Your Windows 3.1x operating system can use several different diallers to connect to the internet. The standard options are either a Windows 3.1x version of Dial-Up Networking, a program called Trumpet Winsock, Turnpike software or Shiva PPP, which can come as part of either Netscape or Internet Explorer browsers. Once you have determined which software you have, you will need to configure it to dial into i12.

Trumpet Winsock is a program, which allows your computer to dial out to the internet. It runs a script, which sends information to and from i12's servers, setting up your modem, dialling the telephone number and giving login information.

Trumpet Winsock will only allow you to have one ISP set-up on your computer at any one time, and other than this issue, it is perhaps the best way of connecting to the internet using your Windows 3.1 machine.

In order to setup your machine using Winsock, please read the following instructions:

You will first have to load a program called Winsock. Do this by double clicking on the Winsock icon in program manager, at this point it is possible that the modem may start dialling out. You need to stop it if it does so by pressing the ESC key, you may have to press it several times if the modem is obstinate!

When you signed up to i12, you will have been given various details which you are now going to need to enable you to fill in the relevant fields on the screen.

When you double clicked on the Winsock icon, a toolbar will have appeared. The first option on the toolbar is file. Click on file and then click on set up. You will see a network configuration box appear.

There are several fields in the network configuration box and we need to fill these in. Firstly, you need to type in 0.0.0.0 in the IP address field.

The next line is called the netmask and will be filled in for you automatically by the i12 servers, but if you wish you can fill it in yourself by typing in 255.255.255.0

The next field is the name server address. Type in the Primary DNS first, this is 212.1.130.33, (please note - don't type in the comma after the 33), then type in a space and type in the Secondary DNS which is 212.1.130.32

The next item is the Domain Suffix. You have already entered the IP address and the Name server address as a series of 11 digits. Simply type in i12.com, note that you must enter this in lower case with no capital letters.

You will now see several lines of numbers starting with packet vectors, but don't worry about these. The computer will fill these fields for you automatically. (A packet vector is the size of a piece of information sent over the web.) However, underneath the numbers, you will see two boxes one called Internal SLIP, the other called Internal PPP. PPP stands for point to point protocol. Make sure that you have Internal PPP checked with a cross, as this is the protocol used to connect to the internet. Internal SLIP is rarely used now, as it is quite old.