
  WINDOWS According to Rockn_Robin!        A WindoWatch Feature


                            What is a Winsock?
          -Or: Why Can't They Call it Internet Connection Software?

                       Copyright 1995 by Robin Mabry

 When I started college 20 years ago, computers were huge mystical things
 and programmers, their special attendants, tried to cajole these beasts
 to do our bidding.  Fortunate for me, the University of Missouri's
 Business School had the foresight to rule it necessary that all Business
 School graduates learn the basics of programming. Most Business school
 students dreaded their sentence of punching out COBOL instructions on
 little cards, carefully ordering them, and then dropping them into the
 reader. These students hoped that (1) a card wouldn't jam; (2) the
 timeshare computer would not be so busy as to make you wait hours for an
 answer  (3) error messages would make sense and (4) counted the days
 until the end of the semester.  I confess that I loved it - obtuse
 errors,  mystique, - all of it!

 Notwithstanding, at the time, computer skills were not synonymous with
 power and fortune so I pursued an Economics degree hoping to land a great
 job with a Fortune 500 company.  This I did; and then came downsizing and
 desktop computers.  Twenty years later, the mystique of computers has all
 but disappeared except on the last frontier, the Internet.  What fun
 would it be if Internet connection software was simply referred to as
 that?  Instead, we continue to have mystical terms like tcp/ip, PPP, SLIP
 and of particular interest to windows users, the WINSOCK!

 Access from here (your computer) to there (the Internet) requires that
 your computer send information, data, (okay, stuff !) in a format
 that any other computer on the Internet can understand.  Since the
 Internet is simply a collection of millions and millions of computers
 connected together, it makes sense they would have to agree on a
 common communications method and language.  This is called a protocol.

 Centuries ago, in computer years, the folks who first decided they
 wanted to talk to each others' computers  reached agreement on this
 standard protocol or networking language.  So the rest of us would
 consider it to be really complicated  cutting edge stuff they called it
 TCP/IP.  Just Internet Language would have been simpler but they probably
 figured they could get more money if they said, "I know TCP/IP" instead.
 To make a long story short, TCP/IP is a communi-cations protocol which
 allows us to send scribbles and such all over the world using the
 Internet.

 Your computer's communications program, called a client, speaks only
 simple computer languages like C++ or Basic.  Unfortunately the Internet
 does not!  So your client or computer program,  needs a universal
 translator.  Since the universal translators from Star Trek (TM) are
 trademarked and closely protected by Paramount it was necessary for
 windows program developers to come up with their own. Ta Da!  WINSOCK.
 Win SOCK ? What kind of name is that??? Its short for Windows Socket.

 You still don't get it?

 Well think of it like this.  The computers on the Internet are connected
 through a series of communications pipelines.  Each pipeline screws into
 a socket at one end then connects to another socket on the other end.
 Data stuff is then sent through these pipes.  Its all connected together
 like Tinker Toys - the wheels are the various computers and the sticks
 are communications pipelines. Each one of those sticks connects into a
 hole or socket.  Your program, or client, sends information to the TCP/IP
 universal translator WINSOCK that sends it over a modem to another
 computer or the server. The server then connects into the Internet.

 There are different flavors of TCP/IP that can be used depending
 upon the communications hardware. Most of us will use a modem and
 therefore will use either SLIP or PPP and your WINSOCK will translate
 accordingly.

 What is the difference?  For all practical purposes, nothing.  PPP is
 better simply because it was more thought out and better designed.
 However, many Internet Access Providers only offer SLIP.

 So it is desktop CLIENT program to WINSOCK over MODEM to SERVER computer
 to another computer(s) on the INTERNET, - and visa versa for receiving
 data.

 Clear?  No?  Want more information?  Online sources include:

 WINSOCK FAQ
               http://mars.superlink.net/user/mook/winfaq.html

 This article contains several sections.

 Section 1 covers the basics of  Winsock. Here you'll find out what
        Winsock is and how you can use Winsock applications.

 Section 2 covers the Winsock-related resources available on the
        Internet and Usenet.

 Section 3 covers common questions concerning TCP/IP stacks and
        communications.

 Section 4 covers World Wide Web browsers (Netscape, NCSA Mosaic, etc.).

 Section 5 covers Usenet news readers (News Express, Free Agent, WinVN, etc.).

 Section 6 covers IRC, Talk, and Voice software (WinTalk, Iphone,
        mIRC, WSIRC, etc.).

 Finally, there are several appendices. These include related resources
 and tutorials which are outside the scope of the FAQ proper.

 WINSOCK TROUBLESHOOTING REFERENCE
                http://www.webcom.com/~llarrow/trouble.html

 INSTALLING A WINSOCK CLIENT
                http://acy1.digex.net:80/~lejeune/

 WINSOCK CONNECTIONS
                http://sage.cc.purdue.edu/~xniu/winsock.html

 Now for the good stuff.  Where to find WINSOCK clients.  There are
 a variety of WINSOCK clients including email, news readers for
 USENET news groups, Telnet (for remote Terminal to "networked"
 mainframe), world wide web browsers, utilities to see if someone is
 online like Finger and search tools like Archie and Gopher.  The most
 comprehensive WINSOCK site for windows3.x, windowsNT and Windows95 is
 maintained by "The BeasT Man" <beast@papa.indstate.edu>.  If it's windows
 and Internet related, including stuff like "keep track of time online"
 utilities, it can be found at TheBeasT Man's FTP site:

               FTP://papa.indstate.edu/winsock-l/Windows

 Up to higher level directory
  .message                485 bytes Sun Aug 06 01:14:00 1995
  00_index.txt              1 K     Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Plain text
  Daemons/                          Tue Aug 29 23:24:00 1995 Directory
  Develop/                          Thu Aug 17 23:21:00 1995 Directory
  FTP/                              Wed Sep 14 16:03:00 1994 Directory
  Finger/                           Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Directory
  Graphics/                         Wed Sep 13 14:56:00 1995 Directory
  IRC/                              Tue Sep 12 18:20:00 1995 Directory
  Mail/                             Mon Sep 04 23:39:00 1995 Directory
  Misc-Winsock/                     Tue Sep 12 18:29:00 1995 Directory
  Misc_Utils/                       Sat Aug 19 01:21:00 1995 Directory
  Mud/                              Sat Aug 19 20:38:00 1995 Directory
  News/                             Fri Aug 25 23:06:00 1995 Directory
  Perl/                             Sun Aug 06 20:42:00 1995 Directory
  Ping/                             Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Directory
  SNMP/                             Tue Aug 29 17:27:00 1995 Directory
  Talk/                             Thu Sep 07 00:43:00 1995 Directory
  Telnet/                           Wed Sep 13 15:01:00 1995 Directory
  Time/                             Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Directory
  ToolBars/                         Fri Sep 08 18:49:00 1995 Directory
  WWW-Browsers/                     Sun Sep 10 16:16:00 1995 Directory
  Whois/                            Sun Aug 06 03:13:00 1995 Directory
  WinDis/                           Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Directory
  Wsk-Apps/

 MIRROR SITES You Could Try And Connect To At:

 (1) ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/windows/winsock-indstate                 (Sweden)
 (2) ftp.iquest.com/pub/windows/papa                                 (USA)
 (3) ftp.infomagic.com/pub/mirrors/PC-Networking/WinSock-l

                                                                     (USA)
 (4) ftp.nuri.net/pub/winsock-l                                    (Korea)
 (5) ftp.csie.nctu.edu.tw/pub/winsock                             (Taiwan)
 (6) ftp.riken.go.jp/pub/pc/winsock-l                              (Japan)
 (7) ftp.mira.net.au/winsock-l                                 (Australia)
 (8) ftp.uni-koeln.de/pc/mirrors/winsock-l                       (Germany)

 This fine gentleman also distributes by email, daily digest of updates of
 winsock related software:

 To subscribe to WINSOCK-L-ANNOUNCE, send a message to
              list-admin@papa.indstate.edu
 with a line similar to the following in the BODY of the message
              SUBSCRIBE WINSOCK-L-ANNOUNCE
 OWNER: The BeasT Man .. (BeasT@papa.indstate.edu)

 What would I recommend for the average desktop user:

 email client
    EUDORA     (FREE AGENT if you just want to send/receive)

 news reader client
    FREE AGENT (does offline & online; NETSCAPE is online but is easier)

 WWW browser, gopher & FTP client
    NETSCAPE

 Some users may also want to download a graphics file editor like LVIEW
 and a windows screen capture utility like SnapShot.  If you are a
 windows95 user, I highly recommend using the win95 WINSOCK along  with
 two nice Freeware products: RoboDUN and RECONNECT.  The first program is
 a scripter for the win95 WINSOCK that automatically enters your login,
 password, etc instead of re-entering each line in the post-dial terminal
 screen.  RECONNECT is a neat little utility that will automatically
 reconnect the win95 WINSOCK to your Internet Provider instead of you
 having to click "YES - RECONNECT" each time.

 Till the next time.



 Robin Mabry-Hubbard has worked as a mainframe programmer-systems analyst,
 software project manager and user support/training group manager. Robin
 also taught at local universities teaching programming, computer system
 design, and statistics and other business classes like accounting,
 management, and economics. She has an undergraduate degree in Economics
 from the University of Missouri at Columbia, a Masters in Finance from St.
 Louis University and a BS in Computer Information Systems from Maryville
 University (St. Louis). She is the originator and maintainer of a great
 Win95 Tip Sheet (FAQ) found at  http://walden.mo.net/~rymabry/index.html



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