I don’t think this is accurate. NT 3.1 did not include a Netware redirector, which appears to be what this claim is about. It did include an IPX stack, but that didn’t come from Novell. It did include an NE2000 driver, but that also didn’t come from Novell. If there is Novell code in NT 3.1, I can’t find it, and not for lack of trying; if anyone wants to suggest it exists, please be specific.
NT 3.5 included a Netware redirector, but that was written in house from scratch, and wouldn’t explain 3.1’s version number.
I wasn’t claiming that the OS contained Novell code; I am merely saying that Novell allowed MS to see at least a small amount of the code, at least enough which is not the same thing as being allowed to incorporate it.
Neither Novell nor MS could deliver a client in time for 3.1, but MS did incorporate IPX/SPX and it did deliver an add-on client subsequently:
http://www.gbengasesan.com/fyp/42/ch12/ch12.htm
To get connected to an ISP back in the windows 3.1 days you had to configure your serial terminal program to connect to your ISPs modem pool, log in, find Trumpet Winsock (the 3rd party TCP stack mentioned in the OP), figure out a way to transfer the file to your computer, and then set up and configure Trumpet Winsock. It was a very long and painful procedure to connect windows to the internet.
It’s true. I must admit, back then, I only used CIX, which was direct dial-up - no need for PPP or anything. Plain text only, but it let me use email and batched FTP (you got emailed the files you downloaded) and Usenet.
My email address from 1991 is still live and still works. 🙂 It’s 31 now. And I often answer emails on a keyboard that’s from the same year.
figure out a way to transfer the file to your computer
well, presumably the same way you got all the rest of your software onto your computer. Physical media (if your ISP was nice they’d probably give you a floppy), or a BBS, or maybe your LAN if you were in an office (yes, there were LANs that didn’t provide a default route to the internet). It only seems terrible from the perspective of already expecting everything to be on the internet.
I had an ISP that, long past Windows 3.1 days, required a chat script to log in, because they were Unix-friendly so their modem pool had a plaintext login prompt and then put you into a shell, from which you could run ppp or slip or lynx or pine. So to make Windows happy you had to turn off CHAP and such and configure it to answer the username/password prompts and then run ppp.
I was thinking more of setting up a zmodem transfer. This was before the days when ISPs were big corporations that would blindly mail out floppies or CDs. The only standard way was to just dial in and your provider would usually have a rudimentary menu that would let you initiate a file transfer of software that would connect via SLIP or PPP, and usually use chat scripts. We didn’t support PAP until we got our fancy new CISCO AS5200s and RADIUS. In those days a shell server available over the modem, or through telnet, was also a must have for any ISP.
Yes, it was fiddly, but no more so than any other late 1980s/beginning of the 1990s OS. Actually it was easier on Windows, because the software was free and widely-available.
I never even tried with OS/2.
In Europe and the UK, all phone calls cost money, including local calls. Free local calls are an American peculiarity. So dial up internet accesses was very expensive and billed by the minute. So most of us tried to avoid doing it. It was much cheaper to use work or educational access instead.
I used a provider where you got shell access, as you say. You could negotiate PPP later on, but I didn’t. I told it to Zip all my emails, downloaded the zip, then hung up. This was automated so it was as quick as possible.
My client unpacked the zip, imported all my emails into folders, I read and replied offline, then connected. It zipped then up, uploaded the zip, and hung up.
This process was called blinking. I might do it multiple times a day and only pay for a few minutes of call time.
I don’t think this is accurate. NT 3.1 did not include a Netware redirector, which appears to be what this claim is about. It did include an IPX stack, but that didn’t come from Novell. It did include an NE2000 driver, but that also didn’t come from Novell. If there is Novell code in NT 3.1, I can’t find it, and not for lack of trying; if anyone wants to suggest it exists, please be specific.
NT 3.5 included a Netware redirector, but that was written in house from scratch, and wouldn’t explain 3.1’s version number.
I wasn’t claiming that the OS contained Novell code; I am merely saying that Novell allowed MS to see at least a small amount of the code, at least enough which is not the same thing as being allowed to incorporate it.
Novell did have access to the beta; cf. https://betawiki.net/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1_build_475.1
Also note the reference here that pre-release versions of NT had an experimental client of some form: https://zx.net.nz/netware/client/nt.shtml
Neither Novell nor MS could deliver a client in time for 3.1, but MS did incorporate IPX/SPX and it did deliver an add-on client subsequently: http://www.gbengasesan.com/fyp/42/ch12/ch12.htm
That client, NWCS, is described here: https://www.japaninc.com/cpj/magazine/issues/1994/aug94/08winhelp.html
And here: https://books.google.cz/books?id=6joEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q&f=false
To get connected to an ISP back in the windows 3.1 days you had to configure your serial terminal program to connect to your ISPs modem pool, log in, find Trumpet Winsock (the 3rd party TCP stack mentioned in the OP), figure out a way to transfer the file to your computer, and then set up and configure Trumpet Winsock. It was a very long and painful procedure to connect windows to the internet.
(Author of the big post here)
It’s true. I must admit, back then, I only used CIX, which was direct dial-up - no need for PPP or anything. Plain text only, but it let me use email and batched FTP (you got emailed the files you downloaded) and Usenet.
My email address from 1991 is still live and still works. 🙂 It’s 31 now. And I often answer emails on a keyboard that’s from the same year.
*blog post
well, presumably the same way you got all the rest of your software onto your computer. Physical media (if your ISP was nice they’d probably give you a floppy), or a BBS, or maybe your LAN if you were in an office (yes, there were LANs that didn’t provide a default route to the internet). It only seems terrible from the perspective of already expecting everything to be on the internet.
I had an ISP that, long past Windows 3.1 days, required a chat script to log in, because they were Unix-friendly so their modem pool had a plaintext login prompt and then put you into a shell, from which you could run
ppporsliporlynxorpine. So to make Windows happy you had to turn off CHAP and such and configure it to answer the username/password prompts and then runppp.I was thinking more of setting up a zmodem transfer. This was before the days when ISPs were big corporations that would blindly mail out floppies or CDs. The only standard way was to just dial in and your provider would usually have a rudimentary menu that would let you initiate a file transfer of software that would connect via SLIP or PPP, and usually use chat scripts. We didn’t support PAP until we got our fancy new CISCO AS5200s and RADIUS. In those days a shell server available over the modem, or through telnet, was also a must have for any ISP.
Oops, I didn’t even notice that line!
Yes, it was fiddly, but no more so than any other late 1980s/beginning of the 1990s OS. Actually it was easier on Windows, because the software was free and widely-available.
I never even tried with OS/2.
In Europe and the UK, all phone calls cost money, including local calls. Free local calls are an American peculiarity. So dial up internet accesses was very expensive and billed by the minute. So most of us tried to avoid doing it. It was much cheaper to use work or educational access instead.
I used a provider where you got shell access, as you say. You could negotiate PPP later on, but I didn’t. I told it to Zip all my emails, downloaded the zip, then hung up. This was automated so it was as quick as possible.
My client unpacked the zip, imported all my emails into folders, I read and replied offline, then connected. It zipped then up, uploaded the zip, and hung up.
This process was called blinking. I might do it multiple times a day and only pay for a few minutes of call time.