Anthony; here is what I was reading... About this Document This document evolved from Rick Russell's networking documentation, which can be found at http://is.rice.edu/~rickr/stud_doc/basic_net.html. Configuring Your Ethernet Card with its Software If the card came with a configuration disk containing a configuration utility, then they should turn their computer on and use the utility. Details are (as always) available in the documentation that comes with the card. Most PCI card and some ISA cards will be fully Plug and Play compatible; those cards will probably not require a configuration utility when used with Windows 95. The utility will usually include an "Auto Setup" option that will automatically choose certain hardware parameters called the IRQ and I/O port. Once they are selected, you should write both of these numbers down for future use. The configuration utility may also show an Ethernet address; if that address is available, you should write it down too. Software Decision At this point, you need to determine what software the user has installed or wants installed. Windows for Workgroups has only one option, Microsoft's TCP/IP package. If the user has Win 3.1, then he/she has a choice between Trumpet Winsock or FTP Software's PCTCP. Trumpet Winsock is only a TCP/IP stack manager, PCTCP comprises the stack manager and several TCP/IP client programs. If you are using DOS, you can simply load the packet driver and use DOS based client applications. A Quick Note on Packet Drivers Packet drivers tell DOS how to route and transmit network packets. They are typically located on the manufacturer's setup diskette. PCTCP also has a diskette devoted to packet drivers, and you can usually find them on the manufacturer's web site. Packet drivers are a prerequisite for DOS and Windows 3.1 networking. You must load the packet driver in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Read your network adapter's documentation for switches or parameter options! Installing Trumpet Winsock Due to the nature of Windows 3.1, Trumpet Winsock has to negotiate network information between the operating system (DOS) and the interface (Windows). Therefore, installing Winsock is a two part process. The first step requires setting up Winsock's means of communicating with the OS: the packet driver and the Windows packet driver (WINPKT.COM). Both packet drivers must be on the same interrupt vector (most commonly 0x60). Furthermore, WINPKT.COM must come after the packet driver in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Once you have finished configuring the DOS side, you must setup up ip information in Windows. This is accomplished under the TCP manager application (TCPMAN.EXE), which incidentally loads every time a TCP/IP call is made. Under the File menu, select Setup, and you will find one of the following dialog boxes, depending on your version of Winsock: [INLINE] [INLINE] Installing PC TCP Many campus offices use a commercial package called PCTCP for their TCP/IP stack management and client services. PCTCP installs Trumpet Winsock as well as various client programs for TCP/IP connectivity and diagnostics (such as a mail client, ping, and so on...). PCTCP is available on a floppy disk set from the Information Desk. PCTCP's setup program gives you the option of installing a packet driver, but you should locate the driver for your NIC and install it before you begin the PCTCP setup because the drivers included with PCTCP are rather outdated. Usually, you can find the packet driver on the installation disk, which came with your NIC; it is typically kept in a directory labeled "pktdvr". If you can't locate the packet driver on the diskette, you can try to get it from the manufacturers web site. The PCTCP installation process is fairly straightforward; however, you should have the following information on hand before you start PCTCP's setup program: ip address, host name, gateway address, subnet mask, and your DNS server's ip addresses. This information is required after you have told PCTCP how much control you want over setup (Express or Custom) and after you have determined the installation directory (unless you have a good reason to change it, you should leave it as C:\PCTCP). You will want to input this information in the following screens: [INLINE] [INLINE] After you input your ip information, PCTCP will ask you what default login you want to use. This should be the user's login to ruf, owlnet, or whatever host they usually use. Then, PCTCP will ask you for the time zone you are in. Finally, PCTCP will prompt you before you it modifies your autoexec.bat, config.sys, win.ini, and system.ini. If you choose not to permit it to make its modifications, PCTCP will save its intended changes under AUTOEXEC.FTP, and you will have to manually input the information and restart your computer.
