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Internet Explorer Channel Subscriptions

Article Number: I010
Article Type: Info
Modified: December 3, 1998

SUMMARY

If you are using an Orbitor router product to connect your office LAN to the Internet and witness unusual calls to your ISP during unusual hours of the evening, you may be witnessing an unsolicited Internet Explorer Subscription update.

Although this is not a fault of the Orbitor, this article will serve to educate you on the use of subscriptions in a dial-on demand environment.

MORE INFORMATION

Internet Explorer Channel Subscriptions

An interesting feature of Internet Explorer are channels. A "channel" is a Web site designed to deliver content from the Internet to your computer, similar to subscribing to a favorite Web site. You don't have to subscribe to view the content, but with channels the content provider can suggest a schedule for your subscription, or you can customize your own. Also, with a channel you don't see just a Web page, you also get a rich map of the Web site, which enables you to quickly select and view the content you want.

Subscription Update Schedules

If you have subscribed to a particular channel, you may have selected a schedule to update the channel content. This schedule is defaulted to the middle of the evening, but you may select whatever time that suits your application.

When the schedule expires, Internet Explorer will automatically attempt to reach the intended channel web site, and download updated channel content for that site. It is this automatic connection that can activate an ISDN connection to your ISP.

Informing your Staff

If you must keep ISDN line usage or ISP on-line charges to a minimum, you may wish to educate your staff regarding the use of IE Channels. Using Channel Subscriptions can invoke unnecessary charges that might otherwise be avoided.

An alternative to preventing the use of channels might be to ensure that a channel subscription is scheduled for times during the day when the link to the ISP may already be active, or to disable automatic subscription updates altogether.

REFERENCES

Please consult Internet Explorer help files and the Microsoft Support web site for additional information on channel subscriptions.§

Copyright © 1998 Develcon Electronics Ltd.  All Rights Reserved.