CRIS System Documentation ______________________________________________________________________________ Using SLIP on the IBM ______________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents ================= 1.0 What Is This Document? 2.0 The Internet, SLIP, and TIA 2.1 What is the Internet? 2.2 What is SLIP? 2.3 What is TIA? 2.4 What does this all mean to me? 3.0 What Will I Need On My System? 3.1 Basic system requirements 3.2 A word about Microsoft Windows 32-bit applications 3.2 Basic SLIP software 3.3 SLIP applications 4.0 Installing Trumpet 4.1 Downloading Trumpet from CRIS 4.1.1 Downloading from the TIA forum 4.1.2 Downloading from the Internet Area 4.2 Installing the Trumpet files 4.3 Configuring Trumpet for your system 4.3.1 The Setup menu 4.3.2 Telephone numbers and user data 4.4 Registering the Trumpet program 5.0 An Example of an Application: Installing Mosaic 5.1 What is Mosaic? 5.2 Downloading Mosaic from CRIS 5.3 Installing the Mosaic files 5.4 Configuring Mosaic for your system 5.4.1 What do you need to configure in Mosaic? 5.4.2 Using Set Mosaic to configure Mosaic 5.5 External viewers in Mosaic 6.0 How to Operate a SLIP Connection 6.1 Making a SLIP connection to CRIS (with Trumpet) 6.2 Making a SLIP connection to CRIS (general approach) 6.3 Disconnecting a SLIP connection 7.0 Where To Go Next 7.1 Where to find other SLIP applications 7.2 Getting help and more information 8.0 Conclusion 1.0 What Is This Document? ______________________________________________________________________________ This document is a guide to installing SLIP software on an IBM or IBMcompatible personal computer. It explains how you can use that software to run Internet applications, such as Mosaic, Telnet, or FTP, directly on your own computer, instead of having to run them from CRIS. First, we describe what SLIP and TIA are, and give a brief explanation of how the Internet transmits data. Then we explain what you will need to have on your system in order to use SLIP to communicate with CRIS. We go through the process of downloading the files you'll need, installing them on your computer, and configuring them for use. We then show you how to activate and deactivate a SLIP connection once you have dialed in to CRIS. Once you are able to set up a SLIP connection, we will talk about how you can use this connection to run programs at home (such as Mosaic). To use your SLIP connection, you will want to download various applications from CRIS. To get you started, we will go step-by-step through downloading and installing Mosaic, one of the most popular programs for the Internet today. Mosaic is a "browser" or viewer which searches the World Wide Web (a part of the Internet), giving you access to documents, images, and sounds in a truly multimedia format. Lastly, we will point out where else you can go to find applications, and give you a list of some of the things that are available for you. Of course, we will also tell you how to get help or advice if you need it. 2.0 The Internet, SLIP, and TIA ______________________________________________________________________________ This section gives some basic background on what the Internet is, how it operates, and what the SLIP and TIA programs have to do with it all. For more details than this brief summary provides, see the CRIS document "An Introduction to SLIP and TIA." 2.1 What is the Internet? -------------------------- The Internet is a world-wide collection of computers which are connected together, and able to send information back and forth between one another quickly and efficiently. It is an outgrowth of a system developed by the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) during the 1960's. The system originally connected a few hundred computers across the United States. Today, it connects more than 1,000,000 computers across the world, and an estimated 25,000,000 people. The Internet is growing in size and complexity at an incredible rate, and has already become a feature of daily life for millions. Clearly the Internet is here to stay. Part of the service that CRIS offers to its users is access to the Internet. From CRIS, you can send and receive electronic mail across the Internet, download files, play games, search for programs, read news, and a long (and growing) list of other activities. With CRIS, you have a complete connection to the Internet. 2.2 What is SLIP? ------------------ SLIP, or the "Serial Line Internet Protocol," is a set of rules for sending and receiving information between computers on a serial line. A serial line is one that can only send or receive one bit at a time, very rapidly. Your telephone wire is a serial line. There are a vast variety of protocols for transferring information across the Internet. Some, like SLIP, are general-purpose, and are used to send raw information back and forth. Others, like HTTP or FTP, have very specific purposes, such as transferring files or other data. Information sent and received across the Internet is organized with the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, usually written TCP/IP. SLIP is a way of packaging that information (PPP, HTTP, and FTP are some of the other ways) and transmitting it. In some sense, SLIP is designed to transmit TCP/IP packets; it's just one protocol (set of rules) for how to send and receive packages of information organized with a different protocol (set of rules). The important thing to know about SLIP is this. Internet applications that are written to run on the IBM assume that your computer already has a direct connection to the Internet. The kind of connection you usually use to dial in to CRIS doesn't provide this. However, a SLIP connection does. Thus, in order to take advantage of Internet applications running directly on your IBM, such as Mosaic or FTP for Windows, you need to have a SLIP connection to CRIS, instead of your usual, ordinary dial-in connection. That's where TIA comes in. 2.3 What is TIA? ----------------- We've already described the situation. You already know how to dial up to CRIS, and use the Internet Area to run programs like FTP, Telnet, or Pine. What you would like (at least, we think you'd like, or else you wouldn't be reading this!) is to be able to run IBM versions of those programs right on your own computer. Among other things, you'd then be able to run the multimedia browser Mosaic in Windows, for example. Or FTP, or Telnet, or news readers, mail readers, and others. In order to do this, you need to have a direct Internet connection, such as SLIP provides. So, how do you change your ordinary dial-in connection into a SLIP connection? You need to have software at both your end and on the CRIS end to do this. A little further down, we'll describe some of the software you can use on the IBM end to set up a SLIP connection (your regular terminal program won't be enough). On the CRIS side, the program you need is TIA. "The Internet Adapter," or TIA, is a program in the Internet Area which tells CRIS to treat your ordinary dial-in connection like a SLIP connection. Once you run it, CRIS will start to send SLIP packets to you, and will expect you to send SLIP packets back. To find out in detail how to activate and deactivate TIA, see the CRIS document, "An Introduction to SLIP and TIA." It also includes a more lengthy explanation of what SLIP and TIA are, and how they work. In this document we'll describe how to use TIA together with a particular software package for your IBM called Trumpet, one of several SLIP communications packages. Again, TIA is not a program you need to download, install, or configure in any way. You can either run it from inside the Internet Area, or you can activate TIA directly at the CRIS login prompt. It's that simple. 2.4 What does this all mean to me? ----------------------------------- "Okay, listen," you're thinking. "You can convert my regular dial-in line into a "SLIP" line, whatever that means, exactly. Great. What's the big deal?" Once you have activated TIA, and made your connection to CRIS a SLIP connection, you have several advantages. First, you can run IBM versions of many different Internet applications -- FTP programs, Telnet, mail readers, news readers, Mosaic, and others -- right on your machine. Not on CRIS, on your own personal computer. Especially if you are new to the Internet, being able to run the applications in a familiar environment (like Microsoft Windows) instead of on the Internet Area is a great advantage. Also, with SLIP, you can run many different applications at once. For example, you could have a couple of Telnet sessions open at the same time as you are downloading with FTP, and browsing the World Wide Web with Mosaic. With an ordinary dial-in line, you can't do that. This feature alone is worth setting SLIP up on your system. "Right," you say. "If I can run programs right on my IBM, and I can have a bunch of different connections open all at once, this sounds like a really good idea. But what does it take to get this all running?" 3.0 What Will I Need On My System? ______________________________________________________________________________ This section briefly describes the kind of system you will need to have in order to run the programs that we'll talk about below. Not every IBM computer will be able to use these applications, although most will. If you're not sure about your system, call Customer Service (see "Getting help and more information" below for details). 3.1 Basic system requirements ------------------------------ In order to run Trumpet (described below) on your IBM, and to be able to run most Internet applications on your IBM, we recommend the following minimum configuration: * An 80306 or better CPU * At least 2 megabytes of main memory, and 4 or more are strongly recommended * A hard drive with at least 1 megabyte of space for the Trumpet software, and 10 megabytes for installing the basic applications (Mosaic, FTP, Telnet) * VGA or SVGA graphics, with a resolution of at least 640x480 pixels, and a higher resolution is recommended (if you want to use Mosaic to its full potential, 256 colors are also recommended) * A modem (at least 2400 baud, though 14,400 is strongly recommended if you intend to use Mosaic) * Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 * A mouse, if you wish to use Mosaic effectively (it is possible to use Mosaic without a mouse, but it is very cumbersome) Depending on your specific system, it may be possible to run these applications with less than this described configuration. If you have questions, please contact Customer Service for help. 3.2 A word about Microsoft Windows 32-bit applications ------------------------------------------------------- Many applications now being developed for Microsoft Windows are 32-bit applications. You will find that several of the packages we recommend for use with SLIP are 32-bit. Now, computers which have 80386 or better CPUs are designed to handle 32-bit programs, but Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS are standardly only able to handle 16-bit programs. The solution to this problem is this. There is an extension that you can add to Microsoft Windows 3.1 that will allow it to run 32-bit programs correctly. WITHOUT THIS EXTENSION MICROSOFT WINDOWS 3.1 USERS CANNOT RUN 32-BIT APPLICATIONS. The extension is available free from Microsoft, and we also make it available here on CRIS. The file is called "win32s.zip". You can get it either in the TIA forum on the CRIS Information System, or in the directory /files/tcpip/windows/basics on the Internet Area. The advantage of installing the Windows 32-bit extension is that you will be able to run the newer, larger Microsoft Windows applications, including many of the Internet applications now becoming available. In particular, Mosaic is now being developed only for 32-bit systems, and 16-bit systems will have to use an older version. The disadvantage of installing the 32-bit extension is that it is fairly large. You will need to have 2-3 megabytes of disk space to add the extensions on your hard drive. Also, it will make additional demands on your Microsoft Windows system because it is so large. Lastly, it is necessary to be careful when installing the extension, and installation is somewhat complex. If you're just starting out with SLIP, we recommend that you don't try to install the 32-bit extension until you have had a chance to see what is available, and find out which programs need it. None of the programs we discuss in this document need to have the 32-bit extension. 3.2 Basic SLIP software ------------------------ In order to be able to run a SLIP connection between your computer and CRIS, you will need to have a communications program running that will take control of your modem, and interpret SLIP packets for Microsoft Windows. There are several programs that will do this for you. One of the most easily available is Peter Tattam's "Trumpet" program, which is a shareware package. We make Trumpet available on CRIS, and in section 4.0 we will discuss how to download, install, and configure Trumpet for use on your system. There are other packages besides Trumpet, some of which are extremely sophisticated (and expensive). To see alternatives to the Trumpet software, see the CRIS document "Recommended SLIP Software for Your IBM." We will explain how to install Trumpet in the next section. 3.3 SLIP applications ---------------------- Once you have installed Trumpet (or some other SLIP managment software) on your computer, you will be ready to run various Internet applications directly on your machine. However, Trumpet itself doesn't do anything except maintain a SLIP connection. (In some sense it is like a telegraph operator; it can send and receive messages, but it doesn't generate any information of its own.) There is a long list of applications available for the IBM. There are programs for file transfer (FTP), telecommunications (Telnet), electronic mail, newsgroup reading, programs for browsing the World Wide Web, and others. You will probably want to install several of these. We suggest that most users will probably want to install at least an FTP program, a version of Telnet, and some version of Mosaic. The advantage of running these programs on your machine instead of running them at CRIS is that you can store all of your data directly on your computer. So, for example, if you run an electronic mail program on your computer, you can keep all of your mail messages stored on your hard drive, instead of storing them on CRIS. Or if you used a file transfer program like FTP, you could upload and download files from any system on the Internet directly to your hard drive. In order to see a list of SLIP applications that we have tried, along with some suggestions about which are good ones to use (and which aren't so good), see the CRIS document "Recommended SLIP Software for Your IBM." You can also access the TIA forum in the Information System to see messages from other users about which programs people are finding useful. Just "/GO TIA" at any Information System prompt to access the TIA forum. In this document, we're going to show you how to install one of the more popular Internet applications: Mosaic. We will explain how to install the 16-bit version, because it will work on all systems with the basic requirements, and then you can decide for yourself whether you want to install the 32-bit expansion to Microsoft Windows and upgrade to newer versions of Mosaic. 4.0 Installing Trumpet ______________________________________________________________________________ This section explains how to download, install, and configure the Trumpet program for your IBM-compatible computer. Trumpet is one of several programs available for the IBM which will allow you to send and receive SLIP packets across a modem line through Microsoft Windows. We've chosen to describe Trumpet because it is a simple system, and because it is very popular. Trumpet is a shareware product written by Peter Tattam, who is in no way affiliated with CRIS. We do not endorse his product. It is only one of several alternatives for maintaining a SLIP connection. Trumpet is a Microsoft Windows application. You will need Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in order to run it. You will also need to have at least one free megabyte (1 Mb) on your hard drive to hold the Trumpet files. Lastly, in order to handle the files you will be downloading, you will need an uncompression program that will unzip ZIP files. See the /files/pub directory in the Internet Area for several compression and uncompression programs for the IBM. To learn how to use Trumpet after you have installed it, see section 6.0 on operating a SLIP connection. If you have any questions or problems with installation, please contact Customer Service. See section 7.0 on the ways we can be reached. In the following sections, we will assume that you have a basic understanding of CRIS, as well as a basic grounding in the use of Microsoft Windows. 4.1 Downloading Trumpet from CRIS ---------------------------------- The first step in getting Trumpet up and running on your own computer is downloading the Trumpet package from CRIS. There are two ways to get the Trumpet package from CRIS. 4.1.1 Downloading from the TIA forum ------------------------------------- The first is through the TIA forum on the Information Service. In order to download the Trumpet files: 1. First "/GO TIA" to go to the TIA forum on the Information Service. You can issue this command from any prompt. 2. Select option 7, "Download a File". The name of the Trumpet package is "twsk20a.zip". 3. You will be prompted for the type of file transfer protocol you wish to use. Consult the manual for your communications program to see which protocols it uses. If possible, we recommend that you use the ZMODEM protocol to download files, as it is the fastest and most reliable. 4.1.2 Downloading from the Internet Area ----------------------------------------- The other way to access the Trumpet package is from the Internet Area. For users who are more familiar with the Internet portion of CRIS, this will be much simpler. The /files directory contains public files available for all of our users. The directory /files/tcpip/windows is devoted specifically to TCP/IP applications and system software, including Trumpet. This directory also contains such programs as Mosaic, WinFTP, NCSA Telnet for Windows, and others. The subdirectory /winsock contains the Trumpet files. They are all compressed in a single ZIP file called "twsk20a.zip", and this is the file you need to download. You can use any of the standard file transfer programs, such as "sz" or "Kermit", to do this. If you are unsure about how to use these programs, then we recommend you download the Trumpet files from the TIA forum in the Information Service instead. In the Information Service detailed screens will prompt you for downloading information. When you have finished downloading, you should have the file called "twsk20a.zip" on your hard drive. Now that you have it, we can go to installing the Trumpet program on your system. 4.2 Installing the Trumpet files --------------------------------- In order to use Trumpet, we recommend that you make a new directory for your Trumpet files. Here are step-by-step instructions for installing Trumpet on your system; you'll need to adapt them as necessary to your own setup. NOTE: In these instructions, words are often put in quotation marks to help them stand out from the text. You should never type the quotation marks. So, for example, when we tell you to make a group called "Internet Applications", we mean that you should use the words Internet Applications. 1. Make a new directory for Trumpet, such as \windows\trumpet. 2. Copy the file "twsk20a.zip" into \windows\trumpet. 3. Unzip the file into the same directory. This will uncompress the Trumpet files. The main SLIP communications program is the file called "tcpman.exe". There is an extensive installation document called "install.txt" in the package as well. We have already set most of the options in the version of Trumpet that you downloaded, but if you want more information about the program, or how to modify the system as provided, consult the installation document. Now, we will run Microsoft Windows, and make a new application group to keep your Internet applications in: 4. Run Microsoft Windows. 5. Create a new program group for your Internet applications. We suggest the name "Internet Applications". A program group is a folder or window in which are stored a collection of programs. Main, Applications, and Games are the names of some standard Microsoft Windows program groups. If you are unsure how to make a new program group, here are the simple steps: * From the Program Manager, pull down the "File" menu. * Select the "New" option. * Click on the button "Program Group" and click "OK". Enter the description "Internet Applications" and click "OK". You do not need to give a group file name. This will open up a new window in your Program Manager, labeled "Internet Applications". All of the new SLIP programs you install, you will put in this group. The first application we want to put in this group is the Trumpet package you just downloaded. In particular, the Trumpet program which handles SLIP communications is called "tcpman.exe". Here's how to add it to your group: 6. Make sure that the Internet Applications group is highlighted. If you just created it, it should be the active group. 7. Again pull down the "File" menu on the Program Manager. 8. Select "New" again. 9. This time, select "Program Item" (it may already be selected) and click on "OK". An item is just a particular program in the group. (So, for example, the solitaire game is just one item in the Games group.) Now you'll need to give Windows information about where the program is located and how to run it. Whenever you add new items to this group (or any group) this is the process you need to go through. 10. Make the description of the program "Trumpet". 11. The working directory is the name of the directory that the program is in. If you installed it as described above, then you put it in a directory called \windows\trumpet. In that case the working directory is "\windows\trumpet". 12. The command line is the working directory together with the name of the program -- it is the full command you would issue if you wanted to run the program. The name of the SLIP communications program is "tcpman.exe", so your command line should be "\windows\trumpet\tcpman.exe". Notice that you have to type out the whole name, including the ".exe" at the end. 13. Click on "OK". Now a new icon (a graphic) should appear in the group, with a picture of a Trumpet and the letters "TCP" underneath. Clicking on this icon will run the Trumpet SLIP communications program. The last thing you'll need to do to install Trumpet is modify your directory path so that Trumpet is included. You'll need to edit your "autoexec.bat" file in order to do this. Users of newer versions of Microsoft Windows will find a program called Sysedit in their Main or Accessories program group. Running this program will load the "autoexec.bat" file into a simple editor, and you can change it there. You need to modify the PATH variable and add the directory into which you've installed Trumpet. So, for example, if you had PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM you would modify it to read PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM;C:\WINDOWS\TRUMPET This can be done with any ordinary text editor, such as the "edit" program in DOS, if your system does not have "Sysedit". If you use an ordinary text editor, however, be careful to make a backup of the file before you modify it. This completes installation of the Trumpet SLIP program on your system. If you have had trouble with installation, please contact Customer Service. See section 7.2 on the different ways you can get help. 4.3 Configuring Trumpet for your system ---------------------------------------- The Trumpet package that you downloaded from CRIS came pre-configured to use our system settings and Internet address numbers. However, you may need to change the setting for your modem speed. This and other hardware settings are on the Setup menu in Trumpet. You may want to check to see that the IP Address and Nameserver are indeed set within Trumpet. 4.3.1 The Setup menu --------------------- In order to configure the Trumpet package, first you must make sure that you are not currently using your modem. Then, do the following: 1. Run the Trumpet program from your Internet Applications program group. Once the Trumpet program is up, it will open a new window called "Trumpet Winsock". This window is for making your connection to CRIS, and for setting configuration options. 2. Pull down the "File" menu, and choose the "Setup" option. This will bring up another window with a bewildering variety of options and settings. The two main settings that need added are the IP Address and Nameserver. Make sure they are set for the following: IP Address: 192.0.2.1 Nameserver: 199.3.12.2 These should be already set, but if not, type these numbers into the respective boxes. Two other important ones that you may need to change, however. Down in the lower left-hand corner are the boxes for "SLIP Port" (the default value is 1) and "Baud Rate" (the default value is 19200). The SLIP Port is the COM port that your modem uses. It has been set to 1, but can have legal values from 1-4. You can check your other communications programs to see what COM port your modem is attached to. If the wrong COM port number is in this box, you will be unable to access your modem properly. The Baud Rate is the speed at which your modem operates. Normal modem speeds range from 2,400 (which is at the low-end by today's standards) to 19,200. The rate has been set to 19,200, which also handles modems which are 14,400 baud. NOTE: If your modem is 14,400, you will need to set this value to 19,200, as Trumpet does not recognize 14,400 as a legitimate speed. 19,200 will work perfectly well for 14,400 baud modem users. Change either of these values if you need to do so. When you are finished, click "OK". Notice that Trumpet warns you that you will have to quit and re-run the program for your changes to go into effect. 4.3.2 Telephone numbers and user data -------------------------------------- In order for Trumpet to work correctly for you, it will need several additional pieces of information. These include your local telephone number for CRIS, your user ID, and your CRIS password. When you first use Trumpet (see section 6.0 on "Connecting to CRIS"), it will ask you for you local telephone number, your user ID, and your password. It will automatically record your telephone number and your user ID on disk, so that it won't need to ask you again. However, as a security precaution, it will always ask you for your password, every time you run the program. If you ever need to change any of these options again, do the following simple process: 1. Run Trumpet from the Internet Applications group. 2. Pull down the "Dialler" menu. 3. The last option on the menu is "setup.cmd". Choose that option. Trumpet will then ask you for a new telephone number, ID, and password. You should only need to do this when your telephone number or ID changes. Now Trumpet should be configured and ready to go. To see how to use Trumpet to connect to CRIS, read section 6.0, "How to Operate a SLIP Connection." 4.4 Registering the Trumpet program ------------------------------------ We've discussed installing and configuring the Trumpet package because it is one of the most popular and easiest-to-use currently available on the Internet. However, the program is not free; rather, it is part of a shareware package that must be registered. Shareware programs are programs that are freely distributed and can be tested without charge. However, if you decide that you want to use a shareware program permanently, you are expected to pay the author for his or her work. In this way, authors can distribute their work easily, and allow many people to try their products before they decide whether or not to buy them. The Trumpet package is designed and authored by Peter Tattam. It comes with a 30-day trial period, after which users are expected to register the program. CRIS is in no way affiliated with Mr. Tattam, nor does the registration process affect us in any way. Registration of the program occurs directly between you, the user, and Peter Tattam, the author. The registration cost for the Trumpet package is $25 US. For details on how to register the package, see the document "install.txt" that came with the Trumpet materials. It will explain how to register, the benefits of registration, and provides an order form for registering. 5.0 An Example of an Application: Installing Mosaic ______________________________________________________________________________ Having SLIP software installed and ready-to-go on your machine isn't very useful by itself. SLIP software, such as Trumpet, only manage a connection between your machine and CRIS. In order to do anything with that connection, you will need to install programs that use SLIP on your computer. There are a variety of packages available that use SLIP. There are Windows versions of FTP, Telnet, Mosaic, newsgroup readers, electronic mail programs, Archie, and others. In this section, we will go through the process of downloading and installing Mosaic. Each package you install will have its own procedures and configuration requirements. The Internet SLIP packages that we make available to you from CRIS are either freeware or shareware, and they differ considerably in functionality and quality. We have collected a wide selection so that you can find the software you are most happy with. 5.1 What is Mosaic? -------------------- Mosaic is a program that allows you to access the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is a portion of the Internet that stores data in a multimedia format. Web sites incorporate text, images, and sounds for a variety of purposes. There are Web sites for games, businesses, archives, scientific research, museums, libraries, magazines, and a dizzying variety of other purposes. From your point of view, Mosaic is something like a book. When it is running, you will see pages -- they are usually called "Web pages" -- that have text and graphics on them. Many words and phrases will be highlighted on every page. If you want to know more about a word, phrase, image, sound, or file, you can simply click on it with your mouse, and you will be taken to a new page about that item. In this way, Web pages all over the Internet can be hooked together. Each page can have many of these highlighted items, which are usually called "links." Links can point to Web pages at different sites all across the world, so it is usually possible to get to a site from many places. Mosaic is what is called a "Web browser." In some sense the World Wide Web is like a gigantic book, much more vast than any encyclopedia. With Mosaic you can browse through that book, flipping from one topic to another. There are many different versions of Mosaic currently available. The Mosaic program was originally devloped at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, or NCSA. The NCSA versions of Mosaic are free for public use. Recently an advanced version of Mosaic called Netscape Mosaic has become available. It is more sophisticated than the NCSA version of Mosaic. A free version of Netscape Mosaic is available on CRIS. The version of Mosaic that we will be downloading and installing here is an older NCSA Mosaic, one that does not require 32-bit instructions. This version will run on any computer with the specifications listed above in 3.1, and Microsoft Windows 3.1 users will not need to install the Microsoft Windows 32-bit package for it to work. The reason we install a slightly older version is that it will be compatible with the most systems, and for our users who have less technical expertise, will be much easier to install. If you wish to use a more advanced version of Mosaic, you will need to install the Microsoft Windows 32-bit enhancements as well. 5.2 Downloading Mosaic from CRIS --------------------------------- We can download Mosaic from CRIS just as we downloaded the Trumpet software. See section 4.1 on "Downloading Trumpet from CRIS" for details on the different ways you can download files. In the TIA forum on the Information Service, the Mosaic package is called "wmos20a2.zip". In the Internet Area, Mosaic is in the directory /files/tcpip/windows/web_browsers and the file we want is called "wmos20a2.zip". Notice that there are other versions of Mosaic available here as well; they are newer and more powerful, but all require that you have installed the 32-bit extension to Microsoft Windows. See 3.2 on the 32-bit package and 32-bit applications in Microsoft Windows. NOTE: For those interested, the name "wmos20a2" means "Mosaic for Windows, version 2.0, revision A-2." You will notice newer versions such as revision A-7 available on CRIS, as well as the Netscape Mosaic program, called "nscape09.zip". These other versions require the 32-bit package to run. 5.3 Installing the Mosaic files -------------------------------- Now that you've downloaded Mosaic, we'll step through the installation process. Basic installation of Mosaic is very simple, although if you want to use its full power you will want to add some additional applications. See section 5.5 on installing external viewers for Mosaic. 1. Make a new directory for your Mosaic program. For this installation, we'll use the directory name \windows\mosaic. 2. Copy the file "wmos20a2.zip" into \windows\mosaic. 3. Unzip the file into the same directory. Now you'll need to add a program item for Mosaic in your Internet Applications group, the group that you made when you installed Trumpet. 4. Run Microsoft Windows. 5. Make sure that the Internet Applications group is highlighted. Click on it to open it up if it is a reduced icon. 7. Pull down the "File" menu on the Program Manager. 8. Select "New". 9. Select "Program Item" (it may already be selected) and click on "OK". Now you'll need to give Windows information about where the program is located and how to run it. Whenever you add new items to this group (or any group) this is the process you need to go through. 10. Make the description of the program "NCSA Mosaic". 11. The working directory is the name of the directory that the program is in. If you installed it as described above, then you put it in a directory called \windows\mosaic. In that case the working directory is "\windows\mosaic". 12. The command line is the working directory together with the name of the program -- it is the full command you would issue if you wanted to run the program. The name of the Mosaic program is "mosaic.exe", so your command line should be "\windows\mosaic\mosaic.exe". Notice that you have to type out the whole name, including the ".exe" at the end. 13. Click on "OK". Now a new icon should appear in the group, with a graphic that looks like a stylized S. Clicking on this icon will run the Mosaic program. 5.4 Configuring Mosaic for your system --------------------------------------- The Mosaic package you've downloaded from CRIS has already been configured for the CRIS system, and for the options we believe that our users will find most useful. However, you may wish to make some changes of your own. 5.4.1 What do you need to configure in Mosaic? ----------------------------------------------- There are a number of configuration options you can change for Mosaic, including whether or not images are displayed, your electronic mail address, the name of the page you'd like Mosaic to start on, and so forth. All of these options are set in the configuration file "mosaic.ini", which is in the same directory as your Mosaic program. "mosaic.ini" is an ordinary text file, which contains the configuration options in an almost-English format. You can edit it with any text editor, such as Notepad in Windows. 5.4.2 Using Set Mosaic to configure Mosaic ------------------------------------------- As an alternative to modifying the .ini file manually, there is a program on CRIS designed to help you configure Mosaic. It is located both in the TIA forum and in the Internet Area in /files/tcpip/windows/web_browsers, and the name of the package is "smosaic.zip". If you plan on making substantial changes to your Mosaic setup, you might find it useful. The Mosaic setup package comes with its own installation documentation, and is very easy to use. We suggest that you put it in its own directory, such as \windows\mosaic\smosaic. To install Set Mosaic, do the following: 1. Run Microsoft Windows. 2. From the Program Manager, pull down the "File" menu. 3. Select "Run". 4. Run the file "\windows\mosaic\smosaic\setup.exe". (If you installed it somewhere else, use the name of your directory instead.) Set Mosaic will create its own program group. Just click on the icon to run the program. For more information on what the Mosaic options mean, see the file "install.txt" that came with the Mosaic program. 5.5 External viewers in Mosaic ------------------------------- For simply browsing the Web pages, Mosaic is the only program you will need. However, if you want to download images, play sounds or movies, or open Telnet connections inside of Mosaic, things are a bit more sophisticated. The designers of Mosaic did something very clever. They realized that different users might want to run their own favorite programs for, say, displaying a graphic, or for playing a sound. Also, Mosaic was designed to be a Web browser, not a GIF viewer/sound player/movie projector/Telnet program and so forth. So instead of incorporating all of those features into Mosaic, instead Mosaic relies on programs it calls "external viewers." The basic approach is this: when you want to do something such as play a sound or download a graphic, Mosaic will get the information for you. Then it will run some other program to display or play that data. You can set the program that it will run, so you can use whichever your favorite viewers or players happen to be. The version of Mosaic that you've downloaded is already configured to use several external viewers. In particular, the program "Lview" is set to display GIFs, JPEGs, and other graphics. The Microsoft Windows Media Player is set to play all sound files. The program "Mpegplay" is used to play all MPEG-style movies, and the Telnet program "Ewan" is used for opening Telnet connections inside of Mosaic. The Microsoft Windows Media Player is a standard program on Microsoft Windows, so you don't need to do anything to get Mosaic to use it automatically. However, you will need to download and install the lview and mpegplay programs if you want to be able to view GIF or JPEG graphics and play MPEG movies. Ewan is a Telnet program for Microsoft Windows. (If you aren't clear on what these mean, it's still a safe bet that at some point you will want to use them.) You can download each of these packages (except for the Media Player) from CRIS. If you want to download them from the TIA forum, you only need to know their filenames, and choose the option "Download a File" from the forum menu. In the Internet Area, all external viewers are located in the directory /files/tcpip/windows/viewers. Here are the names, together with brief descriptions, of the basic viewers we recommend: Lview is a program for displaying GIF, JPEG, BMP, and other image formats, as well as cropping, image conversion, and other utilities. The name of the current version is "lview31.zip". Install this program in the directory \windows\lview. Mpegplay is a program for playing MPEG files, which are movies. It is called "mpegw32h.zip". Install this program in the directory \windows\mpegplay. Ewan is a Telnet client for Microsoft Windows. It is located in /files/tcpip/windows/telnet, and the current version is "ewan103.zip". Install this program in the directory \windows\ewan. If you would rather install these viewers in different directories than those we suggest, or you have different viewers that you would rather use, then you will need to modify the "mosaic.ini" file to refer to your configuration. You can use the Set Mosaic program to change your setup automatically; see 5.4.2 above on how to download and install it. If you don't want to use Set Mosaic, then see the file "install.txt" that came with the Mosaic software for instructions on how to modify Mosaic manually. 6.0 How to Operate a SLIP Connection ______________________________________________________________________________ Now you have installed your SLIP software, either the Trumpet package or some other SLIP communications program. This section describes in general terms, and again with specific references made to Trumpet, how you connect and disconnect your SLIP connection at CRIS. 6.1 Making a SLIP connection to CRIS (general approach) -------------------------------------------------------- There are two different ways you can activate TIA at CRIS. One is by going to the Internet Area, and typing "tia" at the command prompt to run the TIA program. At this point, CRIS will switch to sending and receiving SLIP packets, and you need to run whatever SLIP communications software you have. The second, and much simpler way, is this. When you are asked for your user identification at the CRIS login prompt, append the word"slip" to the end of your ID. Give your password as you usually do. Then, rather than being taken to the main login screen, TIA will automatically be activated as soon as your password is verified. You won't need to go into CRIS directly at all. As an example, here's what it would look like: Enter your username or type 'new' if new user: doylep@slip Password: ******** The Internet Adapter (tm) 1.03 for SunOS Copyright (c) 1994 Cyberspace Development, Inc. Host License Ready to start your SLIP software. At this point CRIS is ready to handle your SLIP communications, and you can begin running your SLIP software. If you are using the Trumpet package we've described earlier in this document, most of this work is done for you already. In the next section we'll describe how to connect using Trumpet. 6.2 Making a SLIP connection to CRIS (with Trumpet) ---------------------------------------------------- The Trumpet package supports what are called "scripts," which are instructions written in its own special language. Scripts tell Trumpet to do things like dial telephone numbers, send your ID, send modem commands, and so on. We've provided a script along with the Trumpet package that will automatically connect you directly to CRIS and run TIA, so all you have to do is run the script. Here's how: 1. Run Microsoft Windows. 2. Go to your Internet Applications program group. Run the Trumpet program. Trumpet will open a new window called "Trumpet Winsock." 3. Pull down the "Dialler" menu. This menu lists all of the scripts that are currently available for you to use. In particular, the scripts "Login" and "Bye" are standard names in Trumpet, for the script that connects you to a system and the script that disconnects you. Both Login and Bye have been written to work specifically with the CRIS system. 4. Select "Login". If your system is configured correctly, the script should dial your local number, connect to CRIS, and ask you for your password. Once your password has been verified, it will automatically run TIA for you, and you will be ready to run whatever SLIP software you like. When you run Login, it will look on your hard drive for information about your local dial-in number and your user ID. If you haven't told it before, it will prompt you for that information, and then record it so it won't need to ask you again. If you ever need to change that information, run the script called "setup.cmd" on the "Dialler" menu, and it will re-prompt you for the data again. Once the Login script is finished executing, you should see the message "Connected!" When that happens, Trumpet is active. You can then run whatever SLIP applications you want, such as Mosaic. NOTE: Do not quit Trumpet once you are connected. The Trumpet program will run in the background and handle your SLIP communications for you. 6.3 Disconnecting a SLIP connection ------------------------------------ When you are done using your SLIP software, disconnecting from CRIS is very easy to do. The procedure for shutting down your SLIP connection is simple. Here it is, in stages: 1. First, you need to shut down all of your SLIP applications, such as Mosaic or Telnet. Make sure that you have quit them all. If you disconnect SLIP while they are still running, unpredictable results may occur in those applications. If you are using software other than Trumpet, then: 2. In order to turn TIA off, you need to send *five* Control-C characters, about one second apart. You send a Control-C by holding down the "Control" key on your keyboard and pressing "c" at the same time. If you are using Trumpet: 2. Go back to the "Dialler" menu on Trumpet, and choose the script "Bye". This will automatically disconnect you from CRIS. Once TIA receives the quit code, it will automatically disconnect you from the CRIS system, and you are done. 7.0 Where To Go Next ______________________________________________________________________________ Let's review what we've covered. We discussed what a SLIP connection is, and how it's different from having a regular dial-in connection to CRIS. We've also talked about the advantages of a SLIP connection over a regular one -- you can run many programs at once, run them on your local machine, and you can use programs like Mosaic, which aren't available if you access the Internet from the Internet Area. Next, we saw how to install and configure Peter Tattam's Trumpet program, which will manage a SLIP connection for you. With a SLIP program on your computer, and using TIA on CRIS, you can set up a SLIP connection between your machine and CRIS. Then we gave you an example of a particular application you can run on your IBM using SLIP, namely Mosaic. With Mosaic you can browse the World Wide Web, a part of the Internet. It gives you a sense of the power available on your own computer for exploring the Internet. If you've followed along with this introduction, you now have SLIP available on your machine, and you have one application to run. You'll probably want to add more applications, such as FTP, Telnet, electronic mail programs, or news readers. In this section we'll tell you where to turn for more information. We'll also tell you where you can go for help, advice, or to make comments of your own on how SLIP and TIA are working for you. 7.1 Where to find other SLIP applications ------------------------------------------ The easiest place to look is in the files archives here at CRIS. We maintain a collection of free and shareware Internet applications for you to look at and use. We also keep the most up-to-date versions available, and Customer Service is much more likely to be able to help you with a technical issue if you are using one of the programs we make available to you. One way you can find out about SLIP applications, as well as other issues with SLIP and TIA, is to visit the TIA forum on the Information Service. Just type "/GO TIA" at any Information Service prompt to access the forum. There you'll find a file library that contains all of our SLIP/TIA documentation, as well as copies of all of the software we make available, both for the IBM and for the Macintosh. In addition, the TIA forum has a message section, so users can talk about which applications are and are not useful for them, technical problems and solutions, advice on how to use the Internet, and so on. Other users are often as good a source of information for your non-technical issues as we are. On the Internet Area, you can look in the /files directories for files and documentation related to SLIP, TIA, and the IBM. In particular, the directory /files/tcpip/windows contains all of the latest versions of the programs we review and make available for use with Microsoft Windows for SLIP. In this directory is a file called "software.doc" that lists the available packages on CRIS and what features they offer. Lastly, you can visit the Internet Help System in order to find out more, and to access easily this document, and related documents. 7.2 Getting help and more information -------------------------------------- As mentioned above, there are several resources available to you, both on CRIS and through CRIS, for learning more about SLIP, TIA, and Internet applications for your IBM. Of course, you can always contact Customer Service if you have technical questions or comments about hardware or software issues. You can call 1-800-745-CRIS Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. until midnight (EST). You can also send electronic mail to "custserv@cris.com" at any time. On-line help is available from 6 p.m. until midnight (EST) seven days a week in Conference Eight on the Information System. You can go directly to this conference by typing "/GO HELP" or "/GO SERVICES" from anywhere in the Information Service area. As mentioned above, you can also visit the TIA forum on the Information System. Other users and staff will have comments, suggestions, and questions of their own about what is available on the Internet and where you can find it. "/GO TIA" to reach the TIA forum from anywhere in the Information System. Another place you can turn is the USENET newsgroup system. There are several newsgroups devoted to discussions of TCP/IP issues, and one in particular discusses the IBM family of computers. To find out more, see the newsgroup "comp.sys.ibmpc.tcpip.windows". In order to make it easy for TIA users on CRIS to discuss their experiences and to offer questions and comments, CRIS has its own newsgroup devoted specifically to TIA. For more, see the newsgroup "cris.tia" with your favorite newsgroup reader. To see a list of the programs we make available, as well as comments on which are better to use and their system requirements, see the CRIS document "Recommended SLIP Software for Your IBM." It is accessible both from the TIA forum and from the Internet Help System. This guide is one of your best resources for finding more Internet applications. 8.0 Conclusion ______________________________________________________________________________ We hope that this has been a useful guide for you to get started with SLIP, and using the power of the Internet directly at your own computer. There is a great variety of software available, and the quality and amount of material is growing rapidly. This is a good stepping-stone to bringing the real power of the Internet right to you, but it is still only a steppingstone. The Internet is a living, growing set of information, connections, and people. With SLIP and TIA, you can bring those connections directly to your computer in a natural and powerful way, making your computer a part of the Internet itself. Using SLIP on the IBM / CRIS / support@cris.com