Free ISP for Win3.1?

[pc]

Hi All,
I have a friend who has a friend who is looking for a free ISP that supports Win3.1 (they're on a really tight budget). We've been searching but so far everything we've found needs Win95 or greater.

Anyone know of anything?

Thanks!

[Justin]

To be brutally honest, I don't think your friend would get much use out of 3.1 anyway - a PC running 3.1 is likely to be a 386 or 486, and would probably be extremely slow, especially with the dynamic nature of the web these days... Plugins would be harder to find, etc...

If they can't afford a better PC (you should be able to find a 200 MHz Pentium for a couple hundred bucks), maybe throw Linux on the existing one and dump 3.1... ;)

At any rate, any ISP that does not use specialty software should work with any computer - as long as you have a dialup number and name servers, your friend only needs to get ahold of dialup networking for 3.1 (available at www.microsoft.com (http://www.microsoft.com) somewhere), and Winsock if they don't have it (comes with 3.11, but not 3.1). Once that's installed, it's just a matter of hooking up. Oh, and finding a web browser... and email client...

Okay, so I forgot about the day when an OS did not come with browsers/email clients/networking tools.... :)[nbsp][nbsp]Basically you will need to have a few floppies and download some stuff for your friend :)

So end result, they need:

1) Winsock
2) Dialup Networking
3) Browser (and other internet software)
4) Access numbers
5) DNS (IP) numbers

Assuming of course they do in fact have a modem, and it is not a software modem (Winmodem), and they have the 16 bit drivers for that modem.

Modems. I had to install my 56k this morning as my DSL is dead. 49.3 kbps != 1536 kbps :(

Hope this helps.

------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest (http://www.FutureQuest.net/index.php) Support

[pc]

Hi Justin,
I forwarded your response to my internet friend to forward to her friend (actually her cousin, I believe). ;)[nbsp][nbsp]Heehee... complicated huh?

I don't know the circumstances about the money to get a new 'puter except my friend said they are on a tight budget. A couple of hundred bucks might not be much to you or I, but there are some people that are less fortunate and that IS a lot of money to them.

I didn't think there would be too much luck with finding a free ISP for that particular system after what searches I had done, but thought some of you smart web gurus might have seen something.

Hope the Futurequest family is doing well. I don't ever post anymore since I only have parked domains here now but I do still check up on you guys. ;)

Take care,
PC

[Deb]

Seems like with Trumpet Winsock a connection is a connection is a connection.

It's possible many of these ISPs are saying they require win98 and up to install "their software" because their disks contain the newer browsers etc etc... but when you get down to it..all you really need is the dial up numbers, username and password... the rest would simply need to be configured manually.

I would recommend your friend of a friend/cousin contact someone close to them who is savvy in the area to go ahead and sign on with a local ISP and help them with the configurations...

Deb
[nbsp]-- Seriously remembers the weekly penny hunts!

[jimbo]

I have a friend who has a friend
Kind of like owning a Spice Girls album, isn't it?[nbsp][nbsp];)[nbsp]