I’m adding the details of how to Change the default internet connection in Windows. Although in 2013, this information should no longer be needed (it was back in 2000ish when I originally wrote it). So please be aware this is massively outdated and probably no longer relevant information, but I like to archive stuff 😉
If you wish to decide for yourself which ISP to connect to, the easiest way is to start the connection manually yourself.
Open Dialup Networking by double clicking on the ‘My Computer’ icon from your desktop.
In the Dialup Networking folder you will see all your ISP connections including your Freeserve connection.
Double click on whichever connection you wish to use, enter your password if it isn’t there and press ‘Connect’. (If you make a copy of each connection and put it on the desktop this will make the procedure easier next time.)
Once you are connected you will see an icon in your system tray on your taskbar which looks like two computers connected to each other.
Setting the connection used when Internet Explorer 4 is started
Go to ‘View’, then ‘Internet Options’ and select ‘Connection’.
The circle marked ‘Connect to the Internet using a modem’ should already be checked. Press the button marked ‘Settings’.
From the first box at the top you can select which connection should be used as default.
If you don’t want Windows to dial up a connection when you open the browser, after you start Internet Explorer 4, when the connection dialogue appears, click on ‘Work Offline’.
Setting the connection used when Outlook Express is started
Select ‘Tools’ from the Outlook Express menu bar. Then go to ‘Options’ – under the ‘Dial Up’ tab you will see options listed for which connection to dial.
Dialup connections for all the Email accounts that you are accessing under Outlook Express will be shown here.
You may not wish to connect to the internet when you start Outlook Express, in which case you can select ‘Do not dial a connection’.
If you wish to specify a particular connection to dial for a particular email account, you should do this by going to the ‘Tools’ menu, then selecting ‘Accounts’, then selecting the ‘Mail’ tab. Highlight whichever mail account you want to set the connection for and select ‘Properties’. Under the ‘Connection’ tab, you can specify which ISP connection to use.