How to signup to ic24.net under linux

ic24 is an ISP in the UK that allegedly offers free phone calls for limited periods at the weekends. Their sign-up system sucks slightly worse than a hungry anteater.

They send out some cheesy CD. You don't need it.

The installation CD tries to go to register.ic24.net:10001 but that page claims you need Microsoft Internet Explorer, which seems to be untrue. Instead, you can use netscape to go to here or if that doesn't work perhaps here and follow the instructions.

If you don't have access (how are you reading this?) you can dial up to 0845 3040510 and login as user icguest, password guest (with PAP/CHAP?) like the sign-up CD, I guess. Or you might like to use the 0800 0561560 free number (obviously only on the specified times). See this file for the Internet Explorer Settings, which are actually quite intelligible.

Notes

For what it's worth, the code on my CD was 005.

Every single username ever has already been taken, pick something with lots of digits in it ;-)

You might like to try my scripts to automate ISP dialup (DNS servers handling, etc.) but your distribution probably comes with some integrated graphical package which you might find easier to use.

After my first day of using the freefone number, I have to say that the level of service is generally good. They do tend to cut you off after an hour (60-70 minutes) but while you're connected, you get a sustained 4-5 Kbytes/s. One minor quibble is they don't seem to have hooked up the in-addr.arpa addresses for their dialup assigned IPs.