netzero configuration on ubuntu

Well, I'll be pan-fried. I thought I knew everyone on the planet who was trying to run Juno/Netzero under Linux. Greetings, 1200.
I'm using Juno version 5, so there may be differences. I'm using an external serial US Robotics modem ($12 on eBay), which everyone says is the most reliable way to connect with Ubuntu and Linux in general. I'll tell you right up front, those of us puttering along with dial-up are in the wastelands. The Linux developers have moved on to wireless, Skype, and other newer technologies. Dial-up is a dead-end so we have to work with the tools we've got.

I don't even try to update the system on dial-up. Synaptic runs at a pathetic 4 kbps or so until Juno kicks me off.

So, can you post back and tell us if your real problem is getting online at all or just connecting to Juno? I need to know if you're confronting a hardware problem (most modems on the planet won't work without a lot of screwing around) or if you're capable of going online but don't know how to configure your dial-up settings.

I can go online with Juno, but it kicks me off in about 20 minutes regardless of what I'm doing. I've talked to other Juno users who don't have that problem, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

I can get/send mail with Evolution, and have directions supplied by a kind soul from the Ubuntu Forums.

Here they are:

I've never had any problems with my NetZero dial-up service on Linux...on Ubuntu or even Xandros and Linspire.

Here's an in-depth guide on how to set up Juno email in Evolution.

1. Open Evolution.

2. On the first screen, enter your name and your email address. Click Forward.

3. WHere it says "Server Type", choose POP. Enter your host as pop.juno.com (or pop.juno.net). Under that, you enter in your user name (without @juno.com/net). If you wish for Evolution to remember your password, mark the little box where is says "Remember Password". Click Forward.

4. If you wish to leave the messages on your server (so you can keep a copy of your email in case you have to reinstall the OS), mark the little box where it says "Leave messages on server". Click Forward.

5. The next page is where you set up your outgoing server. Make sure "Server Type" says SMTP. Enter your host as smtp.juno.com or smtp.juno.net. Mark the little box where it says "My server requires authentication". Make sure your user name is correct. If you wish for Evolution to remember your password, mark the little box beside "Remember Password". Click Forward.

6. Name your account anything you want...but it would be a good idea to make sure it reflects on your Juno account. For example, name it Juno Email or just have its name be your Juno email address. Click Forward.

7. Choose your time zone. Click Forward.

8. Click Apply.

9. Click Send/Receive. You will be asked for your password.

I hope that helps out.
Forward Message

In Evolution (or any other email client, such as Thunderbird), this is the settings for your email :

POP address : pop.juno.com (I think you can also use pop.juno.net)

SMTP address : smtp.juno.com (or smtp.juno.net)

Username : Your username (without the "@juno.com" or "@juno.net")

Password : the password you use on your Juno dialer

I assume that you have the Juno Platinum service. If so, then you will be able to do this. However, if you are subscribed to the Juno Free service, then you will not be allowed to download your email in Evolution or Thunderbird.

I use the above steps to get my NetZero email set up in Evolution/Thunderbird. NetZero is basically the same as Juno, except it has a different brand name


In your case, I'm pretty sure the entries would be changed so that pop.juno.com would be pop.netzero.com. Same thing for ingoing and outgoing servers. You'll have to experiment a bit if at first you don't succeed.

You have to be online first to get mail. Evolution won't dial for you.

I'll lay that out for you in case you can get online. These instructions are for Ubuntu Dapper. I tried Ubuntu Edgy and Xubuntu; neither of them had the Modem Monitor. You can still dial with these distros, it's just not quite as simple to set up. Simple is good.

The external modem must either be ON already, or plugged in to the same surge suppressor as the PC so that it will start when the PC does.
Go to System>Administration>Networking, enter password. It shows a modem device. I go into Properties.
Under General, I check the "Enable this connection."
I type the 7 digit phone number into the Phone Number box.
Since we have call waiting, I type "*70" into the Dial Prefix box. *70 disables call waiting. These two entries must be right. I went to a friend's house and could not dial out until I made a new account without the *70

In Account Data, User Name, I type the entire email address, *****@juno.com
You must type in your password. Make sure you do it right because all you'll see is asterisks on the screen!!

Under the next tab, Modem, I let Dapper auto-detect the connection (another neat feature not included in Xubuntu or Edgy). My first serial connection is identified as "tty0".
Dial Type is Tones
Volume I set to Medium. You don't want this turned off, at least until you know it's working.

Under Options tab, I clicked the first two checkboxes to ON.

Close out of Networking.

Right click on upper panel. Left-click on "Add to Panel" Under "System and Hardware" find Modem Monitor and drag it to the upper panel. Close the "Add to Panel" window.

You may have to restart the PC, I'm not sure. It wouldn't hurt. I click on Modem Monitor, click on Acitvate, the modem dials and I'm online. I don't really see anything obvious happen, I just watch the lights on the modem so I know when to click on the Firefox icon. Firefox opens and if the home page comes up I know I'm connected.

Then if I want to get mail I open Evolution.

Unless your setup is identical to mine some part of this isn't going to work for you. Tell us what's different and we'll go from there.

ANOTHER EDIT: Hey, Kyle! I thought there would be trouble using other programs too. I've been with Juno forever and never tried anything other than Firefox. I still have to start Juno with IE, but I go to my Home Page (Google), minimize Juno, then start Firefox. Clunky procedure but it works

On my Windows PC I'm trying to get Thunderbird working as our e-mail client instead of the ancient Juno program. TB will receive mail but won't send. I also tried Sea Monkey, Mozilla's internet suite, but it does the exact same thing as TB. I've been going back and forth with Juno techies for a couple of days now. They haven't said "You can't do that". Actually, I keep expecting them to just ignore me but they haven't yet. There are only so many settings to tweak so I'm beginning to think it's just not gonna work :sigh:

Hi 1200 -
I just want to add something about modems. Almost all modems nowadays are cheap "winmodems". They have minimal processing power on the modem card, passing the buck to the central processor. These modems assume that Windows is the operating system, so the drivers that come with the modem are written to cooperate with Windows to tell your CPU what to do.
That works out great if you're running Windows. Not so hot in Linux. There have been various attempts to write drivers for winmodems, and some of the most popular modems can be made to work. It all sounded like too much hassle to me so I went bidding on some USR externals, which are "full hardware" modems that do all the processing.
Watch out for the really old 28 and 36K externals. You want the 56K models. And if you want to go further, you can hook up the external to your Windows PC, go to USR's site, and flash them to the latest firmware version, which I think helps some even in Linux. But I'm not sure about that.
If you do get a USR external, check the little tiny dipswitches on the back. On my 5686-03, model 0701, switch 3, 5, and 8 are down. 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 are up.

That's a good question! All I know is I've read a hundred dial-up modem threads and they all said to avoid USB modems. Some of them aren't really hardware modems even though they're external.

But it must have something to do with the USB interface also because I've read lots of posts that said to avoid USB routers when connecting to the internet. They always say to use the ethernet port.

However, that's not written in stone. I've only converted one person to Linux, but here's what happened at his house. He had a spare Dell and a Qwest DSL modem with one ethernet and one USB port. The Dell didn't have an ethernet port so we tried USB. I told him that from what I'd read it wouldn't work but it did work! A few weeks later he bought a PCI NIC and we plugged it in. Ubuntu recognized it so we unplugged the USB connection and tried the new ethernet port.

Googling around to different webpages felt much snappier with the ethernet connection to the router than the USB. But sustained throughput, such as an update from Synaptic, didn't run any faster than the USB setup. I'm sure there's a good explanation for that but don't know what it would be!