Notes on Doslynx ---------------- Doslynx is a text-only Web browser for DOS (it can display inline .gif images on Hercules, CGA, EGA, and VGA). It supports http, ftp, gopher, news, wais, file, and mailto links (news links don't work very well). This version of Doslynx is alpha and prone to some troubles, but it has the best display of any text-based browser for DOS. There is some limited online help. The program is multiwindowed and supports a mouse (but does not require one). Read the README.TXT file, which covers Doslynx version 0.8a, and CHANGES.TXT, which describes changes made since then. The README file can also be read online. Doslynx requires DOS 3.0 or later. It can crash if you try to open too many windows (sites); set FILES=20 (or higher) in CONFIG.SYS to fix that. Doslynx will not work with the Etherppp packet driver (frequent lockups). It does work with Dospppd or Klos PPP. You set up Doslynx by editing the DOSLYNX.CFG file. You do not need to be connected to do so. Note: unlike other WATTCP applications, DOSLYNX.CFG can't be just an include line pointing elsewhere. You need to have a full copy of the file in the directory where you installed Doslynx and be in that directory when you run the program. If you have static IP, set my_ip to your machine's IP address: my_ip=204.117.9.33 For dynamic IP, comment out that line and put this instead: include=e:\internet\ipaddr.cfg You need to create IPADDR.CFG at connect time (see the README file on my site) and give its full pathname here. Set netmask like this (do *not* use your real netmask): netmask=0.0.0.0 Set gateway to the IP address of the machine you dial into: gateway=199.191.1.70 If you have a dynamic gateway (it is not always the same), either give the gateway you *usually* get, or comment out that line and put this: include=e:\internet\gateway.cfg As above, you need to create GATEWAY.CFG at connect time. See my README file. Set nameserver to the IP address of your name server: nameserver=199.191.1.80 If you have more than one nameserver, just give your primary nameserver. Set domainslist to the empty string: domainslist="" Putting your real domain here will only slow down DNS queries. Leave bootp, bootpto, and ethip commented out. If you have static IP, you can fill in your hostname: hostname=mypc.foo.bar.net If you have dynamic IP, comment out this line. You can increase sockdelay if you have a slow modem (sockdelay=90 seems OK at 2400 baud), or if you get connections timing out. mss should probably be left at 512; increasing it can cause problems, and decreasing it doesn't seem to accomplish anything. If you have a RAM disk, you can use it for tempdir. Note: if you have TMP= set in the DOS environment (via AUTOEXEC.BAT, for example), it will supercede the tempdir you specify here. tempdir should be given in lower case and include a trailing backslash. To explicitly specify the current directory, use "tempdir=.\" (omitting the quotes). Set textmode to LOW if you have MDA, CGA, or Hercules. If you have EGA or VGA, you can set it to HIGH if you want to get more lines on the display. If you have a printer, set printer= to the printer port; otherwise, comment the printer line out. Set graphicsmode according to the type of video card you have. graphicsmode is used to display inline .gif's. Set it to NONE if you have MDA and can't display graphics. Note that Doslynx can't display .jpg's and will crash on animated .gif's, so it might be better to set graphicsmode to NONE in any case. Set mailaddr to your email address, ex., "jhayes@jhayes.buckeyeweb.com" (for me). Set networked=YES. Set nntphost to your NNTP server's name. News doesn't work very well in Doslynx, if at all, so this setting may not make much difference. If you have EMS or XMS available, you should enable it using ems=YES or xms=YES. If not, but you have a RAM drive, you can speed up Doslynx by running it from the RAM drive. Doslynx uses EMS or XMS for overlays. If Doslynx bombs or locks up, it will leave its temp files (DLXnn.$$$) on disk in the directory you specified with tempdir=. You will need to delete these files before you can run Doslynx again; the program will lock up if there are old temp files present when it starts up. For this reason, it is best to run Doslynx from a batch file that will automatically delete the temp files if they exist, something like this (here I have tempdir=c:\temp\, Doslynx installed in c:\doslynx): ---------- example DLYNX.BAT to run Doslynx ------------ c: cd \doslynx del \temp\dlx*.$$$ doslynx %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 cd \ ---------- end example --------------------------------- In particular, Doslynx may run out of memory on pages with a very large number of links, or after a long period of browsing. When it does, it will display a message and halt, leaving DLXnn.$$$ files lying around. You need to delete them before you can run the program again. Doslynx is a very memory-hungry application, so clear out your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, or load device drivers and TSR's high if you can. The best situation is to use SLIP, which doesn't require as much memory for the packet driver. To view an inline .gif, select it by pressing . It will be saved to disk, using the filename you specify in a dialog box, then displayed. You can use -U beforehand to verify that an image is a .gif. As noted above, .gif animations will crash Doslynx. There's no way to know beforehand that a .gif is an animation, so if that happens just do a hard reset to close the modem link and start over. The animation will be sitting on disk, and you can view it with another viewer.