs icon.
12)
Look
through the list of installed programs for items matching the ones on your
list. If you are unsure, do not remove
anything.
13)
Items
you are confident belong to the spyware/adware products and you wish to remove,
click the Add/Remove button to uninstall them.
Many will have several screens that try to trick you into keeping the
software or making you click the wrong button so be cautious.
14)
Many
will make you restart your computer after uninstalling them, this is fine,
allow your system to be restarted and pick up where you left off.
15)
Remove
each item you are sure about until you are finished.
16)
Restart
your computer after all items you wish to remove are removed from the
Add/Remove control panel application.
17)
Open
Spybot and click Check For Problems and allow it to scan your computer again.
18)
Once
the program finishes scanning your computer, look through the list to ensure it
has not made any mistakes and identified something you wish to keep. Remove the check marks by any items you wish
to keep, be very cautious about leaving parts of adware/spyware installed. In some cases, parts of the adware/spyware
is worse than all of it being installed.
19)
Once
you the check marks are in the items you wish to remove, click Fix Selected
Problems and let the program remove them.
Depending on what sofware is installed and currently running, it may not
be able to remove them all the first time and ask you to let it scan upon the
next reboot, say Yes to that box.
20)
You
will then see many green check marks and a few red marks where it could not
remove the items yet. Close the program
and restart your computer.
21)
Upon
restarting your computer, it will take a bit longer to start but will then
display the Spybot screen and begin scanning.
You may need to click ok on the warning screen.
22)
After
the scan completes, if the the list of problems are not displayed, click the
Search and Destroy icon on the left. If
it automatically removed the items and it displays No Items Found, just close
the program and Windows will finish loading.
If it shows items, click Fix Selected Problems to remove the remaining
parts it could not remove the first time.
Then close the program after it completes.
23)
At
this point all the adware/spyware the program knows about and how to remove
will be removed. You will likely have
much less problems with tons of pop ups , and other related issues.
24)
It
is important to check for updates and install them EACH time you want to use
the Spybot program to ensure the latest information file is being used.
25)
If
a problem occurs after removing the adware/spyware and you wish to go back, the
Spybot program has a recovery icon that will allow you to reinstall the removed
adware/spyware it had removed.
Again, this information is being offered strictly for your information and support is not offered for the Spybot software or its use.
Trojan
Horses, Worms and Virus’
These
cause many problems for users. It is
important now more than ever to have an up-to-date reliable antivirus program
installed and running on your computer.
It is just as important to ensure all critical updates and securtity
patches are installed for your software (covered in another section).
There
are many good products that will help prevent and remove existing virus’ and
other malicious software. Some cost
money and some are offered for free.
Generally the paid versions offer additional handy features and
technical support while the free ones offer no technical support and are
generally basic versions that perform the most important tasks without the
bells and whistles. We recommend a
stand alone antivirus software rather than full suites that include antivirus
software. The stand alone versions seem
to run more efficiently and use less system resources. The two most popular paid software programs
are Symantec (Norton) Antivirus (www.symantec.com) and McAfee (www.mcafee.com)
. Both are good programs if they are
configured correctly and kept up-to-date.
One popular free program is AVG Antivirus from Grisoft (free.grisoft.com). They have both a paid version and a free
version. The paid version has a few
extra features and technical support.
We strongly recommend obtaining and using an antivirus program to help
protect your computer and its information.
Critical Updates and Security Patches
Microsoft
offers free updates to its Windows products, Internet Explorer, and Outlook
products. It is very important to
ensure all critical updates and security patches are installed to prevent
serious problems with the software and intrusion into your computer by worms
and malicious users. To obtain these
updates, visit the Microsoft Windows Update website at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and answer yes to the active X security
boxes and allow it to scan for updates.
The critical updates are all that is required, the additional updates
are useful in certain situations but they should not be installed blindly as
some are not needed for certain users and will occupy space and possibly cause
problems.
It
may be required to install a few of the updates separately and reboot between
them. Continue to revisit the website
until there are no other critical updates available. After obtaining the security updates, you should configure your
Windows to maintain your updates automatically so that extended periods of time
does not elapse between an update becoming available and you downloading
it. Some worms can transmit around the
Internet in a matter of days or hours and therefore you should obtain the
updates as soon as possible.
To configure Windows XP to automatically obtain critical updates follow these steps.
1)
Click
the Start button, select Settings, then Control Panel.
2)
Ensure
you are in Classic View, you may need to click Switch to Classic View on the
left side.
3)
Click
the System Icon
4)
Click
the Automatic Updates tab
5)
Select
the option to Automatically download and install updates on my schedule, then
select a time you will have your computer powered on and connected to the
Internet.
6)
Click
OK when finished.
7)
Close
Control Panel to return to Windows.
8)
Occassionally
you will be prompted with a message that says new updates are ready to install,
you should allow it to install the updates and restart itself if necessary when
finished.
To configure Windows ME and 2000 to automatically obtain critical updates follow these steps.
1)
Click
the Start button, select Settings, then Control Panel.
2)
Click
the Automatic Updates icon
3)
Select
the option to Automatically download and install updates on my schedule, then
select a time you will have your computer powered on and connected to the
Internet.
4)
Click
OK when finished.
5)
Close
Control Panel to return to Windows.
6)
Occassionally
you will be prompted with a message that says new updates are ready to install,
you should allow it to install the updates and restart itself if necessary when
finished.