RAIN Network installation for Windows 3.1
Version 1.1
05/17/99

PART 1: Copying the files on disk to your hard drive.

  1. Start the computer and enter Windows.
  2. Put the disk the RAIN Network gave you in the drive.
  3. Double click on the Main program group and then double click on the MS-DOS prompt icon. This will bring up a DOS session box. The DOS prompt should be C:\WINDOWS>
  4. At the prompt type: MD \TRUMPET and push ENTER. This will make a trumpet winsock directory on your hard drive.
  5. Type: MD \NETSCAPE and push ENTER. This will make a Netscape directory on your hard drive (to be used later).
  6. Type: CD \TRUMPET and push ENTER. This will put you in the trumpet directory. The DOS prompt should be C:\TRUMPET>
  7. Type: A:RAINSOCK and push ENTER. This will extract the Trumpet Winsock files from the disk to the trumpet winsock directory.
  8. Type: A:WSFTP and push ENTER. This will extract the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) from the disk to the TRUMPET directory.
  9. Type: EXIT and push ENTER. This closes the DOS box.

PART 2: Creating Internet icons for Windows
  1. From the FILE menu in Windows, select NEW.
  2. Select the PROGRAM GROUP radio button and push the OK button.
  3. Type in what is below and push OK when done. This will create a RAIN Network program group.

    Program Group Properties Window
  4. From the FILE menu in windows, select NEW.
  5. Select the PROGRAM ITEM radio button and push the OK button.
  6. Type in what is below and push OK when done. This will create a Trumpet Winsock icon.

    Program Item Properties Window
  7. From the FILE menu in windows, select NEW.
  8. Select the PROGRAM ITEM radio button and push the OK button.
  9. Type in what is below and push OK when done. This will create a FTP icon.

    Program Item Properties Window
  10. You should now have a RAIN network program group with icons which looks like the figure below:

    RAIN Network Group

Part 3: Setting up Trumpet Winsock
Trumpet Winsock is a program which will talk with the RAIN Network and the Internet. All Internet applications (such as Netscape, FTP, etc.) send their commands to Trumpet Winsock. Trumpet Winsock, in turn, relay s these commands to the Internet. Therefore, you need to have Trumpet Winsock running and connected to RAIN before using other Internet applications.
  1. Open the RAIN Network program group and double click on the Trumpet Winsock icon we made.
  2. Trumpet Winsock will start dialing. We are not ready to connect so press the ESC key to stop it.
  3. From the FILE menu, select SETUP.
  4. Now uncheck the Internal PPP Box.
  5. Check the values with the ones below and make any corrections as neccesary. The NAME SERVER box should have only '198.68.144.2' in it. You will need to delete the other number in the box if there is one. For the SLIP PORT box, the number corresponds to the COM port of your modem. For example, if your modem is on COM1, change the value in the box from 2 to 1. If your modem is on COM2, no change is necessary.
  6. Now recheck the Internal PPP Box.

    Network Configuration Window
  7. From the DIALLER menu (it's not misspelled, the program was written in Australia), select setup.cmd.
  8. Enter the phone number to access RAIN and click OK.
  9. For your login ID, enter ppp:((YOUR USERNAME)). For example, if my username is 'joeuser' then I would enter ppp:joeuser. The ppp: part is VERY IMPORTANT! Click OK when done.
  10. Enter your password and click OK.
  11. Enter any extra modem initialization string and click OK. Usually leaving this blank will not be a problem. However, some modems may require some extra special commands. Check any modem documentation (or get in touch with the modem manufactu rer) and see if there is anything special you may need to add here. For example, a Practical Peripherals PM144MT II modem uses &f&c1&k3s7=60 for an extra string.
  12. From the FILE menu, select EXIT.
  13. Double click on the Trumpet Winsock icon to restart the program.
  14. Trumpet Winsock should now dial into RAIN and connect. If the connection is a success, you should see something like what appears below. The important part is getting the Your IP address is ###.###.###.### part. The RAIN network will assign you an IP number every time you connect.

    Trumpet Winsock Window
  15. CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully connected to the RAIN Network and the Internet. You can minimize this program by clicking on the button in the upper right corner which has the triangle wedge pointing downward.
  16. For future connections, all you have to do is run Trumpet Winsock, minimize it when you get connected, and then run your other Internet applications. To disconnect, go to the DIALLER menu in the Trumpet Winsock program and select BYE.

PART 4: Getting the Netscape Internet application.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is an Internet program which allows you to connect to a machine on the Internet in order to download files to your computer. In this part, we will be downloading the Netscape installation program from RAIN.
  1. Open the RAIN Network program group and double click on the FTP icon we made.
  2. You should see a SESSION PROFILE window like the one below. It is configured to connect to the RAIN server machine and download Netscape. Click OK.

    Session Profile Window
  3. Look at the figure below. On the right-hand side, scroll down the list until you see file called n16e301p.exe. This is Netscape 3.01. Double click on n16e301p.exe.

    WS_FTP rain.org Window
  4. Netscape will start downloading to your hard drive (to the C:\NETSCAPE directory we made earlier). For a 28.8 baud modem, the download will take about 30-40 minutes. A 14.4 baud modem will take twice as long. It will be done when the transfe r bar reaches 100%. The Netscape installation program is 6 megabytes in size.
  5. Click the EXIT button in the lower right corner when done.
  6. Hold the ALT key down and push the TAB key (this will switch between your running applications) until you see a window which says Trumpet Winsock, then release the ALT key. This will restore the Trumpet Winsock program from the background to t he foreground. Go to the DIALLER menu in the Trumpet Winsock program and select BYE. Then go to the FILE menu and select EXIT. You have now disconnected from the RAIN Network.

PART 5: Installing Netscape
  1. From Windows FILE menu, select RUN.
  2. For the command line, type in C:\NETSCAPE\n16e301p.exe (see figure below) and push OK.

    First Run Window
  3. The screen will go black and setup files will be extracted. When you are popped back to Windows, from Windows FILE menu, select RUN.
  4. For the command line, type in C:\NETSCAPE\setup.exe (see figure below) and push OK.

    Second Run Window
  5. Follow the installation instructions provided by the Netscape program.

PART 6: Running and Configuring Netscape
Netscape is an Internet program which allows you to view pages on the World Wide Web (WWW). With Netscape you can also receive and send e-mail, and read/post to USENET newsgroups (like a BBS with different forum groups).
  1. Run the Trumpet Winsock program and connect to RAIN if you haven't already. Minimize the Trumpet Winsock program.
  2. Go to the Netscape program group and double click on the Netscape icon (the one that looks like a ship's steering wheel).
  3. Once Netscape is running, it should try to load Netscape's home page (http://home.netscape.com). If you see this page loading than the Netscape web browser is working.
  4. To configure for Mail and News, from the OPTIONS menu select Mail and News Preferences.
  5. Select the Servers tab and enter the information below. Put your username in the blank which wants the User Name. It's okay if your Mail and News RC Directory entries may look different than what is here.

    Preferences/Servers Window
  6. Select the Identity tab (see figure below).
  7. For Your Name, type in your real name.
  8. For Your Email, type in your Email address. For example, if my username is 'joeuser' then I would enter joeuser@rain.org
  9. For Reply-to Address, enter your Email address. The Email and Reply-to Address boxes will look the same.
  10. For Your Organization, enter RAIN Network

    Preferences/Identity Window
  11. Select the Organization tab.
  12. Click to put a check in the Remember Mail Password box if you don't want to enter your password every time you check your mail.
  13. Click the OK button below to save the settings.
  14. You can now go to the Window menu and select Netscape Mail for when you wish to access your email, and select Netscape News for when you wish to access the USENET groups.

You now have the basic tools to explore and use the Internet. You can check the help files of your Internet applications for tips and functionality settings to make your Internet use more efficient.