• Your connections to servers
• Ways to connect
• What you need to know to set up connections

The first time you start IBM® Lotus® Notes®, Notes asks a series of configuration questions. Using your answers to these questions, Notes automatically sets up your connections and accounts to Notes applications, your mail, the Internet, and (if your company uses Notes instant messaging features) your IBM® Lotus® Sametime® server . You can create or edit a connection or account at any time by clicking Tools > Client Reconfiguration Wizard. Notes stores all the resulting information in your Contacts under Advanced, in the necessary Connection, Location, and Account documents.

Note To view or change your configuration for the Lotus Sametime server, see the Servers tab in your current Location document.

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 clicking the wizard button. Switch to a different location if you need to.

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 Contacts and click 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, click File > Locations > Manage 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 Online location, Notes assumes you're reconnected 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 Contacts application. To see your Account documents, open your Contacts and click View > Advanced > Accounts.

Ways to connect

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 Domino servers the next time you're connected. You can also synchronize most offline portal applications with WebSphere Portal servers -- see the Portal Applications Catalog section of Help for more information.

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

What you need to know to set up connections

You also need to gather certain information for connecting to mail, instant messaging, Notes applications, and the Internet, depending on both the type of physical connection and the type of applications you want to use.

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 IBM® Lotus® Domino™ WebMail or IBM Lotus Domino Web Access.

Sametime connections

• If your administrator has not set up your Sametime server connection through a policy, you must obtain the name of your Sametime server and enter it during initial setup or later on the Servers tab of your current Location document in Notes.
• Decide whether you want to log on to Sametime automatically upon starting Notes, or manually. You can adjust this setting on initial setup or later on the Instant Messaging tab of your current Location document in Notes.

• If you're using a LAN, Notes manages your connections to the Domino servers that hold Notes applications. Ask your administrator for assistance if you have trouble getting to a particular server. Or, if you know the server name and IP address, click File > Locations > Manage Locations, open the 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.

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.

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.

Go to top

See Also

Connecting to a Notes mail server using a wizard
Creating an Internet mail account using a wizard
Switching to a different location
Using Notes offline
Creating or editing a Connection document
Scheduling replication for a location
Connecting to a Lotus Sametime server

Glossary