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The first step to surfing the 'net is to make a connection between your computer
and ours. Most people use a regular modem. Standard modems come in different
speeds... like 14.4kbs (kilobits per second). The higher the kbs, the faster you
will move around. For instance, 28.8kbs is twice as fast as 14.4kbs. A regular
phone line will not allow you to go any faster than 38.4kbs. Of course, if you
are connecting to a provider that only has 14.4kbs modems to pick-up your call,
you won't go faster than 14.4kbs - the weakest link in the chain will be the
determining factor.
Other types of higher speed connections include: isdn, cable modems, satellite,
cellular, shortwave, and fiber optics. If you can't afford any of these, you are left
with the standard phone line and modem. How your computer talks to your modem
and the phone line is crucial. There are many phone dialers available. We are going
to focus on one of these: Trumpet Man / Winsock.
Winsock (aka Trumpet Man) is shareware software that allows your computer to dial the
phone and "talk" to the Internet. There are several different versions of Winsock
with the biggest difference being whether it is 16 bit or 32 bit. Your computer
will not work properly if you try to run 16 bit software applications with the 32 bit
Winsock and visa versa. A common mistake is to run the 16 bit Winsock
with the 32 bit version of Netscape.
What is the difference between 16 bit and 32 bit? Well for one, you can only run the
32 bit version on Win95 or Apple operating systems. If you are going
to run
Win95 with the 32 bit version of Winsock, you must first rename the winsock.dll's
that come packed with Win95. This is accomplished by clicking on the "start"
button and choosing the "find" option. Then, you need to search
for winsock.dll. Change their
names to something like winsock.old.
Someone must setup Winsock with your personal configurations and an autologin
command. After it is configured, you dial the phone by choosing "dialer" from the
menu bar and clicking on "login".
The last item of important things to remember... when you are done with the
Internet, go to "dialer" and say "bye".
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