PC Connection to the Internet

AT THE INTERNET NODE...

TCP/IP connection gives any computer (including PC at home) access to full range of Internet facilities

Shell Access -- text-only interface

Dial in, login to Internet node, work as if sitting at terminal

SLIP/PPP Access -- full graphical interface

Dial in, work as if on Internet node

In order to get TCP/IP packets from Internet node to your computer, packets must be encoded in form suitable for transmission

Must be something on Internet node that knows how to divert packets to/from your computer

SLIP is acronym for Serial Line Interface Protocol

Way to transmit Internet Protocol packets over phone line to/from remote computer

PPP is acronym for Point-to-Point Protocol

PPP is newer and some think better

PPP supports more compression of packets, error correction, ....

AT THE PC...

Winsock is short for Windows Sockets

Today's most popular Internet applications for Microsoft Windows and IBM OS/2 are developed according to Winsock standard

Winsock is used as interface between TCP/IP and Windows

Winsock is .DLL (Dynamic Link Library) and runs under Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, and Windows 95

WINSOCK.DLL is interface to TCP/IP

WINSOCK.DLL acts as "layer" between your Winsock applications and your TCP/IP stack

Your Winsock applications tell WINSOCK.DLL what to do

WINSOCK.DLL translates these commands to your TCP/IP stack

Your TCP/IP stack passes them on to Internet

Some operating systems include stacks, such as Microsoft Windows 95 and IBM OS/2

For other operating systems, like Microsoft Windows 3.1, you'll need to add stack

Also, need high speed modem (at least 19.2k)

Trumpet Winsock

One of most popular WINSOCK.DLLs available

Windows 95 includes all 32-bit TCP/IP and Winsock drivers that you'll need

Includes its own Dial-Up Networking that lets you use SLIP or PPP

MEANWHILE... BACK AT THE INTERNET NODE...

If you're limited to Unix shell account, may still be able to take advantage of Winsock applications

Several SLIP Emulators are available which "convert" standard shell accounts into makeshift SLIP accounts

The Internet Adapter (TIA) allows Unix shell users to simulate SLIP connection over Unix shell account

TIA is installed on Unix host

When you run TIA on your Unix host, you can then run Winsock applications on your own machine

Still need to install Winsock on your PC

Because TIA users do not have real, unique IP address, applications that require this will not work

SLiRP is similar to TIA, but is becoming more popular

Most of these things (SLIP/PPP, TIA/SLIrP, Netscape, telnet, ftp) should be available from Internet service provider