AFAICT, it has always been a free download. It is called "tcp32b.exe".

Windows for Workgroups, which version?
There's WfW 3.10 and WfW 3.11.

The latter one got the free TCP/IP-32 protocol package.
That's because WfW 3.11 and Windows 95 (Codename Chicago back then) had shared their development phase.

Windows for Warehouses (WfW 3.10) was different.
It was closer to the 16-Bit/DOS world and not so well supported.

Still, I *believe* there was a TCP/IP stack for WfW 3.10 at some point. Not sure if it was publicly available, though.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-11-05, 23:26:

Still, I *believe* there was a TCP/IP stack for WfW 3.10 at some point. Not sure if it was publicly available, though.

From Microsoft? Never see any...

Of course, there were third-party products for Windows 3.1, also compatible with the WFW variant, the most popular being Trumpet Winsock.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-11-05, 23:26:

Windows for Workgroups, which version?
There's WfW 3.10 and WfW 3.11.

WFW 3.11

Thanks for the information. I'll try to track down tcp32b.exe.

I do remember using Trumpet in Windows 3.1

I wonder if there is much difference between the Microsoft Vs Trumpet implementations.

thisIsLoneWolf wrote on 2023-11-06, 00:13:

I wonder if there is much difference between the Microsoft Vs Trumpet implementations.

Microsoft's TCP/IP is 32-bit, should be faster.
Also, Microsoft supports DHCP, while Trumpet - at least the version I tried - is limited to BOOTP or static configuration.

Grzyb wrote on 2023-11-06, 00:17:

Microsoft's TCP/IP is 32-bit, should be faster.
Also, Microsoft supports DHCP, while Trumpet - at least the version I tried - is limited to BOOTP or static configuration.

Good to know. Does anyone here use WFW3.11 with the MS TCP/IP Stack? Is there a particular Ethernet card I should try to get?

thisIsLoneWolf wrote on 2023-11-06, 01:02:

Does anyone here use WFW3.11 with the MS TCP/IP Stack? Is there a particular Ethernet card I should try to get?

I'm currently using it, with 3Com Etherlink III - works fine, the NIC driver is shipped with WFW 3.11 and installed automagically.
But I think any 10 or 100 Mbps card should work.

I like the idea of using a NIC whose driver is already included in the OS. Just one less manual step.

It's on archive.org if you need it....search for 'Microsoft TCP/IP-32 For Windows For Workgroups 3.11 (tcp ip.exe)'

I just have installed it yesterday on my Tualeron 1400 with a VIA 6120/6122 Gigabit card.
It does not perform well, ofc. But I am glad I can triple boot this machine (DOS/WfW, 98SE, XP).

I've got 2 machines with WFW3.11 and TCP/IP.

First one is a 386/25 generic computer with a 3COM ISA network card, I used this card because the drivers are included with WFW. As you know you only get Netware and NetBEUI by default, so I added TCP/IP (with tcp32b.exe as advised) and removed the useless Netware. Works well enough.

2nd machine is a 500MHz Celeron, with a PnP Intel E100B PCI network card. Added TCP/IP just like the one above, works pretty well too.

I don't use DHCP here, everything has hard-coded IP addresses. I don't know if DHCP works with tcp32b.exe anyway.

Once you've got it running and can ping something, you could try installing Opera and see if you can connect to Google or some old http site. Opera isn't very stable and is also trialware, but at least you can test your internet connection with it.

I'm also using it but purely to copy files between my main PC (running Windows 10) and my 486 PC (via my fibre router). What I am struggling with is to connect from the 486 PC to my main PC (it can't "see" it). However, from my main PC I can "see" the 486 PC and copy files over (I had to obviously grant read and write access under WFW3. 11).

I think that's normal, at least in my experience. The newer OS can "see" the older ones, but it doesn't work the other way around. I was really surprised when I first found that a Win10 machine could connect to a shared WFW drive, but it definitely didn't work the other way around.

I assume that other ppl have figured out how to get around this problem.

It's a bit easier if all your machines run XP or lower, because you can enable NetBEUI and then they can all talk to each other.

I tried to connect from WFW 3.11 with TCP/IP to modern Linux with Samba - seems to work fine.

Grzyb wrote on 2023-11-06, 10:59:

I tried to connect from WFW 3.11 with TCP/IP to modern Linux with Samba - seems to work fine.

Some implementations of Samba require manual configuration to allow SMB below SMB3 or SMB2.
The magic word is "CIFS" here, I think. SMBv1 isn't being recognized as a valid statement in the configuration file.

Modern macOS (previously known as Mac OS X) is especially nasty here, I think. It doesn't like older versions of SMB (uses latest Samba).
Communication with Windows PC prior Windows Vista/7 is tricky.

The Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) feature is maybe needed to make PCs appear from Vista onwards.
I remember there was an update for XP machines, so they would be visible in Windows Vista network.

The old WORKGROUPS/NetBIOS/NetBEUI system is no longer properly working past Windows XP.
Directly connecting network stations may work, but they won't display in "my network neighborhoods" anymore.

Speaking under correction, though.. My memory isn't best right now.
It's just a bit of half truth knowledge that might be good to remember for troubleshooting. 😅

I use Samba 4.7.1 - indeed, several years old already.
Note to self to be cautious when upgrading - this version seems to perfectly cooperate with all Windowses, from WFW 3.11 to 11 (10.0.22621.2428).

How well does printer sharing work with WFW 3.11 using Microsoft's TCP/IP?

Robbbert wrote on 2023-11-06, 07:31:

I don't use DHCP here, everything has hard-coded IP addresses. I don't know if DHCP works with tcp32b.exe anyway.

tcp23b.exe supports DHCP. I've used it in the past and I have it setup in PCEM and am able to access Google.com with Netscape 3.

Certain versions of Trumpet also supported DHCP. My first ISP was a mom and pop type, back when those were a thing. They sent me a diskette when I first signed up that included Trumpet (I don't know the version). It was what I used with Windows 3.1 to connect via dialup before I switched to WFW 3.11 then Windows 95.

On a side note is there any way to determine what your current IP address is with WFW? There isn't any ipcfg.exe type utility.