From the RAT FILES circa 2003: Retro Computing!

The following was originally composed as radio copy for THIS WEEK IN AMATEUR RADIO, first aired in April of 2003. Please click on http://www.twiar.org/ for additional information.

When we had last convened via these very same radio frequencies and telephone transmission wires, we had just concluded our detailed observation of the truly remarkable ARACHNE DOS based Web browser. Per that same elemental moment, I was also preparing to prep and Retro an antique Digital 486 433SX armed to the teeth with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and take it back to the Internetable status it once had.

Retroing any computer back to the late 20th century is on par to high tailing it over to the local Home Depot with a big wish list of parts to recover an old weather-worn ramshackle homestead. Here though, your Home Depot is the Web and maybe the collective junkboxs of your fellow computer pals and your parts will be the requisite software needed to complete the call as desired to be dialed.

The first three items I requisitioned from our esteemed technical director George Bowen - W2XBS - who had copies of Microsoft DOS Version 6.22, Windows Version 3.1 and the Windows for Workgroups upgrade. The Windows For Workgroups upgrade elevates Windows 3.1 to Windows 3.11 status and comes equipped with the rudimentary networking components necessary to help get the RetroBox online. Your DOS 6.22, Windows 3.1 and 3.11 upgrades can just as easily be found on the Internet, but it may be easier to consult locally first.

You will need the so-called Win-32S upgrade. Win-32S is a little link library of dynamics developed by Microsoft to allow your Windows 3.1 16-bit operating system to run some 32-bit applications. The required file is OLE-32S-13.exe. This package allows for object linking and embedding which is something your current generation Web browser has been doing already to commune with other network devices.

Go find a copy of Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 3.03 for Windows for Workgroups. This is a cool thing because the software contains the browser designed exclusively for the 3.11 environment plus the bonus of an e-mailer, a self-contained Winsock dynamic link library, and most necessary, a built-in telephone dialer that speaks the PPP or Point-to-Point Protocol with your ISP or Internet Service Provider. There is also a 16-bit Internet Explorer Version 4 and a Version 5 available but I believe they are much larger and need more memory plus they are as-is with no e-mailer or dialer.

Secure a copy of Microsoft TCP-32B.exe. This optional executable provides some additional network devices that come standard in Windows 95 and 98, such as a simple telnet program, an FTP and a ping program. These are the elements needed to upgrade your old offline doorstop over to an old online doorstop.

I touched on the Winmodem thing a month back in our last Random Access File where I discussed Arachne DOS Web browser and its complete and total aversion to the Winmodem and its complete and total favoritism to real modems. Then, I did not know what a Winmodem is, but now I do!

Modems are supposed to translate data with compressed sequences of audio tones which are sent across a telephone network and they do! But not so long ago, they did so using a semiconductor chip dedicated to just that assignment. But now, the current buzzwords are: Host signal process, controllerless, host controlled, softmodem. In other words: a Winmodem.

A Winmodem is different from a real modem in that the signal processing is performed by the computer itself, making use of required vendor supplied software, usually Microsoft software or Microsoft compliant software. The Central Processing Unit does the data-to-audio-to-data bit. Thus, using a Winmodem limits your computer to using Windows. Other operating systems such as DOS and Linux require a real modem. But Winmodems are cheaper to make. Once armed with a really real modem with its dedicated data processor chipset, you may be ready to delve into yet another realm of network exploration, that of the deep, dark shadowy, monochromatic, two dimensional world of DOS Interneting where it's just you and the Disk Operating System and nothing else.

While coursing through voluminous volumes of "Cruising The Internet Using DOS" Web pages, I stumbled across an curious though inspiring quote. It read: The biggest disadvantage to DOS is that it's so primitive and the biggest advantage to DOS is that it's so primitive. Having read this, we discover there is an unseen underground armada of computer fans busily drilling deep into the ancient wireline sediment, mining and panning for little bits and bytes, network relics, one time big deal software items such as DOSLynx, Minuet and NetTamer, none of which can do any serious browsing by today's standards other than text with no image or sound at all.

Hardened Internet users dig this kind of world view, shunning the quite spectacular multimedia view of current Web browser technology. These petrified fossils do have value. Quite viable for other functions such as telnet, E-mail and FTP. Of these programs, NetTamer was still being updated as of 2000. NetTamer may still be useful for some of the visually impaired crowd as one easy means to access the Internet. But there are other, even more contemporary DOS network offerings to be unearthed as well. Do a Google search on Barebones E-mailer. The Barebones E-mailer is a scroungy little blister of DOS matter complete with dialer, packet driver and some itty-bitty initialization files, easily configured to dial out of the box and do some e-mail. If you are used to Microsoft Outlook Express, you may find it a little disconcerting to see a few slightly fuzzy grey colored status lines skitter across an otherwise onyx screen, doing the same job in just 1/10th the time.

Another interesting bit of DOS DNA: Referred to as LSPPP, this is a self-contained dialer and packet driver. All functions must be phrased as a command line text statement. No mouse clicks, drags or drops. Thus far, I have had little luck. LSPPP will dial out for me, talk to the local ISP in the PPP for me but then can't complete the network connect.

As we draw near to the conclusion of this month's continental drift into RetroComputerLand, I find myself imagining if there are still any stand alone dialup bulletin board systems in service given the billions and billions of pages scattered about the globe over the World Wide Web. So complete and totally compatible is the Web that onetime Internet hammers and screwdrivers such as Gopher, Archie and Veronica are no longer viable and are no longer employed. There are quite a few BBSs still in service which can be accessed through amateur packet radio and European citizen band packet radio networks and many of these same are also reachable over the Internet but this is not quite the same as the original dialup BBS of the Prodigy and FidoNet venue.

This is probably about as Retro as you could go, short of unearthing Cambrian Era rock deposits such as the Atari 400, Atari 800,the Commodore 64, the Radioshack TRS 80, the RadioShack Color Computer or the Osborne.

This is also where we came in just about five years back when this monthly rant was first billed as "Packet Radio's Best Kept Secrets". I recall discussing how to take telephone modem terminal programs such as ProComm Plus, Commo and HyperTerminal and adjust them for use with the packet radio terminal node controller. Now, I am imagining how cool it would be to take telephone modem terminal programs such as ProComm Plus, Commo and HyperTerminal to find a near extinct but still breathing dialup BBS to log on to. Maybe too, a point-to-point computer-to-computer connection with a subsequent ASCII text, X, Y or ZModem or Kermit session. None of which I got to do because I was something of a Billy-Come-Lately having spent the latter 1990'solely with packet radio.

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