Configuring Windows for Workgroups TCP for Wingate Clients

Thanks to our buddy Spike Robinson from the UK for putting this article together.

Configuring Microsoft Windows for Workgroups (Windows 3.11) client workstations is similar in principle to configuring Win95 clients. However, the menu structure is quite different. The procedure below presumes that you have installed/are installing Microsoft's free TCP/IP-32 3.11a TCP stack (available from ftp.microsoft.com). This stack seems to be similar to the TCP stack built in to Win95. Contrary to what the '32' in the name suggests, it will run on 16-bit Windows without needing the Win32S extension.

Overview

TCP Configuration is changed in the 'Windows Setup' program by changing the characteristics of the network drivers. This requires restarting Windows for the new driver configuration to take effect. Note that, quite unlike Windows 95, the 'Network' icon in 'Control Panel' has no effect at all on TCP/IP.

Preparation

You need to know the numeric IP addresses on your LAN of your Wingate server machine (eg 192.168.0.1), and all the WfW 3.11 machines you are going to set up (eg 192.168.0.2 etc). You need the 'English' address of you Wingate server (e.g 'wingate'), and (optionally?) the 'English' names of your client workstations. It is helpful to prepare a HOSTS file on a floppy disk or network-readable directory which includes all these numeric IP addresses and the equivalent English names. The HOSTS file must include at least one line with the numeric address and English name of the Wingate server machine.

If you know your domain name (e.g. cool-isp.com if your internet address is my-computer.cool-isp.com), you can enter it, but it probably doesn't matter.

If you are setting up a network card for the first time, you will also need technical configuration details of your network card (eg IRQ, base address, shared memory address, DMA channel - it depends on the card), and driver disks for the card. If you are installing MS TCP/IP for the first time, you will need the installation files for MS TCP/IP unarchived/uncompressed on a floppy disk or in an accessible directory.


Procedure

Start 'Windows Setup'. This program, \WINDOWS\WINSETUP.EXE, is usually an icon in the 'Main' Program Group.

From the 'Options' menu select 'Change Network Settings'.

If you have not installed Networking, there will be no driver list and much of the window will be greyed out. Click the 'Networks...' button, then select 'Install Microsoft Windows Network', and click 'OK'.

If you have not installed a driver for your network card, you need to do so:

Click on 'Drivers...', then click 'Add Adaptor...'. You can select your adaptor from the list, get Windows to try and auto-detect the adaptor type, or you can select 'Unlisted or Updated Adaptor' and put the network card's driver disk into drive A:.

You should see your network card listed in the Drivers list box at the bottom of the window.

In this list box, select your driver by clicking (and thus highlighting) its name. Then click the 'Drivers...' button. This opens the 'Network Drivers' window.

In the 'Network Drivers' window, you should see a list which includes the TCP/IP protocol, as well as other protocols and your network card driver. If the TCP/IP protocol is not present, you need to add it:

Click the 'Add Protocol...' button, which opens the 'Add Network Protocol' window. Select 'Unlisted or Updated Protocol' in the 'Add Network Protocol' window, and click 'OK'. Put the MS TCP/IP disk in drive A, or specify the path to the directory where you downloaded and unpacked the MS TCP/IP files. Click 'OK'. A box should appear with one protocol listed in it, Microsoft TCP/IP. Click 'OK' to install the TCP/IP protocol. You are returned to the 'Network Drivers' window.

Note: The Wingate documentation suggests that you use NetBEUI as your default network protocol for LAN activity other than Wingate/Intenet activity. To do this, ensure that the 'Default Protocol' box shows 'Microsoft NetBEUI'. If not, select NetBEUI from the list of drivers and protocols, and click the 'Set as Default Protocol' button.


Configuring Microsoft TCP/IP-32

In the 'Network Drivers' window, select the Microsoft TCP/IP protocol, and click the 'Setup...' button. This opens the 'Microsoft TCP/IP Configuration' window.

In the 'IP Address' field, enter the numeric IP address of this client workstation, eg "192.168.0.2" (without the quotation marks).

In the 'Subnet Mask' field, enter the subnet mask of your LAN, typically "255.255.255.0" (still without the quotation marks!).

Hint: You can press the '.' key to move between the four parts of a numeric IP address.

'Enable Automatic DHCP Configuration' should be left UNCHECKED (unless you have been told that you have a DHCP server on your LAN, in which case you probably don't need Wingate). 'Default Gateway' should definitely be left blank (unless you have a 'segmented' TCP-based LAN), since Wingate is NOT a router. 'Primary WINS Server' and 'Secondary WINS Server' should be left blank, unless you know of some good reason why they shouldn't be.

Now click the 'DNS' button to do DNS configuration. This gives you the 'Microsoft TCP/IP Connectivity Configuration' window.

In the 'Host Name' field, enter the English name of this client workstation, "eg workstation-2" (no quotes). This should be the same as the name specified in your HOSTS file on the same line as the client workstation's numeric IP address. I'm not sure if this field really matters much.

In the 'Domain Name' field, you can optionally enter your domain name, which is usually your ISP's full internet name (eg cool-isp.com).

In the 'Domain Name Service (DNS) Search Order' text entry box on the left, enter the numeric IP address of the Wingate machine, eg "192.168.0.1" (no quotes). Click the 'Add' button to move this to the right-hand list box. Don't enter the address of the actual name server provided by your ISP!

That's it! Now just click 'OK' to everything until Windows restarts. Tidy the new 'Microsoft TCP/IP-32' Program Group out of the way. If you haven't already done so, copy the HOSTS file to the \WINDOWS directory of each client workstation.

You should be able to test Wingate (as per the documentation) by running \WINDOWS\PING.EXE from the MS-DOS prompt. (Remember that Ping should resolve a remote Internet address from English into numeric IP, but will not actually succeed in Ping'ing a remote host. ) You can also test MS-TCP and your HOSTS files by Ping'ing all the other workstations on the LAN (when they are running Windows), using their English names and their numeric IP addresses. See the Wingate documentation for details on this.

You are now ready to configure your applications (Web browser, FTP, news, email, etc).