RELEASE NOTES FOR MICROSOFT(R) TCP/IP-32 FOR WINDOWS(TM) FOR WORKGROUPS 3.11 MARCH 1994 BETA PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE DOCUMENT General ------- This product is compatible with, and supported exclusively on the Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 platform. This beta release expires on June 15, 1994. Once it expires, you will be reminded to upgrade to a new version every time you run Windows for Workgroups although the software will continue to function properly. If you are running a different TCP/IP product on your system, you must remove it before installing Microsoft TCP/IP-32. This procedure has been tested successfully with the Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows for Workgroups 3.1 product. If you experience difficulties with another vendor's product, remove the old TCP/IP stack, exit Network Setup completely, reboot your system, and then proceed to add the Microsoft TCP/IP-32 drivers by following the documentation. Updates during this beta cycle will be posted periodically to the Internet and CompuServe(R). Internet: ftp.microsoft.com \peropsys\wfw\tcpip\vxdbeta. CompuServe: MSNET forum, library 15: MS TCP/IP-32 Beta Known Problems -------------- LMHOSTS support is NOT available in this release. The Arcnet media type is NOT supported in this release. Multihomed systems are NOT supported in this release. The TELNET utility is NOT included in this release. DNS resolution of Windows Network names and WINS resolution of DNS names is NOT supported in this release. During installation the beta driver will appear as "Microsoft TCP/IP-32 3.11 (Beta)", not as "beta 0" as the documentation indicates. DHCP Automatic Configuration ---------------------------- DHCP is a new TCP/IP protocol which provides the ability to dynamically acquire TCP/IP addressing and configuration with no user intervention. DHCP depends on your network administrator to set up a DHCP server on your network. A DHCP server is scheduled to ship as part of the next release of Windows NT Advanced Server. If you enable automatic DHCP configuration without a DHCP server available on your network, the following message will appear after approximately a 10 second black-screen delay during the Windows for Workgroups booting process: "The DHCP client was unable to obtain an IP network address from a DHCP server. Do you want to see future DHCP messages?" This message means that TCP/IP has initialized but without any addressing information. If you are running TCP/IP as your only protocol, you will not have access to the network. This situation requires that you go back to the TCP/IP configuration settings, disable DHCP and manually specify your TCP/IP network parameters. If you are running multiple protocols, you should have access to your network with these. If you DO have a DHCP server on your network and this message appears, this indicates that the server was unavailable and that your lease has expired. DHCP will (in the background) continue to try and acquire a valid lease while Windows for Workgroups continues to run (although you will not have TCP/IP functionality). If you are running with DHCP automatic configuration, use the IPCONFIG utility to learn your IP configuration. Utility Support --------------- NBTSTAT, NETSTAT, and TELNET utilties are NOT available in this release. The utilities in this release do NOT support DNS name resolution - you must use IP addresses as parameters when specifying hosts (with the exception of FTP). ARP, PING, and ROUTE: These utilities are in their preliminary form and do not match the options printed in the documentation. The syntax of each utility can be learned by interactively running them with the "-?" option. For example: ping -? will display the options for ping. FTP: FTP is implemented in a Windows console in this release. It is not presently hooked to the Microsoft TCP/IP-32 help file, although the helpfile does have FTP command summaries in it. Many of the documented command line options are supported, although they require you manually modify your FTP Program Item. IPCONFIG: The documentation incorrectly references the IPCONFIG utility as IPINFO. This version does not include the /RELEASE or /RENEW functionality as documented. TELNET: The TELNET utility is not available in this release. The FTP utility was used as a placeholder in the Microsoft TCP/IP-32 program group. TRACERT: A preliminary version of the traceroute utility has been added to this release. -------------------------------------- MICROSOFT TCP/IP-32 BETA SUPPORT NOTES -------------------------------------- Welcome to the Microsoft TCP/IP-32 Beta Program. We are very pleased you are participating in this program with us. We welcome your product impressions, feedback, and suggestions, and are dedicated to providing you with the best support possible during this program. Please address issues and questions regarding this release to the MSNET forum, section 15, as described below under CompuServe Support. For your technical support needs, our engineers on CompuServe provide interactive responses to your messages and inquiries. Please see below CompuServe Support as well as the attached Appendix A - Obtaining and Using a CompuServe Account. CompuServe Support ------------------ We will provide timely responses to your messages, inquiries and problem reports on CompuServe Information Service in the MSNET forum. The MSNET forum consists of public, dedicated sections and libraries for customer support. The designated areas for support of this release are: Section 15: MS TCP/IP-32 Beta (TCP/IP-32 beta discussion area) Library 15: MS TCP/IP-32 Beta (Beta code location as well as customer problem reports upload area) Product issues are discussed in this public location with other beta recipients and Microsoft support engineers to exchange feedback and solutions, providing the latest in product information for everyone. This location will also provide an easy avenue to obtain answers to commonly asked questions by other users and is the best method of support for resolving technical Beta product and support issues. If you do not currently have a CompuServe account, we encourage you to enroll and join us today. Call CompuServe Customer Service at (800) 848-8199 or (614) 457-0802 to subscribe. Please refer to Appendix A - Obtaining and Using a CompuServe Account for further CompuServe support details. Internet Support ---------------- The Microsoft TCP/IP-32 Beta may also be obtained from the Internet. FTP to ftp.microsoft.com. Login as anonymous and please use your email address as your password. The directory location is \peropsys\wfw\tcpip\vxdbeta. Additionally, if you have comments on the Beta that you would like to pass along to the product team via Internet, please use the WOLVRINE@MICROSOFT.COM address. Customer Problem Reports ------------------------ As a helpful guideline, we have provided a report template that we are asking customers to use to produce problem or bug reports. TCP32BUG.TXT is located on the TCP/IP-32 Beta diskette and outlines information needed to enable us to duplicate customer problem reports. Please use the template as a guideline to report specific steps and detailed information about the incident encountered; include any error messages, the hardware configuration, and the system environment. Simply use Windows NT Notepad or another text editor to create a complete and accurate description of the problem encountered and upload it to MSNET CompuServe Library 15 as described below Uploading Files to CompuServe as a zipped or ASCII text file. As an alternative, you may also submit problem reports via the Internet. Please complete the TCP32BUG.TXT template and submit it to the WOLVRINE@MICROSOFT.COM address. Appendix A - Obtaining and Using a CompuServe Account ------------------------------------------------------ Obtaining a CompuServe Account Existing CompuServe Users: If you are an existing CompuServe user, you can use your existing account to gain access to the forum. New CompuServe Users If you do not currently have a CompuServe account, we encourage you to obtain one. You will need a modem to access CompuServe. For information on how to obtain a CompuServe account, call CompuServe Customer Service at: (800) 848-8199 or (614) 457-0802 To initialize your account, select option 1 and ask for representative 230. Once connected to CompuServe, you will be led through a number of electronic forms where you provide the information needed to initialize an account. Once the account is active, you can have access to the CompuServe forums and any other publicly available area on CompuServe. Accessing the MSNET Forum on CompuServe: There are a number of communications programs that may be used to access CompuServe once you have an account. Once logged on to CompuServe, you may enter the MSNET user forum by typing the following at any CompuServe ! prompt: ! GO MSNET Using the MSNET Forum --------------------- Once in the forum, you can: Engage in discussions. Post questions and discuss issues in forum message sections. Upload files. Upload problem or bug reports and suggestions for the Beta release. Download files. Libraries may contain fixes, updates, and new utilities. Engaging in Discussions in the Forums ------------------------------------- Please use the tips below as a guideline to communicate effectively the issues and questions you may have in the MSNET Section 15 discussion area. Message Posting Limits: Message postings on CompuServe forums are limited to 2270 characters per message. To work around this limit, you may post consecutive messages if this limit is too restrictive. For brevity and to encourage more timely responses, we recommend staying within this limit. Uploading Files to CompuServe: Instructions for uploading files using the Windows Terminal program are discussed below. CompuServe connect time is suspended while making uploads, although the standard $.30 per hour surcharge is assessed. If additional third party communication packages are used, those charges may still be in effect. Steps for Uploading Files: The instructions below demonstrate how to upload a file to a library section in the MSNET forum. Some of the options in the forum may differ slightly from those shown below. Please make the necessary adjustments. 1. Log on to CompuServe. 2. Type !GO MSNET 3. To upload a file, type LIB after entering the forum. 4. Once in the library area, you are prompted for the library section you want to enter. For example, type 15 if you want to upload a file to Library 15. 5. Type UPL to begin the upload procedure. Enter choice !UPL 6. CompuServe then prompts you for a filename. For example: Upload File name: SAMPLE.ZIP If you receive a message saying "This file already exists," answer "no" to the next prompt (which will ask if you want to overwrite an already existing file), and attempt another upload using a different filename. 7. CompuServe then asks you which Protocol you want to use. The Windows Terminal defaults to Xmodem, so this would be the selection in this case. Check your communications software documentation for further details. The protocol may also be set by entering GO TERMINAL at a CompuServe prompt before an upload session (prior to entering the forum). In this example, the user has set the transfer mode to Xmodem from the GO TERMINAL area, prior to entering the forum, and thus was not prompted for the preferred transfer protocol. 8. CompuServe then prompts you for the file type (ASCII, binary, etc.). Choosing binary is sufficient, even if the file uploaded is in text format (meaning it has not been “zipped”). Transfer types available - 1 ASCII 2 Binary 3 Image 4 Graphic:RLE 5 Graphic:NAPLPS 6 Graphic:GIF Enter choice !2 Starting XMODEM receive. Please initiate XMODEM send and press when the transfer is complete. 9. At this point CompuServe notifies you it is "Starting XMODEM receive." If you are using Windows Terminal, choose "Send Binary File" from the "Transfers" menu, and select the file you wish to upload. This portion of the process varies slightly depending on the communications software you are using and the transfer protocol you choose. 10. When finished, CompuServe will prompt you for a file description. The specific description you give is not critical, but a value must be entered, and you must conclude with an /exit on a line by itself. Enter File Description (up to 464 chars, or about Six 80-character lines) Type "/EXIT" when finished: This is a sample that demonstrates... /exit 11. You are then prompted for keywords: Enter Keywords ( or type "?" for HELP ):NONE 12. You are next prompted for the title: Enter Title (up to 49 chars, when finished): Title: Problem report with TCP/IP-32 Beta 13. Then you are asked to confirm all information: Title: Problem report with TCP/IP-32 Beta Keywords: NONE This is sample that demonstrates... Is this okay (Y or N)? Y Resuming connect charges. 14. After you complete steps 1 through 13, the file upload is finished. You then have the choice of uploading more files, or you may select consecutively to return to the forum. You may also enter "off" from any CompuServe prompt, if you want to log off. If you are using Terminal and you have logged off, you are prompted once again with a HOST: prompt. Simply enter "off" once again, and the logoff procedure is complete. Downloading Files from CompuServe: You can also download files, fixes or updates from the forum libraries to your system. Downloading a file is similar to uploading as demonstrated above. Software to Help You Use CompuServe: Several third-party software packages are currently available to help facilitate use of CompuServe. Two of these, TAPCIS and CIM, are in use at Microsoft. Both TAPCIS and CIM operate on MS-DOS based computers and have been tested running under Windows NT. CIM (CompuServe Information Manager) and Windows CIM has been developed by CompuServe. It has a menu-driven interface, which allows users to easily read and reply online. First-time users will probably find this the easiest program to use. TAPCIS completely automates CompuServe mail, libraries, and forum messages. It carries out all online actions, freeing you to do other things. Once installed, TAPCIS connects you to CompuServe, logs you in, captures information in forums and messages, and then logs you off, allowing you to read offline. For More Information: For sales or other information about CIM or TAPCIS, type GO CIM or GO TAPCIS at any CompuServe ! prompt. For additional information about TAPCIS, call The Support Group, Inc. at (800) 872-4768.