Most people work in Notes on a LAN most of the time, but you can use several methods to connect while away from your organization's network. You can also work offline while disconnected, and use replication to synchronize your information with servers the next time you're connected.

Before you can create any connections, you must have one of the following physical ways to connect:

• A LAN
• A dialup modem that is compatible with your operating system, and a direct-dial, analog telephone line
• A cable modem and digital cable service (also called broadband service)
• A DSL modem, a digital subscriber (DSL) telephone line, and any necessary connection hardware for the combination

To set up mail connections

Decide whether you want to use:

• Notes mail on a Domino server
• Internet mail, either on a commercial server through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), or on an internal Internet server in your organization
• Both Notes and Internet mail

Note To connect to Notes mail with a browser, you need WebMail or IBM Lotus Domino Web Access.

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To set up connections to Notes databases

• If you're using a LAN, Notes manages your connections to Notes databases. Ask your administrator for assistance if you have trouble getting to a particular server. Or, if you know the server name and IP address, choose File - Mobile - Edit Current Location and click the "Connection Configuration Wizard" button near the top of the window.
• If you're connecting using a dialup phone line, you need the names of Domino servers you want to access. If your organization has no network, passthru, or hunt group server, you may also need phone numbers for each Domino server. A network server lets you make one call to connect to all Domino servers and, if your organization allows it, the Internet. A passthru or hunt group server lets you make one call to connect to groups of Domino servers. Ask your Domino administrator what servers your organization has available.
• If you're connecting using cable or DSL service, you need the names of Domino servers you want to access.

To set up a connection to the Internet

If you're using a LAN, your organization may give you direct access to the Internet, or access through a firewall using a proxy server. Ask your administrator for all relevant proxy server and gateway information before you configure Notes.

For other physical connection methods, your organization may have a network server available that you can dial to gain Internet access. Or you can dial an Internet Service Provider to gain access.

If you use a LAN, cable, or DSL connection, you need the Internet address of the network server. If you use a telephone line, you also need the server's full phone number.

For more information, see Setting up your Web connection.

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To set up connections to Internet newsgroups or address directories

When you have your connection to the Internet working, check to see whether your Internet Service Provider (or organization's internal Internet server) has a newsgroup (NNTP) or address directory (LDAP) server available. This information is usually available on an ISP's Web site or from your administrator.

For this connection...	You need to know these things
Internet directories for mail addresses	The LDAP directory address assigned by your ISP (for example, ldap.myisp.com)
Internet newsgroups	The NNTP server assigned by your ISP (for example, news.myisp.com) Your login name and password, if any, assigned for newsgroups by your ISP. Many ISPs don’t require login for newsgroups, but check the Help for your ISP to be sure.

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To change or add connections

Any time you want to change your existing connections or add new ones, choose File - Preferences - Client Reconfiguration Wizard. Notes asks you a series of questions and stores all the resulting information in your Personal Address Book, under Advanced, in the necessary Connection, Location, and Account documents.

Caution When you use the Client Reconfiguration Wizard, Notes configures the Location document for your current location. Make sure you are using the appropriate location for the configuration you want to set up before choosing the wizard command.

You have the ability to edit these documents by hand, but it's best to use the wizard so that the information in the documents will be entered correctly.

• A Connection document contains information Notes needs to locate a specific Domino server, such as the server's Domino name, network address (usually an IP address), and phone number. To see your Connection documents, open your address book and choose View - Advanced - Connections.
• A Location document contains information Notes needs to manage your connections whenever you change the way you're connecting to servers. You usually change the way you connect when you start Notes in a physical location away from your LAN. To see your Location documents, open your address book and choose View - Advanced - Locations.

  For example, when you switch to the location called Home (Notes Direct Dialup), Notes assumes you're using a dialup modem and tries to call servers over a telephone line. When you switch back to the Office location, Notes assumes you're re-connected to the LAN. When you switch to the Home (Network Dialup) location, Notes attempts to dial your Internet server (either a network server in your organization, or an ISP) and give you access to the Internet using your preferred Internet browser, as well as access to your Internet mail and newsgroups. If none of the supplied locations is accurate for the way you connect to Notes, you can create your own Location documents.

• An Account document contains information, such as user name and password, about an Internet connection such as Internet mail or an Internet newsgroup. You may already have Internet mail accounts with your organization or service provider; Notes will create the equivalent Account documents in your Notes Personal Address Book. To see your Account documents, open your address book and choose View - Advanced - Accounts.

See Also

Connecting to a Notes mail server
Connecting to an Internet mail server
Connecting to a Lotus Sametime server
Using different locations
Replication: the secret to working offline
Creating or editing a Connection document
Scheduling replication

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