winpkt is needed with a functioning network card packet driver to be loaded in Dos before Win3.x is started.. It works fine on my 286/12 with TrumpetWinsock 1a with MS Windows 3.1

If your packet driver loads to 0x60 winpkt should be loaded there as well to bind with the packet driver.

Edit: corrected text because I'm old...😉

Caluser2000,

aha, now i get it. Thank you for this advice. I will definately try this 😀

so you have to use trumpet? the Microsoft Winsock release requires a 386 is that correct?

Just used something I knew works...

my03 wrote on 2021-09-02, 11:03:

Caluser2000,

aha, now i get it. Thank you for this advice. I will definately try this 😀

You'll get there in the end....😉

You can use the ftp and telenet clients fro Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (along with their help files if want to) and use them on the 286 in plain old Win3.x as well.

I remember everything got a heck of a lot easier with the updated MS winsock included with IE 2.0, but looks like that's all 386 only https://news.microsoft.com/1996/04/30/microso … or-windows-3-1/

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-02, 20:00:

I remember everything got a heck of a lot easier with the updated MS winsock included with IE 2.0, but looks like that's all 386 only https://news.microsoft.com/1996/04/30/microso … or-windows-3-1/

Its mostly all 386sx+ unfortunately.

I have very bad luck with anything winsock 3.x or 2.x as they chrash during installation. Searching this subject a bit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winsock) i learned that only a few of the first 2.x releases supported 16-bit. Digging around, i found this site that seems to have a few versions: https://bertola.eu/ftp/winsock.htm?_l=en&_1=1 . Will try the 2.1f out.

Hmmm... failing hard over here trying to get this 30/286 system (using winsock 2.0b and Mosaic) to work. I have the winpkt driver active (assigned its virtual packet driver properly) and in Win 3.11 (non WFW) trumpet i started and configured according to my lan (gateway, netmask, etc).
Trace shows activity in winsock but mosaic throws a -1 error (sometimes -2) when trying to load protoweb (or any other "safe" site for that matter)

download/file.php?mode=view&id=118359

There's gotta be some way it works, I first saw the WWW on a 286-16 in a computer lab in 93 but didn't have anything to do with setting those machines up, nor could poke around on them. However, I have the suspicion it was running on top of Netware, and Vax hosts came into it somewhere, convoluted setup I guess. I believe the browser was Mosaic 0.8 beta or somewhere around there.

Great start. What version of Mosaic are you using?

Looks like Ubuntu provides a snap package of Mosaic https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/01/mosaic-browser-linux

Hey Caluser2000,

i'm using version 1.0 of Mosaic. This is what i get atm. i tried every possible combination of slip/ppp also and also tried the "neverssl.com" site to be absolutely sure. Same issue.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=118365

download/file.php?mode=view&id=118364

download/file.php?mode=view&id=118363

try the config portal on your router, just getting the browser to connect to it, even if it looks all screwed up.

Hmmm interesting. It may be a connection negotiation problem. A lot of websites these days have stricter security protocols in place such older Web Browsers are unable to connect to the site.

I'll have a shot on my Zenith 286LP Plus with 8megs of ram later on today. I don't think I ever got a Web Browser running it. IRC, FTP ect work fine in Win3.x and Dos.. As does Arachne in pure Dos as you have noted in your OP. https://hackaday.com/2014/10/23/hackaday-retr … n-the-internet/

Switched browser to NN 0.8 (formerly known as Mosaic 😉) and it exploded as well

This time around, i think i'll recognize myself as defeated in this arena. Luckily enough, i have a few 3/486 machines that works rather nicely with tcpip32/wfw and browsers so thats quite ok anyway.

(but yes, i will probably get back to this sooner rather than later). Eons ago, i actually remember using winsock + browsers but that was perhaps on my first 386dx machine at the time...

Looks like I did get an earlier Mosaic going and connected to the internet but the results weren't exactly stallar.

More friendly to web 1.0 browsers is https://retro.hackaday.com/ ... or http://retro.hackaday.com rather. Auto used https

Caluser2000 & BitWrangler,

thx for the input you provide here 😀 Kudos.

But i wonder, besides having the functional packet driver in DOS & WinPkt loaded, what would be required inside Win3.1(1)? When i start up Winsock on Windows, i see that i have an IP adress, etc properly. But when running Mosaic, etc they simply do not work. I assume i would need a network defined inside Win also, right? I have options for Netware and TCS, but thats it. I realise that it sounds rather daft, but i would need the NIC drivers for my actual card here? or?

You have the network defined and tcpip going when winsock loads functions correctly and has an IP addy. It's just that simple. Other applications will work such as an irc client, telnet client and ftp client.

Now, the only way I've done it, is on 386+ machines in Win3.x and didn't use DOS packet drivers at all, just network card driver, then bound TCP/IP protocol to it, then had some way, Trumpet etc, of setting up the DNS, netmask, default gateway and static IP or DHCP... I do remember at one point I was hand editing config files, but I think that was during a period where I had compuserve diallup v3 or v4 installed and for local TCP/IP I had to mess with what their winsock implementation had set for SLIP.