I downloaded mosaic, and I'm having problems with it.  I either get a 
message saying "cannot open winsock.dll" (which is in the same dir as
mosaic) or "cannot load TCP".  Can anyone help with this?  I'd really
like to get mosaic running if possible.  i don't understand all the
ppp/slip/tcp things, so technical responses in that direction won't help
much unless they're explained thouroughly.  Also, If i have to have this
TCP connection to use mosaic, can i do that by dialing grex directly?

Any help would be appreciated.

26 responses total.

You need that "TCP" thing to be loaded before running Mosaic...that's
the driver/program that connects with Internet hosts, and Mosaic depends
on it to make whatever connections you tell Mosaic to make (by clicking
on various things).  I don't think you are going to escape technical
language when talking about and installing TCP/IP or Mosaic the first
time...
  I'd say your best bet is to find someone who has already installed
TCP and Mosaic under Windoze and have them guide you through it.  Then
forget you ever heard about TCP :)

I agree - find someone to set you up. I had a long period of weird 
behavior, and bombs, before I got TCP and PPP running on a *Mac*, and
it is an order of magnitude easier on a Mac than on a PC. (MTS Confer
has a *long* Item on setting up TCP and PPP on a PC, and a very short
one for the Mac  8->.)

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Yup, but that's what TCP and PPP (and a NAS) do. Mosaic does read the
lynx pages on Grex, without logging in. 

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soes that mean when i call merit and login, i'm using a tcp/ip
connection?  if so, does anyone have a bit of time to spare helping
set this thing up?

If you work for the UM (or are a student) you can get free NAS
authorization access.  If you are not connected to UM you can still
purchase an authorization account that will let you dial in and
connect with ppp/tcp/ip/mosaic.  The first option is much less
expensive, however :)

Re #6: yes and no. It depends on what you are connecting *with*. If
you dial the call with a std comm program, you will have an asynch
connection; if PPP dials it, you will have an IP/TCP connection. The
NAS modem recognizes which is which.

I'm getting a ppp connection from our library and want to get mosiac.
When I get the ppp disk do I just install that and then mosiac? Will
that work. If someone could just go step by step on how to do this
I would be appreciative> Also, what is a ppp/ip/tcp connection? What does
it do? Technically.

        I installed Mosaic on my step mom's PowerMac, and while I couldn't
get the PowerPC native version to run with only 8 megs of RAM, installing
the 68K version of it went pretty smoothly.  The only problem is that if
you just unstuff and install it it still can't do pictures.  You need to
get JPeg View for that, and that was a little harder to install.  I still
haven't installed whatever program I'd need to deal with sound, so I don't
know what's involved there. 
        I don't know what's involved in installing it in X or MS-Windows,
so somebody else should speak to that.  What OS are you installing it on?

Is a ppp/slip/whatever connection a disk? or is it hardware? I want one, but
don't know where to get one. i found out that the one I was getting from
the library was just info about it. Please help, I desperate.
Also, do you need a slip/ppp/whatever connection to run xwindows? Does
anybody know the ftp to get xwindows?

A PPP/SLIP/Whatever connection is a connection to the Internet.  If done
from home, it's often done over a modem.  It's both hardware and software
-- the hardware is the modems and phone lines involved (which you probably
already have on your end) and the software is the PPP or SLIP driver. 
You also need an account with an Internet provider.  I get my PPP
connection through Merit, since I get Merit access free through my job,
but if you don't have a Merit account you can either buy one from them or
find annother local Internet provider to get a PPP connection from. 
Expect to pay around $30 to $35 per month, I think, unless you're somehow
affiliated with a school, in which case you can get a Merit account for
$10 per month.

Hmmm, Thanks steve. Where can I get an address of Merit providers?
Or providers with slip/ppp connections?

Check in /u/rcurl/PDIAL.list  It is somewhat out of date, though. In
MIchigan, there are at least Merit, Msen and IC-Net. 

ICNet is Grex's provider, and their number is listed right after you log
into Grex.  I'm not sure whether they have dialins in Gaylord, though.

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Your PDIAL is the same December 1993 edition I have. Nixpub is
new to me. Can I download that in expanded form without expanding
it first here (I don't think I have a .gz expander on my Mac (?)).

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(That *does* expand it first here, obviously - but only transiently.)

Exact command would be

        zcat filename | kermit -s - -a newfilename

The "-s -" argument tells kermit to read the standard input, which is
necessary for the pipeline to work.  The "-a newfilename" specifies the
name that the receiving kermit should give to the file (that part is
optional -- if omitted, kermit transmits a default name, I think STDIN
or something like that).

I just got the latest version of Trumpet Winsock TCP for MS-Windows.
It has *internal* PPP, which means you don't have to install a
separate packet driver.  Installation is simple and went very
smoothly; I was up and running on my home PC in about half an
hour, doing Mosaic, telnet, and other internet client applications.

You want version 20b or later of Trumpet.  It's available under the
name twsk20b.zip from various DOS/Windows FTP sites.  It's shareware,
so you're supposed to pay for it if you want to keep using it.

Setup details:  In the setup window, I specify 35.1.1.42 as my
domain name server and time server.  This works for the Ann Arbor
Merit NAS.  Check the "Internal PPP" box.  For "SLIP Port" specify
the comm port that your modem is on (1 or 2, usually).  For a high
speed modem, you'd probably want a baud rate of 38400 and check
"Hardware Handshake".  I just left everything else set to the
default values.  If your PPP provider requires authentication,
get to the "PPP Options" box in the File menu, check the "Use PAP"
box, and fill in your user name and password.  You only have to do
this setup once -- the program saves it for you.

Next step would be to login to your provider from the "Dialler" [sic]
menu.  It's possible to set up a LOGIN.CMD script that does everything:
dials the phone, logs in using your authentication values, and starts
up PPP.  I have a script that works for the Ann Arbor NAS; I will
upload it to my home directory.  It would have to be tweaked to work
with other providers.  Or you can probably avoid the whole issue of
autologin by selecting "Manual Login" from the Dialler menu, although
I haven't tried it.

Once you're connected and authorized, the PPP server will assign you an 
IP address, and you're in business!  Iconify TCP to get it out of the way
-- but DON'T CLOSE IT -- and start up Mosaic or whatever network appli-
cation you want to run.

To terminate your TCP session, restore the TCP window and select "Bye"
under Dialler menu.  This should log you out from your provider and hang
up the phone.
which appears on your screen.  

(forget that "which appears on your screen" last line.  Editor weirdness.)

Files login.cmd and bye.cmd are now in /home/remmers

By the way, re Mosaic -- the original subject of this item -- I've
started using NetScape, another Web browser.  I find it to be much
superior to Mosaic -- a really slick program!

John, Thanks for the review!  I haven't done much with this, since I
refuse to use Windoze for more then what is absolutely vital.  In your
experience with this new version, could you set this up to be
"automatic" when calling upon a winsock service?  Say, by having an
autotimeout, and autoconnect?  These features would be very nice.  But
I guess that I would live with it being manual...

Haven't experimented with any of that, so I don't know.

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