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Sooo... who remembers Win 3.1?

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I went to the main prodigy page and checked it out. I noticed that you could sign in using an sbcglobal.net e-mail, and since I have SBC for DSL I tried. It kept telling me I had a bad e-mail address, which is total crap. But regardless, I wonder if that may be messing this stuff up somehow/
 
Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8
Anyway, who wants to help me get an old 3.1 system online?
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Find an old AOL 3.0 disk. 😉
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Oddly enough that isn't a bad idea 😛

Anyway, I'm here with the system right now. If anybody happens to see this I can give you some info on what's going on. I'm gonna try to install a few proggies.
 
The best thing about 3.1 is pcspeaker. That "beep" from the boot up is so cool.

Beep

There are two separate computers at my work that run 3.1 - one runs the FTIR, the other runs the Kinetic KQCL. I started laughing when I saw them, but they seem to work pretty well.
 
Okay, so I got full versions of Trumpet Winsock and Twinsock installed, but neither can connect, at least not properly. I can get to the authentication part just fine, it's just that after that the screen prints a bunch of gibberish, like:

~|}@#} } x}z} } $}.... (so on and so forth)

I can't figure out what the hell I can do to fix it, or what that means. I do know that the one server says the MTU is 1524 for that server, but Trumpet Winsock has a maximum MTU value of 1500, so maybe that's it. I dunno. Any ideas?
 
That gibberish is a representation of the data that is comming back to from the phone line (line noise) modem (malfunction) or your ISP (proper data).

Somehow your not using the software properly and it is being used as a terminal.

Remember DOS is not multitasking, so it probably needs to be started from another program or script.
 
I know someone who used DOS6.22/WIN3.1 until about 18~20 months ago. He even used the old Win3.1 version of AOL to get online. He finally took the plunge and built a 'newer' system based on used parts and installed 98SE. He is generally satisfied with 98SE, but he said it needed a few changes. So he found some shareware utility that mimics the look and feel of the old Norton Navigator/File Manager and loads at startup like Win3.1. lol!
 
>So he found some shareware utility that mimics the look and feel of the
> old Norton Navigator/File Manager and loads at startup like Win3.1. lol!

Yeah, until 95 Windows had the ability to run any program as a shell. There were some Window 2 programs that included a runtime only version of Windows that could only run the one program. That was in case you didn't have Windows, which was the normally the case before 3.0.

With 95, you could run its version of DOS and boot Windows 3.1 (by typing Win.com in the 3.1 directory), which I did quite a bit. Later version of 9x refuse to.

I don't know if 9x and XP retain the ability to run an alternate shell or not. I think they might, but I don't know of anyone that has such a shell. There were some for 3.1 though. Seems to me Symantec's Norton Desktop could be run that way. There was also something called "Do it on your Desktop" 😉 which changed all the bars and boxes that surround the windows in Window to bizzare hippy-era looking weirdness. Actually XP does something like that to change the look and feel, and you can change them back to look like 9x. Maybe somebody could do a "Do it on your Desktop 2003."

 
Originally posted by: drag
That gibberish is a representation of the data that is comming back to from the phone line (line noise) modem (malfunction) or your ISP (proper data).

Somehow your not using the software properly and it is being used as a terminal.

Remember DOS is not multitasking, so it probably needs to be started from another program or script.
Click to expand...

It's being started in windows. I don't know how else to use the software since that's what the readme is telling me to do. Personally I think it might be something in the modem, perhaps that it can't understand what my ISP is sending back at it. Does anybody know what the fastest modem was that was made for an ISA bus? Oh, and if someone can tell me how to add an external modem in 3.1 that might also fix the problem. (I have a collection of external modems)
 
New question: How does one enable the CD-Rom for win 3.1? I know it involves MSCDEX but I'm not sure of the specifics. I'm pretty sure I need to DL some generic drivers for the drive. Anybody have a linky?
 
Not to bump this on purpose or anything but suddenly I am unable to connect to this page, and I need a link to that "Free Links and Stuff" download or whatever it's called. (In the guy's link for Calmira he mentions it)

Thankies. ^_^
 
Originally posted by: yukichigai
New question: How does one enable the CD-Rom for win 3.1? I know it involves MSCDEX but I'm not sure of the specifics. I'm pretty sure I need to DL some generic drivers for the drive. Anybody have a linky?
Click to expand...

What make/model is your CD-ROM drive? I've found that using the generic CD-rom driver oakcdrom.sys works well for most of the drives I've come across. Google for it, and you'll probably find instructions on how to set it up as well.

Basically, put this into your config.sys:

device=c:\drivers\oakcdrom.sys /s:cdrom001

and this into your autoexec.bat:

c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:cdrom001

That should do the trick. Of course, replace the lines with the directory where your actual files reside if appropriate. You can also rename cdrom001 to any other letter-number combination (max 8 'digits').

Good luck! :beer:
 
Originally posted by: KF I don't know if 9x and XP retain the ability to run an alternate shell or not...
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Start->Run->progman starts the old Windows 3.1 shell on all later versions of Windows (not sure about XP though) though for the main part it is unusable..

 
Make sure Trumpet is trying to negotiate a PPP connection rather than SLIP Recall it could do either, may have been the previous users had it set up that way.

Also could be it only has a 2400 modem and the ISP simply won't let you connect. Some started preventing connects with anything slower than 9600 years ago. Call up the ISP and make sure they don't have a connect floor restriction.
 
Well my ISP is SBC Yahoo, and theoretically they don't have a bandwidth floor on dialup. At least not one that should apply here, since I'm using a US Robotics 14.4, and USR is pretty much a reliable standard even to this day. (Even with having a new name and all that, they still make reliably compatible modems) It MIGHT be that the servers only use V.92 or V.90 connections, in which case I'd probably need to find an external 33.6 or higher most likely. I think. Feel free to prove me wrong.

P.S. Kai, muchos gracias on the help with the CD-Rom. Now all I have to figure out is whether or not I can get the existing CD-Rom to work since it appears to be connected through a SCSI-1 card. :|
 
Forgot to mention as to "Does anybody know what the fastest modem was that was made for an ISA bus?" USR 5687 Though they list Windows as requirements it's not a Winmodem, and has jumpers 🙂

Yeah, doubt they'd have a floor lower than 14.4. What I was talking about wasn't a protocal problem, but an ISP restriction against slow connections. One here did that, when I couldn't get an old 1200 to connect (in a similar project with a 286 years ago) I called up, they told me they didn't allow anything slower than 9600 since people using slow modems tied up the lines for so long. Least that's what they told me, maybe the tech wasn't clear either and it was about protocals.

SCSI-1 hmm. Interesting. Not the kind of thing you'd expect to find in an old GW2K...I wonder....if it's SCSI or if it's an old Panasonic interface. Uh, here...this is what I mean.

The MTU - nah, long as your MTU (max transmit unit) is set =< their MTU you're fine. We used to set them lower, in the 500's, trying to hit a number that would multiply to match the ISPs MTU. 508 in this case for example. Anyway doubt that's the problem. Trumpet was a PITA, but once you got the right settings and found the right modem string to get your modem working best with your ISP staying online for weeks at a time were easily doable. Up until the 28.8/33.6 days I had fewer disconnects than I do with DSL now.

No big deal to get an external modem working in W3.1, just make sure you have Com1/Com2 working, if it's got a serial mouse make sure it's on 1 and put the modem on 2, or vica versa. Take out the internal modem so it's not sharing resources. Remember to not to try to run com 1/3 or 2/4 at the same time though

Wishing you continued good luck, look forward to the 'I got it all working!' post.
 
Originally posted by: KF
>So he found some shareware utility that mimics the look and feel of the
> old Norton Navigator/File Manager and loads at startup like Win3.1. lol!

Yeah, until 95 Windows had the ability to run any program as a shell. There were some Window 2 programs that included a runtime only version of Windows that could only run the one program. That was in case you didn't have Windows, which was the normally the case before 3.0.

With 95, you could run its version of DOS and boot Windows 3.1 (by typing Win.com in the 3.1 directory), which I did quite a bit. Later version of 9x refuse to.

I don't know if 9x and XP retain the ability to run an alternate shell or not. I think they might, but I don't know of anyone that has such a shell. There were some for 3.1 though. Seems to me Symantec's Norton Desktop could be run that way. There was also something called "Do it on your Desktop" 😉 which changed all the bars and boxes that surround the windows in Window to bizzare hippy-era looking weirdness. Actually XP does something like that to change the look and feel, and you can change them back to look like 9x. Maybe somebody could do a "Do it on your Desktop 2003."
Click to expand...

start->run progman. I know 98 lets you use alternate shells... once when I blew up the registry, I had to change it. I'm pretty sure the NT-series OSes allow you to do it alos. When you installed win95, it let you select if you wanted the win3.1 style program manager by defualt.
 
Originally posted by: drag
I would flip the on/off switch 20 times a second for 10 seconds. I did this because my dad said that turning on the computer too quickly would hurt it, and I wanted to punish it for being a bastard.
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I feel like doing that to my XP machine sometimes 😉
 
If you can find a copy of Norton Utilities 8.0, load it for speeddisk and the rockin' ndos kernal.

If I remember correctly, oakcdrom was good except for the old Sony CD-ROMs, and those Sony drivers were a b!tch to find, even back in the day.

 
Right, okay, I'm back at it again, fixing up the system. I took out the weird SCSI-type card and CD-Rom drive in favor of slaving one off of the IDE controller. (Works fine) I'll get a few piccies of the card and connectors for you curious types. I do know it's some kind of Sony CD drive, though their site offers no documentation on it, and it uses a 34-pin connector. The weird part is that it has some kind of external connector on the ISA card, implying you could add other stuff to it. Whatever.

Anyway, I have the thing booting now (from a 2.1 gig HD with several 504 meg partitions... don't ask) and I'm ready to install the software again. (Fresh install of Win 3.1) Gotta get Trumpet on there, then who knows what. Updates (and pictures of the drive) to follow soon.
 
I've got an old AMD 386 40Mhz with 8Mb RAM and a 512k Video Card. The board has 7 ISA slots and 6 are used. I've got MS-DOS v5.0 and Windows 3.1 installed on it. I actually like using it when XP Pro is pissing me off. Happens regularly. I have a Intel 386 25Mhz with 5 or 6 ISA slots if you want it, just have to pay to have it shipped if you like it enough to want more ISA slots. I never had them on the internet so I can't help you there. It was different having a DOS LAN running at the same time as my XP LAN.
 
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