Copyright: Copyright Locutus Codeware, 1996
Citation: Authored by Argun Tekant, Locutus Codeware


WetSock: An Internet Weather bot for Windows 95


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

Disclaimers:

WetSock is an information client that gathers weather information from public sources and presents them in a user friendly form. The information presented by this program is only as accurate as the information provided by the weather data servers. Please keep in mind that weather forecasting is not an exact science, and mother nature may surprise us any time.

Please do not complain to me if WetSock reports clear skies and it is raining outside. Spare the messenger.

Always contact your local authorities for latest conditions and forecasts before undertaking any activity that is weather critical. There could be many reasons; from an inaccurate forecast to a glitch in the communication chain somewhere between where the reports are typed, to your screen where the weather icon appears; that may cause an inaccurate result. Keep in mind weather conditions may change suddenly, whatever the weather forecast says.

The weather data is provided by the National Weather Service.

The information provided here should not be relied on in lieu of officially disseminated weather forecasts, statements, watches, and warnings.

The weather data used by WetSock is retrieved from public services which do a great job by freely providing this information to the public. Past experience shows the reliability of these services over time is not guaranteed. The services provided may become unavailable with very short, or no notice. This has happened in the past and may again happen in the future. We try to keep abreast of these changes as much as possible, but sometimes, an period of interruption in service becomes inevitable.

The users of this software agree to these conditions if the software is installed on their computers:

Locutus Codeware does not accept any liability for damages to persons or goods caused by direct or implied consequences of any weather condition presented by the WetSock software, nor damages caused by actions or inactions taken by the user or users of this software upon interpretation or misinterpretation of the weather conditions presented.

Locutus Codeware does not make any express or implied warranty of any kind. There is no warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose of WetSock. Use of information obtained via the services provided is at the individual's or organization's own risk. The individual or organization is solely responsible for actions taken based on the information reported by this software.

Locutus Codeware shall not be liable for any damage arising from any event that is out of its control. Locutus Codeware shall not be liable for indirect, special, incidental, exemplary, consequential, or any other form of money damages, including, but not limited to lost profits, or for the loss of data or information of any kind, however caused, and arising out of or in connection with the performance or the provision of service by Locutus Codeware, whether based in contract, tort, or any other legal theory, and whether or not Locutus Codeware have been made aware of the possibility of such damages.

In no event shall any liability exceed a refund of amounts actually paid to Locutus Codeware.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

WetSock is an Internet information bot to gather weather information over Internet. If you are connected to Internet and wonder about the weather (who doesn’t), WetSock is for you.

In todays high paced office life, it is quite possible to be cut off from the outside, especially if you are spending your time in a cubicle, and a window office is something that your grandfather used to talk about. While browsing the Web at home, who has the time to turn on the TV to check the weather. You can now have the weather report right under your fingertips, and you don’t have to do anything for it, just look down on your taskbar to see how the weather is. Now, even small talk is easier.

Are you going out for lunch - Do you need that umbrella? Do you want to plan that fishing trip with your office buddies? What are you wearing tomorrow morning to work? Just look down at your taskbar and click your mouse, you have access to current weather conditions in your area along with extended forecasts, and severe weather warnings if any.

Why WetSock:

WetSock is fully integrated with Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. It is specially designed for PC’s running the new shell interface and using Dial-up Networking.

•	WetSock works by monitoring your dial-up connections and getting the weather information once you are connected for any other purpose.

•	32-bit application. Does not conflict with other 32-bit applications using your modem.

•	Does not call long distance weather report numbers. Gets the weather over Internet.

•	Does not make unnecessary connections to your Internet Service Provider.

•	Ideal if you already periodically connect to check/read your mail. Will piggyback to any network client operation. Works great with MS Exchange.

•	Integrated with built-in Dial-up Networking. Will use your existing Dial-up Networking and TCP/IP settings. Requires no further settings.

•	Silent background operation. Easy access to features via a system tray icon.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

Setting up WetSock is very easy.

Just unzip the contents to a folder, and start up the setup information file. This will create a proper folder for itself to run from, copy the files to their proper places and create a shortcut to it in the startup folder.

To do this, first unzip the contents to a folder. Then, using the explorer:

•	right click on wetsock.inf  (Setup information file)

•	From the pop-up menu, choose install

•	When the setup screen comes up, fill in your information

You can later uninstall WetSock via the Control Panel, Add/Remove programs applet.

The first time WetSock is run, it will present a setup dialog. It is very important that you fill in all the requested information. You can access this dialog later by right clicking the WetSock icon on the system tray.

Before you can run WetSock, you have to have an Internet connection with an ISP set up and going. It is also required that you use a Dial-up Networking connection setup for this connection. WetSock will only work if you are accessing Internet using the Windows 95 Dial-up Networking feature or if you have a direct network connection (via your office LAN for instance). WetSock will not work with third party PPP or SLIP software for remote Internet access.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

Support for WetSock is provided online. Either send mail to:

support@locutuscodeware.com

or visit the Locutus Codeware web page:

http://www.locutuscodeware.com

You will find the latest version of WetSock and other Locutus Codeware products.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

WetSock is shareware. If you like the program and decide to use it, you must register it.

Registering WetSock will entitle you for free on-line support, notification of fixes and improvements, and a registration code that will remove the limits on the number of times you can access the weather servers in a day.

Registration:

If you decide to use the product after a reasonable trial period, you must register and pay a licensing fee. Not doing so is in violation of international copyright laws.

Whether you decide to keep WetSock or not, it will be appreciated if you visit the Locutus Codeware web site at http://www.locutuscodeware.com and fill out the information form. This will not cost you anything, but will let us know who is using the product and your input will help plan for product updates and future products.

Licensing fee for private and non-profit use is $12 per copy:

If you are keeping WetSock for fun, as a conversation piece or to decide on when to wash your car, the suggested amount for the fee is $12. This includes home or work place use.

Licensing fee for corporate or commercial use is $25 per copy:

If you think WetSock is a great addition to your arsenal of software to help you run your business better, you might consider paying $25.

Payments can be in the form of a check or money order to:

Locutus Codeware

1886 W.Broadway, #303,

Vancouver,

BC V6J 1Y9

Canada

NOTE: Please make sure you include your e-mail address along with your payment.

E-mail is the only method you will be contacted for support and product updates.

Registration via Compuserve:

You can pay either amount via CompuServe software registration forum: GO SWREG

The registration ID for private/non-profit use is: 9733

The registration ID for corporate/commercial use is: 9734


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

An Internet weather information bot for Windows 95

The weather data is provided by the National Weather Service.

The information provided here should not be relied on in lieu of officially disseminated weather forecasts, statements, watches, and warnings.

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

Using WetSock is as painless as it gets with any software. Once you setup the program, you can almost forget about it and enjoy the icon views of the current weather conditions that appear on your taskbar. WetSock does not require you to do anything to update the weather information unless you want to. The weather information will be automatically updated when you connect to Internet for your regular use of e-mail, Web browsing or other on-line activities. As soon as it senses an Internet connection, WetSock will silently go and get the weather information within a few seconds of your connection, and keep updating it as long as you are connected. It will even dial in itself if you choose to do so and you have not connected to Internet for a specified period.

Once WetSock retrieves the weather data, it will notify you by displaying an icon that is a representation of the current weather conditions (as of last data retrieval), therefore giving you an instant view of what is going on outside.

If you move your mouse over the icon and hover for a moment, the tooltip will further explain the icon and will also give you the current temperature.

If you want more information at this time, left-click on the icon to display the weather information dialog. This dialog will give you detailed information about the weather conditions including winds, humidity etc..

Once this dialog is up, you will notice a number of buttons that will give you even further information including short term and extended forecasts.

Forecast: The forecast button will display forecast information for your state. Forecasts for your area are displayed. If the button is grayed, there is no information right now.

Warnings: This button will display the severe weather warnings, weather watches, damage reports and other important messages relevant to your area. Again, all the warnings for your area are displayed.

Update weather information now!: This button can be used to manually start a connection anytime you want. When you press this button, WetSock will dial-up in accordance with your selected Dial-Up Networking connection. If you are already connected using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will just connect to the weather server to get the current weather. If you are using a direct network connection, this button will cause WetSock to connect to the weather server and get the weather conditions.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

The current weater conditions are represented by tray icons. Each icon is an approximation of the weather condition and should not be taken as what the sky actually looks like.

Weather icons:

  This icon means clear skies. Go enjoy yourself, and don’t forget UV protection.

  Partly cloudy skies.

  Mostly cloudy skies. But some blue and hope exists.

  Overcast.

  Visibility impaired conditions. Haze, fog, smoke, dust.

  Wet conditions.

  Snow. Hope you don’t have a long commute.

  Thunderstorms.

  Wind. Watch the hat.

  Weather warning in effect. You will see this icon blinking and hear a warning sound (if enabled). The icon will stop blinking and turn back to normal once you read the warning.

Program icons:

  There was a problem while while receiving weather information. Tooltip has reason.

  I cannot display an icon. Either the conditions are unknown, there is no current data for your location, or the program has encountered a condition it does not recognize.

  WetSock is working on retrieving weather information. Please wait.


Program Control dialog fields:

Connect Now: This button can be used to manually start a connection anytime you want. You can use this button to test whether you have all your settings correct. When you press this button, WetSock will dial-up in accordance with your selected Dial-Up Networking connection. If you are already connected using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will just connect to the weather server to get the current weather. If you are using a direct network connection, this button will cause WetSock to connect to the weather server and get the weather conditions.

Weather Forecasts: Allows you to select what forecast information you want displayed.

•	Display Local Forecasts: Forecasts made by or for your local area. Local forecasts usually exists for large metropolitan areas.

•	Display Zone  Forecasts: Forecasts pertaining to your weather zone, usually made by a nearby weather office.

•	Display State Forecasts: Forecasts pertaining to your weather zone, but made by the state weather offices.

Not all locations will display all the reports. Not every location will have forecasts for their local area, and sometimes forecasts for a zone could be missing.

Note: In Version 2.4, you cannot deselect the forecast options, and therefore will see whatever forecasts are made for your area. In future versions, you will be able to select which particular reports you want to see.

Weather Warnings: Allows you to select what actions to be taken when there is a weather alert for your area.

•	Blink tray icon on weather warnings: Setting this option will make the tray icon to periodically turn into a warning icon if a weather warning is received on the last update. The blinking will stop once you read the warnings.

•	Play sound on warnings: Setting this option will cause WetSock to play a sound if a weather warning is received on the last update. The sound will be played periodically until you read the warnings. This is a three-state option; if you click this option again, it will be set to play the sound only once.

•	Play Warnings sound continually: The sound will be played periodically until you read the warnings.

In the data field, you can enter a sound (midi, wave, or avi(sound only)) file of your choice to play when there is a warning in effect.

Last Result: This area will contain an explanation for the error that occurred while WetSock was trying to get the weather information. When an error occurs, the WetSock icon will display a red ! (exclamation mark) instead of the current weather icon. The tooltip, as well as this field will show an description of the error occurred.

Exit Program: This button will exit WetSock.


Location Settings dialog fields:

Where are you?: For WetSock to get the relevant weather information, you need to set your geographic location. If you cannot find your exact location, choose one that is nearest to you.

Choose your location by selecting from the list.

Make sure you click Apply or OK, otherwise your selection will not take.


Connection Settings dialog fields:

Use direct network connection: If you have a direct network connection to Internet, you may check this box. When checked, WetSock will not attempt to use a dial-up connection. If this box is checked, some of the scheduling parameters will be unavailable. If you are using a direct connection, only the “When connected, check weather every xx hours” parameter will be available and meaningful. WetSock will not check if your network connection is activated, nor will it attempt to initiate a dial-up connection, but it will directly attempt to access the weather server.

Dial-up Network Connection: The connection you want WetSock to monitor and use when connecting to Internet. Choose one of the connection names from the list. You must have created a Dial-up Network connection before you can use WetSock with a dial-up Internet connection.

Use a proxy server to connect: Check this box if you need to use a proxy server for Internet access. First, you have to obtain the proxy system address from your network administrator.

WetSock will use HTTP proxy to connect to weather servers.

Proxy server name or address: In this field, type the appropriate proxy system address supplied by your system administrator. The proxy server you use must be compliant with the CERN/WWW proxy server standard.

Proxy port: In this field, type the appropriate proxy port the proxy server accepts connections on.

Winsock timeout: This will set the timeout value for waiting the server to respond to a request.

You should not need to change this value under normal conditions. If you are getting a timeout while trying to connect to the servers (as stated by the error message), this setting will have no effect. Connect timeouts are determined by the Winsock implementation you are using. Default for this field is 30 seconds.

Process timeout: This is the time limit for the whole procedure of (optionally) dialing in, connecting to the servers and receiving the weather information. This limit will not have any effect if you are receiving Winsock timeout errors due to a busy or downed server. Play with this duration only if you are getting “Connection taking too long” errors. This setting is here to ensure that WetSock does not take over a specified duration tying up your resources.


Schedule Settings dialog fields:

Scheduling parameters:

You can schedule WetSock to either connect to Internet by itself, or let it ride the wave when you are surfing, or let it work piggybacked to any other periodic access to Internet; for example, checking your mail periodically.

Poll for network connection: This setting tells WetSock how often it should check whether you are connected to Internet via the selected Dial-up Networking connection. WetSock will check to see if you are connected to Internet, and will do a weather update immediately.

If you want to piggyback WetSock to a quick periodic operation like checking your mail, you should set this value to less than the time it takes your mailer to check your mail once the connection is established. Typically this would be less than 10 seconds.

If you want WetSock to receive information only while you are connected to Internet for longer periods for surfing, reading news etc., you may set the poll interval to a larger value

When connected, check weather: As soon as you have an Internet connection established using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will update the weather information. After that, as long as you are connected, it will receive weather information periodically at the specified interval in this field. Setting this value to 0 will cause WetSock to do a weather update only once each time you start a dial-up session.

Out of courtesy to our weather information suppliers, please do not try to update the weather information more frequently than 1 hour. The weather observations on the servers themselves only get updated every hour.

If not connected, access the network: You may use this setting to have WetSock dial-up your Internet provider for you and gather the weather information without depending on other programs to be using Internet. WetSock will connect to Internet using the Dial-up Networking connection you specified periodically, update the weather and immediately hang-up. You may disable this feature by setting this value to 0.


Weather Information Servers:

In this version, you do not need to select a particular weather server.

This version of WetSock automatically chooses the right weather information server for your location. For very cool weather reports, weather maps and much more, point your browser to:

The Weather Channel: http://www.weather.com

Michigan State University - Interactive Weather Browser: http://wxweb.msu.edu/weather

US National Weather Service, Interactive Weather Information Network: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

Setup dialog fields:

Dial-up Network Connection: The connection you want WetSock to monitor and use when connecting to Internet. Choose one of the connection items from the list. You must have created a Dial-up Network connection before you can use WetSock.

Use direct network connection: If you have a direct network connection to Internet, or you want to use a local time server on your LAN, you may check this box. When checked, WetSock will not attempt to use a dial-up connection. If this box is checked, some of the scheduling parameters will be unavailable. If you are using a direct connection, only the “When connected, correct time” parameter will be available and meaningful. WetSock will not check if your network connection is activated, nor will it attempt to initiate a dial-up connection.

Time Server: The name of the Internet time server you wish to use. Refer to the list of  time servers further in the help pages to choose one that you would like to use. It is recommended that you choose a server that is geographically close to you.

Connect Now: This button can be used to manually start a connection anytime you want. You can use this button to test whether the time server you selected works for you or to make sure you have chosen the right Dial-up Networking connection for WetSock. When you press this button, WetSock will dial-up in accordance with your selected Dial-Up Networking connection. If you are already connected using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will just connect to the time server to get the time. If you want to choose a time server by testing them first, you may manually start a Dial-up Connection, and then try out your selected time servers by pressing the Connect Now button.

Scheduling parameters:

You can schedule WetSock to either connect to Internet by itself, or let it ride the wave when you are surfing, or let it work piggybacked to any other periodic access to Internet; for example, checking your mail periodically with the MS Exchange.

Poll for network connection: This setting tells WetSock how often it should check whether you are connected to Internet via the selected Dial-up Networking connection. WetSock will check to see if you are connected Internet, and will do a time correction immediately.

If you want to piggyback WetSock to a quick periodic operation like checking your mail, you should set this value to less than the time it takes your mailer to check your mail once the connection is established. Typically this would be less than 10 seconds.

If you want WetSock to correct the time while you are connected to Internet for surfing, reading news etc., you may set the poll interval to a larger value

When connected, correct time: As soon as you have an Internet connection established using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will correct the time. After that, as long as you are connected, it will correct the time periodically at the specified interval in this field. Setting this value to 0 will cause WetSock to do a time correction only once each time you start a dial-up session.

If not connected, access the network: You may use this setting to have WetSock dial-up your Internet provider for you and correct the time without depending on other programs to be using Internet. WetSock will connect to Internet using the Dial-up Networking connection you specified periodically, correct the time and immediately hang-up. You may disable this feature by setting this value to 0.

Last Error Message: This area will contain an explanation for the error that occurred while WetSock trying to correct the time. When an error occurs, the WetSock icon will display a red X instead of the watch symbol over the socket icon. You can right-click the WetSock icon to bring up the dialog to see what error has occurred.

Last Time Correction: This area will show the last time a time correction was successfully made and the amount of time correction made. A negative value means your PC clock was fast.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1996, Locutus Codeware

Frequently Asked Questions:

I am behind a firewall, how do I make it work?

WetSock does support proxy protocols. If you are behind a firewall, you need to ask your network administrator for the address of the HTTP proxy server, and the port for HTTP proxy access. WetSock only supports the CERN/WWW proxy protocol.

WetSock complains that it cannot find the file SVRAPI.DLL. Where do I find it?

SVRAPI.DLL is part of the Windows 95 networking subsystem. If that file is missing, it means you have not installed Windows 95 networking and are accessing Internet using a third party tool (i.e. Trumpet Winsock). WetSock requires you to use the Windows 95 Dial-up Networking, and it will not work without it.

WetSock was working fine, now I am getting server errors and it does not update my weather. What do I do now?

At times, a particular server that WetSock uses to gather information from may be temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

I registered and paid. Why am I not getting anything?

Support and information transfer, including copies of the program to be sent if necessary, is all done online. If you have not included your e-mail address with your payment or if you have not communicated electronically with Locutus Codeware, either via the web page or by e-mail, chances are I don’t have an electronic address for you. Please drop me a note at registrar@locutuscodeware.com if you are feeling left out.

I live in _________, how can I make WetSock work for me? When will a version be available for my country?

Whether WetSock will work for international locations depends on the availability of weather observations and forecasts on Internet in an organized and reliable manner. This is currently only true for USA. We managed to include Canada against all odds. We are constantly investigating possibilities and will announce availability if any other country version becomes available.


Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation