TCS - OnLine Communications Report
OnLine Communications Report
by Don Singleton
Tulsa Computer Society
From the August 1997 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter
The OnLine Communication Sig Meeting (from 10am to noon on Super Saturday) is a general question and answer session for any question regarding communications, including modems, BBSs, CompuServe, America OnLine, or internet. It is somewhat difficult for me to remember every question so that I can report the discussion in the I/O Port, but at the meeting on June 14 Pat Crowley took notes of each question that was posed, so that I could write this report. Thank you very much Pat.
How Do You Reestablish the Netscape AT&T Icon on the Win95 Desktop?
The fact that the ISP is AT&T is immaterial; the technique of placing an icon on the desktop depends on how you locate the file. If you know where it is, you can bring up the Explorer by right clicking the Start Button and then left clicking Explorer, locate the directory the file is in and click that directory so that it is shown in the right side of the Explorer, and then moving the scroll bar on the left side to the very top, where Desktop can be seen. Then put the mouse over the entry for the file in the right side of the Explorer, press the right button down, and right drag the mouse until desktop is highlighted. Then let go of the right button and you get a menu asking whether you want to move, copy, or create a shortcut. If you know that the file you selected is itself a shortcut, you can just select copy, otherwise select create a shortcut, and the shortcut for Netscape will appear on the desktop.
If you can't locate the file you want, right click the start button, select find, and do a search of your entire computer looking for the file. When you find it, place the mouse on it and if the Find Screen is not maximized, you can right drag it to the desktop, where you can select Create Shortcut. If you have maximized the Find window, you won't be able to see the desktop to right drop the shortcut onto, but just right click the entry, and you get a message that says "Windows cannot create a shortcut here. Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop instead." Since that is the objective, click yes, and the shortcut will be created.
If I Install a New Version of Microsoft Internet Explorer
What Drive Will It Go To?
Will It Replace My Old Version?
When you install just about any program, including Internet Explorer, the installation program will ask you where you want to put it. If you are just installing a beta program to test it, you may want to put it on a different drive, or in a different directory, and keep the old one. But if you intend to replace the old version, you can just specify the same drive and directory, and it will replace the old one. In other words, the answer may be either yes or no -- the choice is up to you.
What is SLIP? What is PPP?
A slip is an undergarment worn by women. Oh, you mean in the context of Internet access. SLIP stands for Serial Line Internet Protocol, a protocol used by TCP/IP routers and PCs to send packets over dial-up and leased-line connections. SLIP has been pretty much replaced by PPP, (Point-to-Point Protocol) which is an improved protocol used over dial up connections. Both SLIP and PPP are dialup protocols that are a part of a collection of internet protocols called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
What Does Winsock Mean?
What Is a Winsock Client?
What Does This Have To Do
With Establishing an Internet Connection?
If you want a simple explanation, winsock refers to the interface between various windows programs that need access to the internet, with the interface established when you dial your internet service provider. For a more technically precise explanation, winsock refers to a standard API (Application Program Interface, often called the socket interface) between Microsoft Windows (3.1, 95, and NT) application software and TCP/IP protocol software (often called a protocol stack). Software developers realized very early that if every different Internet Service Provider tried to develop custom software to enable its clients to connect with their service, and then had to modify browser software and other internet application software to interface propoerly with their connection software, it would have a very adverse effect on the growth of the Internet.
What they did is design a standard interface specification (API) and as long as all programmers of connection software (the software that dials the ISP, and exchanges name and password of the user to enable them to log on) and all programmers of internet application software make their programs compatible with that standard, they should all work together.
For use with Windows 3.1 many ISPs distribut a very popular public-domain version of WinSock called Trumpet WinSock, along with other public-domain and shareware software such as Eudora Mail and Netscape. Trumpet WinSock was written by Peter Tattam (peter@psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au) in Hobart, Tasmania (Australia). The ftp site is ftp.utas.edu.au, and the files are in /PC/trumpet/wintrump/*.
ISPs may distribute a similar dialer program for Windows 95 users, but many just distribute instructions telling users how to set up the built-in internet dialing software that is a part of Win95.
Internet Application Programs (browsers, email packages, news group readers, Internet Relay Chat programs, file transfer programs, etc) that follow this specification are called WinSock Clients, and they can be downloaded from such sites as www.tucows.com and www.stroud.com.
How Do Windows 95 Users Set Up the System to Call their ISP
If you have the Plus Package installed you have something called an Internet Connection Wizard. Left click My Computer, Select Dialup Networking (at the bottom), and in that menu select Make New Connection. It will walk you through the Internet Connection Wizard, asking you some questions, which should be answered by information on a piece of paper your ISP probably provided you when you signed up with him.
What Tools Are Available for Testing Modems?
Basically the member was having trouble getting a 56kb modem to work in WinNT and wanted tools to let him see what was going on with the modem, i.e. to see what data stream it was seeing, to help determine why it was getting certain errors. I told him that as far as I know there is no such tool, and it is unlikely that one would be possible, because it would almost require something to sit and observe what data was coming into the modem and what was going out of it, and it is the modem hardware that processes that incoming stream and does the interpretation. However since the question was really about why he could not get a 56kb modem to work at 56kb on his line, I did refer him to the Line Test article in the July issue of the I/O Port (http://www.tcs.org/ioport/linetest.htm).
How Can You Add Icons to the Box on the Task Bar?
That box is called a "tray", and as far as I know, you can't directly add icons to it. Certain programs add icons there when they are loaded, and if you delete those programs, their tray icons will be deleted as well, but otherwise you have no control over the tray icons. You can delete the clock, by right clicking on the task bar, selecting properties, and deselecting the box for the clock. You can also put the mouse on the top of the taskbar and drag it to make it larger, so it can hold two or three rows of running programs before having to shrink the boxes down. You can also drag the task bar and put it on the top, or the right side, or the left side of the screen, instead of at the bottom, and you can turn on the auto hide feature and make the task bar disappear altogether, until you move the mouse off the screen down to where the task bar dropped, and it will suddenly pop back up.
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Tulsa Computer Society 07/07/97
Don Singleton, President
tcs@galstar.com