RAS AutoDial

A feature called "default connection" was added to the system in Windows XP. If there is a failed connection attempt, the system checks for an explicit match (for Winsock name or share name) in the database if not, it dials the default connection if there is one.

Windows 2000: When an attempt to connect to a network address fails because the host cannot be reached, the AutoDial feature can automatically start a dial-up connection operation. To do this, AutoDial searches its database of network addresses to find a phone-book entry that it can use to establish the connection.

**Windows NT 4.0:  ** RAS keeps a database of the Winsock names and/or share names that you have successfully reached while a RAS/VPN connection was active. Later, when a winsock or share connection attempt fails, the system checks this database and offers to dial the stored connection for you.