Making your own Connection: BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY I read the news group alt.internet. access. wanted primarily to watch the rapidly expanding list of Internet providers as well as the increasing numbers of messages requesting information. It’s interesting to see what a “low end trip” on the super InterState is going to cost. The list of requests for information to establish individual TIA (The Internet Adapter) or SLIP/IP accounts is only exceeded by the exaggerated claims of excellence and low cost. At a very personal level, the Channel One bunch, at least some of us, have responded to the following announcement by our Sysops Brian and Tess Miller. It all began with this Channel One announcement. Date: 01-03-95 (17:09) Number: 13 From: SYSOP Subj: Free TIA Trial Info FREE TIA TRIALs FREE TIA TRIALs FREE TIA TRIAL thru 1.15.95 on Channel 1 - 16 lines 617-000-0000 Here's the info you will need to try the FREE trial TIA (The Internet Adaptor) graphical Internet connections on Channel 1 during the first two weeks of Jan. 1995. Phone number: 617-000-0000 Your (client) IP address : 000.0.0.0 Our (server) IP address : 000.00.00.00 User ID: testtia User Password: testtia Unlike the BBS Internet access which requires NO special software, IA requires Windows 3.1 plus any SLIP package. Those of you ho already have SLIP accounts can probably use your SLIP package. For those of you who haven't set up SLIP yet, you are welcome to set up your own from the following software downloadable from the GO FREE area on Channel 1. TWSK20B.ZIP Trumpet WINSOCK TIA/SLIP/PPP driver (TIA uses SLIP) NS16-100.EXE Netscape 1.00 - World Wide Web viewer for Windows. Free for non-commercial use.* QVTWS398.ZIP Telnet/FTP/News NX10B2.ZIP Net Express News Reader * get graphics viewers (external) from the default NCSA home page With this we were off and running. We are all experienced modem users and have configured communications software. Some have even helped new users while others have written scripts for their own use and friends. Had we not had each other and the excellent support from the Channel One sysops I expect some would have become discouraged and thrown in the towel. A smattering of messages should give you the flavor of our collective agony, embarassment and fumblings. Date: 01-04-95 (09:21) Number: 18 From: LOIS LAULICHT Subj: Configuration Have set up winsock and it is in my path staterment. I can access trumpet and dial the Channel1 tele # assigned.. What happens next at login? Cannot make Netscape work. I get the error message "Undefined dynalink". What am I missing? For those who don't know what a Winsocket is (twsk20b.zip) think of it as a bare bones communications program. This one, is dubbed Trumpet. Trumpet must be activated to dial the server ,login is completed using a script, and then the winsocket is minimized. Date: 01-04-95 (10:23) Number: 20 From: WAYNE MCGUIRE Subj: TCPMAN Problem I am trying to run Trumpet Winsock 2.0 Revision B with DOS 6.20 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. All my Trumpet files are in the directory C:\TRUMPET and this directory is in my path. When I try to run TCPMAN.EXE I receive the following three error messages, in order: 1. Unable to load TCP 2. Error--Unable to locate WINPKT or PKTDRV virtual packet driver 3. TCPMAN caused a General Protection Fault in module WINSOCK.DLL at 0007:04EC I'm stuck and stumped and can't experiment using Netscape with a TIA connection, as planned. Any suggestions? Date: 01-04-95 (18:21) Number: 24 From: TIM MCKENNA Subj: testtia,netscape,"unable to locate host"msg After loging in as testtia and [esc] back to slip and starting netscape there is what appears to be an unsuccessful search culminating in an "unable to locate host" message. This is what is printing over and over from trace WSAIsBlocking recvfrom [2,09CF:0000,1024,0,2C9F:59B2,(16) Any ideas would be appreciated. Date: 01-05-95 (16:17) Number: 37 From: ART LAURIE Subj: Phone Number When I dial 000-0000 I get a recording saying ask the operator for assistance. I tried dialing with a 1 and 1-617. I'm calling from 783 exchange in Boston. ?? All of the above were typical starting points for most of us. Date: 01-05-95 (20:05) Number: 56 From: GEORGE MEALY Subj: Stuff Apologies for what I sent to LAURIE earlier today. QVT is now working fine for me -- just make sure that it can find the Trumpet files. The easy way is to make the QVT directory c:\trumpet, and then do the setup. None of these guys have foolproof directions -- Trumpet does not even attempt to supply a help file! The Trumpet login.cmd file needs $prompt="software.". Also, "login" for the $username or whatever. I am still fiddling with it to make all work without attention. Date: 01-05-95 (21:18) Number: 59 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: PAUL KINNALY Subj: Configuration LL>Have set up winsock and it is in my path statement. I can access trumpet and LL>dial the channel 1 tele # assigned.. What happens next at login? Cannot make LL>netscape work. Get the error message "Undefined dynalink". What am I LL>missing? I learned later that Winsock had NOT been installed. I _believe_ one common cause of that is if an earlier version of a given dll has already been loaded. Any chance you have more than one version of winsock on the system? Or multiple versions of TCP/IP? Check your Windows and windows\system directories. Don't try to run trumpet winsock if you have another tcp/ip driver already on the system. For reference trumpet installs *nothing* in windows or windows\system; everything is in its own directory. Hope this helps! Date: 01-06-95 (07:33) Number: 64 From: WAYNE MCGUIRE Subj: Installing Winsock Some probably stupid questions: (No question at this point is stupid!) 1. Do you need to install a network card on your machine to install Winsock? 2. Do you need to install the Windows networking software on your machine to install Winsock? 3. Do you need to install a network card on your machine to install the Windows networking software? And - could anyone here who has successfully installed Winsock on their machine, and got Netscape to run via TIA on Channel One, list the exact commands in his or her autoexec.bat, config.sys, and system.ini files that relate directly to the process? Date: 01-06-95 (08:56) Number: 68 From: WAYNE MCGUIRE Subj: Winsock Problem Solved OK--my Winsock installation problem was solved by Dale Smoak in a message on the mainboard. No matter how smart and intuitive you are, and no matter how much you know about computers, you probably can't solve this particular problem without knowing two simple settings to change. Grrrr... Now, when I doubleclick on the Netscape icon, the Trumpet icon pops up, there is a long, long wait, then the Netscape window opens, then there is another long, long wait, and then I receive a message, "Unable to connect to host." Here are the key settings in my ini file:(The correct Id numbers were included.) Date: 01-06-95 (09:28) Number: 71 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: JAMIE WALSH Subj: Stuff LL> When you get your script files working, will you please make them available LL> to doe-doe's like me. I am clearly frustrated. I'm at the prompt online LL> and dead in the water. I haven't quite worked out my script yet, but manual login works fine. After manual dial and login, hit the [Esc] to enable SLIP, then minimize and start your Netscape. After Netscape comes up and tells you it can't find the host, hit the WELCOME button. Date: 01-06-95 (16:22) Number: 75 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: GEORGE MEALY Subj: Stuff LL> When you get your script files working, will you please make them available to LL>doe-doe's like me. I am clearly frustrated. I'm at the prompt online and dead LL>in the water. I know I need a script or batch file but where does it get placed? Sure will. I'll post the .cmd files I end up with. Also, a text file with some hints on how to install the stuff reliably. By the way, for anyone who has JP Take Command, I almost have a neat batch file for it that loads TCPMAN and QVT in the right order. Also Mosaic, if you want that to come up. Still needs a bit more work on login.cmd before it will work right. Date: 01-06-95 (20:33) Number: 86 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: PAUL KINNALY Subj: Configuration LL>1. I call up TCPMAN.EXE from the Run command. It does its thing and I LL>place it in the background while it's dialing. I get the login prompt and LL>nothing... I can open netscape but not much happens. I get a sense I'm LL>either missing a step, need an old fashioned batch file or script to LL>proceed. Okay, the first time you ran TCPMAN, you should have gotten a setup script for you to fill in the IP addresses, etc. Did that work okay? Use the settings in Jamie's posting plus the ones in INSTALL.DOC (in the zip file). If so, next thing to do is edit the login script (Dialler | Edit Scripts). Here's an excerpt of the opening part (corrected!): #trace on # # set up some strings for dialling up # if ![load $number] if [query $number "Enter your dial up phone number"] save $number end end if ![load $username] if [username "Enter your login username"] save $username end end if ![load $password] if [password "Enter your login password"] save $password end end $modemsetup = "&c1&k3" $prompt = ">" $userprompt = "login:" $passprompt = "assword:" $slipcmd = "slip" $addrtarg = "Your address is" $pppcmd = "ppp" %attempts = 10 # See (about 11 lines up from here) where it says $userprompt...? Change the word in quotes to "login" and save the script. Now run Dialler | Login. The script should ask you for the phone number, user id, and password. Then it begins dialling. DO NOT MINIMIZE YET! When the script runs to completion (connects, etc.), you'll see the message "Ready to start your SLIP software". Press ESC. You'll get a message "script aborted" then "SLIP enabled". NOW you can minimize Trumpet and go to Netscape. As soon as you start Netscape, it should immediately be trying to connect to the NCSA Home Page. That should do it. And indeed it did ! Another tip: you might want to run Trumpet setup again if you are having login or password error messages.My password entry was incorrect. Date: 01-07-95 (09:53) Number: 94 From: WAYNE MCGUIRE Subj: Bingo! Finally--the durned thing works--and it was worth all the trouble. Thanks to Paul and everyone else here who helped me get Winsock and Netscape set up. If anyone else here needs help (Lois?), I'll be happy to take you by the hand and show you what small steps in sequence worked for me. It's interesting: last night I also set up a TIA account on another provider, and it seems that Channel One's Web connections are faster and snappier! (With due respect to Wayne and the other provider...It is because the Channel One circuits were being utilized at about 1% at this point. I’m sure the traffic from the other provider were very close to a traffic jam. It will happen to all of us!)The screens here really popped into view with extraordinary speed. Try going directly to the cool sites on the Netscape button, andjump around to a number of the cool sites. If seeing all these glorious screens materialize on your machine from points all around the globe doesn't give you the biggest "Oh wow!" experience in your life, I'll be surprised. The Web and Netscape are what computers were made for.... Date: 01-07-95 (12:40) Number: 96 From: LOIS LAULICHT Subj: Progress I think it's progress! I now get invalid login at prompt instead of nothing and then get cut off. Should hardware control be enabled?(Yes! And setup Trumpet again) Date: 01-06-95 (19:58) Number: 99 From: J.D. KALISH I called (voice) today to sign up for internet service and was told it was still in BETA through the 15th. I tried to connect up per the online instructions for TESTTIA ( using the WARP slip application) but could not (apparantly) get a connection, although the modem "connected. My Warp applications seems to need NETMASK, DOMAIN NAME SERVER and DOMAIN NAME. The only information I had was the client IP and srver IP. Any help would be appreciated. Date: 01-07-95 (14:05) Number: 101 From: LOIS LAULICHT Subj: Logged IN! Finally logged on -thanks to Paul Kinnaly- All was normal but it seems that Netscape was unable to log onto the site. Probably filled with other people ! Date: 01-07-95 (14:11) Number: 102 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: WAYNE MCGUIRE Subj: Progress LL>I think it's progress! I now get invalid login at prompt instead of nothing and LL>then get cut off. Should hardware control be enabled? But whatever you do, don't give up. Think of yourself trying to hack your way through a dense forest. All of a sudden you come to a clearing and what greets your eyes is the most spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean from the West Coast that you can possibly imagine. That is what it will be like when you finally manage to connect to the Web via Netscape. What is really amazing me is how very fast new pages from one site after another scattered around the world are painting themselves on my screen, in Windows no less. The age of the BBS is definitely defunct--one can navigate directories and files on the Web with much greater ease and speed than on any BBS. It's also also apparent that plain vanilla FTP and Gopher sites can't hold a candle to HTML sites in terms of the user interface. Everyone is going to have to go HTML to survive on the Web. When you finally connect, try jumping to http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/ and use that as a base from which to explore the Web and add cool bookmarks to your bookmark file. Date: 01-07-95 (13:16) Number: 103 From: WAYNE MCGUIRE Subj: The Web A few questions: 1) Is there any easy way to convert Lynx bookmark files to Netscape bookmark files? Or to import Lynx bookmark files into Netscape bookmark files? 2) Is the complete documentation for Netscape available on Channel One? 3) Does anyone have any good pointers to movie files--AVI or MPG--on the Web that will demonstrate the Web's multimedia potential? And a remark: If you are trying to get Winsock, Netscape and TIA set up, don't be confused by the fact that MCOM, the home page, seems to be down or inaccessible this morning (and perhaps this afternoon). Try clicking on "STOP" and then opening another address--any address. I had no trouble jumping to Microsoft, the CIA, and Project Gutenberg in quick succession. Try opening, for instance, http://www.microsoft.com Once you get a look at Netscape in action on a decent machine, you will never look back. I guarantee it. This is the minimum acceptable level in the online world these days--everyone will have to catch up real quick or look dowdy and fade away into the cybergraveyard. The Web and Netscape rule. Date: 01-07-95 (15:38) Number: 107 From: PAUL KINNALY Subj: Progress LL>I think it's progress! I now get invalid login at the prompt instead of nothing and then get cut off. Should hardware control be enabled? Edit the "login.cmd" script as per my message to you last night. If you're using a high speed modem (14.4 or 28.8) Hardware flow control is generally preferable. Date: 01-07-95 (15:54) Number: 108 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: GEORGE MEALY Subj: Stuff I seem to have simplified things about as much as seems plausible. My results are uploaded as TESTTIA.ZIP. Use hardware handshaking. Date: 01-07-95 (21:14) Number: 115 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: BRIAN MCGOVERN(Channel1 Unix System administrator) Subj: Problems with login. Lois, I unfortunately have missed parts of your conversation, but it appears you’re having problems connecting. The settings I use for TIA are: 57600 baud, 8 data, 1 stop, no parity, hardware flow control, X/ON X/Off ignored, v.32 and/or v.34, depending on modem. If you have problems even seeing the Channel1 login prompt, let me know. I'll try to ask the right questions to get you up and working. To: ALL From: TIM MIRANDA Subj: New Versions of OS/2 Warp Internet apps WebExplorer/2, the WWW browser for OS/2 Warp, has finally gone out of beta testing mode, and is now at v1.00. Newsreader/2 is now at version 1.09. Both can be retrieved via "Retrieve Software Updates" under the "IBM Internet Connection of OS/2" folder in Warp. Date: 01-08-95 (00:15) Number: 120 From: MARK CORDONNIER Subj: Questions. (Here Mark expresses our collective gratitude to one another) After many hours of struggling with Netscape and Trumpet I have finally gotten it to work properly. I need to say a big thank you to many people who have helped. Thanks to Jamie Walsh for her many insightful answers that have helped guide me to the right track. Thanks to Wayne McGuire who was experiencing many of the same problems I was encountering with Trumpet. You saved me much typing. Thanks to Paul Kinnaly for fixing my login script. Funny how changing one little word can make everything hum along. Thanks also to Phred for his answers. (Some were even helpful Phred :) Also thanks to Lois Laulicht for her messages that also pointed me in the right direction. Funny how much a person can learn by just reading. Thanks one and all. Now for a couple of question from me. Will upgrading to a 28.8 modem help me any or am I limited to a 14.4 modem? Any idea on your pricing structure? Also any help with the long distance bills? ( an 800 number)Please give me one or the other but both are killing my wife. She hates the large phone bills . In netscape there is a command under file that says mail document.If I choose this option it brings up my name in the from field and then asks for a to field. Probably a stupid question but will this actually email the current page I am on to whoevers email address I put in that field? Date: 01-08-95 (08:17) Number: 125 From: LOIS LAULICHT Subj: I need a reaction from my Paul Kinnaly and I are presently getting together a piece by Harry Kriz from the Virginia Tech Library service(w/his blessing of course) for WindoWatch...(next issue - late but coming) He focuses on setting up connections from a network but much of what he has to say I think will be interesting to single PC users. He discusses software and where it can be found. ftp addresses etc. Paul is going to link the discussion of main topics to the cited references so that we end up with a useful reference. What we have gone through here this past week is happening in many other places. I want some feedback on how all of you would feel about my capturing these messages of the last week and publishing the more salient with prudent editing. Real names if you say ok or aliases? This has been a very helpful experience. Any volunteers to do the editing job on these messages. Usual rate of course! An electronic hug and kiss! Date: 01-08-95 (11:05) Number: 128 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: WAYNE MCGUIRE Subj: Progress LL>Got on this AM early while the rest of you were sleeping. It is everything you LL>are saying and more. Congratulations! I demoed Netscape via Channel One's TIA line to a number of friends and family members yesterday, and blew their minds within a few minutes. We jumped from the Central Intelligence Agency, to Microsoft, to Harvard University, to Boston Movie Listings, and by then their jaws were hanging open and they were exclaiming, I want it! They really thought it was unbelievable. Then we did some browsing and jumping in the Whole Internet Catalog, did some searching and jumping in Webcrawler and Webworm, and then they really flipped out with excitement. >>WM>The age of the BBS is definitely defunct--one can navigate directories and files on the Web with much greater ease and speed than on any BBS. LL>Wayne...we were doing this from a BBS...remember? Now a very special BBS with lots of skill and foresight...but a BBS nonetheless. Nein, nein, Lois! This TIA account is running on a Unix host, not a BBS. There is no way you could run this experiment from a DOS BBS that I know of. Channel One needs to transfer all their assets over to a Unix-based HTML- framed platform as soon as possible--yesterday, in fact. BBS's are dead, period. Sure, they'll hang in there for a time, but the big game now is on the Web, and you can't build state of the art Web pages on a BBS like PCBoard or any other DOS BBS that I know of. All that BBS stuff, including the QWK standards and software, looks antique and musty. The BBS era is over! Date: 01-07-95 (17:16) Number: 129 From: MAURICIO GIL Subj: Winsock config This is The Network Configuration Screen in Winsock Trumpet. IP address: IP ID Netmask: 255.255.255.0 Name server: Default Gateway: Domain Suffix: Time server: Packet vector: 00 MTU: 1500 TCP RWIN: 4096 TCP MSS: 1460 Demand Load Timeout (secs): 5 TCP RTO MAX: 60 'X' Internal Slip ' ' Internal PPP SLIP Port: 1 Baud Rate: 38400 'X' Hardware Handshake Van Jacobson CSLIP compression Online Status Detection = 'None' This is the screen of Trumpet Winsock when I use: 'Dialler' Login. SLIP ENABLED Internal SLIP driver COM1 Baud rate = 38400 Hardware handshaking IP buffers = 32 My IP = 000.0.0.0 netmask = 255.255.255.0 gateway = 000.0.00.00 Executing script c:\tia\winsock\login.cmd. Type to abort SLIP DISABLED atz OK at&c1&k3 OK atdt6000000 CONNECT 14400/ARQ/V32/LAPM/V42BIS Channel1 Communications Internet Services login: At this time I can't enter the login name nor the password. So, what am I doing wrong ? ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGG!! ( -A very normal reaction - !) Date: 01-08-95 (05:27) Number: 135 From: LOIS LAULICHT Subj: Surfing the Net Many thanks to those who helped me get started using the new TIA service. I spent an hour "out there" having a great time! It was a perfect connection using Netscape with no problems at all! Given all the fits and starts the software functioned flawlessly. Perhaps starting one's day at 3AM does have virtue because the line was clean and the graphics altho a bit slow on my monitor (plain vanilla) were perfect. I bopped all over the map and it was wonderful. I have never used a graphical surf board before and it sure beats straight text. A couple questions. The links between servers I assume are flawless because they have been prearranged and are on dedicated machines? ***MUST EDIT MY PRIOR IGNORANCE. The servers make port calls as opposed to traditional logins. They each know each others identities and it is not flawless when crowded but under optimum conditions...very fast. How often are these pages changed? Is there a way to load a prewritten list of URL's into the software? If so ...how? The Channel One home page was quite improved from the original simple and text files I saw some months back. Congratulations! Date: 01-08-95 (10:20) Number: 140 From: WAYNE MCGUIRE Subj: Netscape 1. When I click on newsgroups in Netscape, I receive the error message "Unable to locate host." Is there a way to read newsgroups under Netscape? 2. How does one play AU files directly from Netscape? Has anyone here configured Netscape to play any multimedia files, audio or audiovisual? Date: 01-08-95 (14:32) Number: 147 From: TIM MIRANDA Subj: Warp Telnet & Zmodem downloads: it can be done! The major problem I found with using Warp IAK was that I couldn't download anything in a telnet session. But that is fixed! The process is a pain, but this is what I did. Connect to Channel 1 through a regular phone call (disable slip connection first), use yer favorite comm program, and dowlnoad P204.ZIP. Keep that in a temp dir until you do the following FTP: FTP kermit.columbia.edu cd/kermit/archives set mode to BINARY (type BINARY) GET cko190.zip Unzip it to a temp dir, and type INSTALL. After install, change to the dir you installed to, and unzip P204.ZIP into that dir. There's a file in the CKERMIT dir called CKERMOD.INI. Edit that, and in the "external protocol" section, add the line: take ckop200.ini You are all set now. Just run CKERMIT.CMD from the OS/2 prompt,or click on the C-Kermit icon. To connect to channel 1, just type TELNET bbs.channel1.com from the C-kermit prompt. Select "U" for your transfer protocol, and try to download something. When the download starts, hit ALT-X, and type RZ. It will download. Refer to the INF file that comes with C-Kermit and the P204.DOC if I just confused the hell out of you. It explains it all. A walk in the park, Tim! Date: 01-08-95 (13:54) Number: 148 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: MAURICIO GIL Subj: Winsock config Problem solved. It has something to do with the Automatic login. I use manual login and eveything seems to work perfectly. Date: 01-08-95 (14:29) Number: 149 From: TINA PFEIFFER Subj: SLIP and PPP I'm trying to use Mosaic with the Slip-PPP-Support. I downloaded the twsk20.b.zip which is the Trumpet Winsock but I don't know exactly what I have to write in the setup-programm. Another question. When I dial in with Winsock and it tells that the SLIP is enabled, what do I have to do with Mosaic then, just start it or are there some other procedures. Date: 01-08-95 (15:17) Number: 151 To: LOIS LAULICHT From: BRIAN MCGOVERN Subj: Problems with login. -( A genuine pearl from our new Unix Sysop! Hi, Lois. Actually, all of my TIPs are on a per application/problem basis. Unfortunately, most writers on such topics make SLIP and PPP connections seem easy, because they've had a technician do the setup, and they're reviewing the results. Its actually quite more complex. Anyhow, feel free to ask any questions you may have. If you're running some obscure shareware, I'll see what I can do about downloading it and finding the answers for you. And a FAQ that we could post would be great Date: 01-07-95 (15:49) Number: 154 From: MARGO PALMER Subj: Any MAC SLIP users out there? We need help. I've tested the SLIP, TIA, & PPP for the Mac. So far, I've found that I can connect to TIA, but as soon as Mosaic attempt to connect to a remote server, I drop the connection. I can maintain a connection using PPP, but Mosaic comes back with "Unable to Connect to Remote Host". The remote host is the home site of the Mosaic browser... Anyway, I've tried numerous settings, but no luck yet. Mark R (Mark White) contacted me, but all I could do was share his frustration--the same thing happens to him with TIA (and the Mac and Mosaic). Do you have any Mac users who are successful (100%) yet? Date: 01-07-95 (15:51) Number: 156 From: MARK R Subj: Any MAC SLIP users out there? Need help. I'm going to try TIA (haven't yet) and SLIP hasn't provided me the "way" through the net either! What software are you using? How have you configured it? What OS are you running under and what kind of Mac are you running it on? I have lots of questions too. Do you have a clue about the three different Server Classes in MacTCP? A,B,C? I'm trying out C... Well, sounds like you're all having the same problems I am! I feel much better! Less dumb anyway. Well, lets see.. I'm using MacTCP of course, and MacSLIP. The way I understand it, TIA allows you to forego PPP, as a matter of fact I think it allows people with shell accounts (as opposed to SLIP or PPP accounts) to get the full functionality of SLIP without having a SLIP account. On the other hand, I've never had a SLIP or PPP account so I could'nt tell you what's the difference! I'm running system 7.1 on a Quadra 700. I have MacTCP setup with a IP address of 000.0.0.0, this I got from the TIA Mac companion (I can tell you where I got it if you're interested) As for the rest of the configuration, I haven't a clue! Whatever I'm doing doesn't work! My hunch is that we need some info, such as domain name and class, from the service provider. I'm damned if I can figure out who to ask! Jamie told me to ask you. If you don't know, then I wonder who the heck does!? I think if I could get MacTCP working right then getting MacSLIP to operate would follow. Date: 01-09-95 (14:41) Number: 174 To: ALL From: BURT MODEL Subj: netscape I finally got Netscape up and running but am having some difficulty connecting. Clicking on the Netscape icon causes Trumpet winsock to load minimized and dial. The modem connects to the host modem and Netscape loads. All good so far, but moments after Netscape loads, the modem drops carrier! Trumpet redials about thirty seconds later and this time I have a live connection to WWW when the modems connect. I've checked the s7 register (wait for connect) in my modem (a USR v.34 Courier) and bumping it from 60 to 90 made no difference. Help here will be greatly appreciated. Also, when I attempt to Telnet to Channel 1 at Channel 1's home page I'm told that I have no viewer selected. Could someone fill me in on exactly what I need to do here? Thanks to all of you for your help in getting up and running, especially George Mealy for posting your configs. I dropped them in, changed the com port, and presto! * * * * Moral to this story if there is one..... Take up golf! Nah-I'm kidding! Understand that this is very tough stuff--- until you're successful and then the light miraculously breaks through. When working with computers.... just be ready for the next challenge. For those working alone. Form a loose group of buddies for moral support. You are neither stupid or slow. The bloody computers are literal and demand their danged dots and dashes with Unix refusals to recognize the number sign and more! Further they are punitive and either blink at you with nonrepsonsive regularity or toss you into the drink with nary a backward glance. ww