Websurfing under Windows(tm) 3.1, via modem at UVa

This page contains instructions for setting up the necessary software to run SLIP via modem to UVa dial-up lines under Windows 3.1. It is limited primarily to UVa-specific information. For more details concerning installation and use of the software packages described herein, see the documentation for those individual packages.

If you are running Windows 95, see the Matt Elkin's Win95 UVA Dial-up Instructions.

As of November 14, 1994, the firewall is down, and it is possible to surf the known universe via the UVa high-speed dial in lines. However, you need to get a dialin account in order to do so. Log in to dialin.virginia.edu and follow the instructions to get a login and password.

Another way to log in to dialin is to use the low-speed lines (which don't require a password). The phone number there is 924-0577 (at 2400 baud). Enter "dialin" at the connect prompt, and then set your login and password.

Once you have a dialin account, obtain and install Trumpet Winsock and the web browser of your choice. Instructions for this are below.

Obtain and install Trumpet Winsock via these steps:

  1. Get Trumpet Winsock. The latest version is here.
  2. Install Trumpet Winsock
  3. Setup Trumpet Winsock
  4. Create a Login Script

Obtain and install your favorite web browser:

Some browsers you can get are shown below in reverse order of my personal preference.
  1. Netscape
  2. WinWeb
  3. Mosaic
  4. Cello

Obtain and install viewers as desired:

To look at some files, you will need separate viewer programs. NCSA has a list of viewers that have been tested with Mosaic here. In particular, I have used Mpegplay for MPEG movies, and Wham for sound files.

To connect via SLIP to UVa:

Start up Trumpet Winsock (tcpman.exe). If you installed correctly, it should dial up and establish a connection automatically.
e.g., File/Run tcpman

Start your web browser:

The software should recognize that winsock is running. The page the browser tries to load initially is probably non-existent or inaccessible, so you will probably need to explicitly request a URL to load. The URL "http://www.virginia.edu/" should work.

When you are done web surfing:

  1. Exit your web browser
  2. Pick Bye from the Trumpet Dialer menu. This should hang up the phone.
  3. Exit Trumpet.

Additional Information

Maintained by: Frank Brill (brill@virginia.edu)