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guides:connecting_windows_9x_to_the_internet

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Connect Windows 95/98/Me to the Internet with dial-up and Raspberry Pi

This step-by-step guide will show you how to get a Windows 95/98/Me computer connected to Ethernet and the Internet using just a serial port and Virtual Modem software running on your Raspberry Pi host system or other system of choice. If you have not already, please follow the instructions how to set up Virtual Modem as it is a prerequisite for this tutorial. Make sure the serial cable is connected to the Raspberry and the vmodem.sh script is running on it before attempting this part of the guide. You can manually run vmodem.sh to see what is happening on the console of the Raspberry Pi if you need to troubleshoot.

You can connect to the Internet with the built-in dial-up functionality of Windows 95/98/Me, no network card needed. We will go through the steps how to set up a modem and then a dial-up connection on your Windows 95 (or later) computer. For the sake of completeness, we will then test the connection using Netscape Communicator 4.0, but you're free to use any web browser.

Once again, please make sure you have VModem set up and running and a serial cable is connected between the Raspberry Pi and your Windows 9x computer before attempting the following steps.

A work in progress!

I am currently in the process of writing this guide. At it's current state the tutorial is in BETA. This message will be updated as I continue to work on this tutorial series.

Modem Setup

For you to connect to VModem running on your Raspberry Pi, you must first tell Windows 95 that you have a modem that you can use, and it is connected to your serial port on your computer and it is a Standard Modem. Once you've set up the modem, you can set up the dial-up connection.

  • Open Control Panel. Double-click on Modems:


  • Click Add:


  • If you get this prompt, go ahead and select Other, then hit Next >:


  • Make sure the check the box Don't detect my modem; I will select it from a list. Then click Next >


  • Under Manufacturers, select (Standard Modem Types). Under Models, select Standard 28800 bps Modem.


  • Some computers have several serial ports, usually labeled COM1 and COM2 in Windows. We will be using the first serial port COM1. If you have the Raspberry connected on any other port, make adjustments as necessary.
  • Select the Serial COM port the Raspberry is connected to. If you've connected your Raspberry Pi via Serial cable to Serial Port 1 (COM1), select Communications Port (COM1), then click Next:


  • If you get a prompt for an area code, type in '0' for now.

  • Under Modems Properties window you will want to select the modem you added Standard 28800 bps Modem, and then hit Properties


  • We will now tell Windows that the Raspeberry Virtual Modem is communicating at 57600 bps. This is the default speed of the vmodem script. If you have modified the script, make adjustments as needed. Under Maximum speed, select 57600 and then click OK:


  • Back in Modems Properties hit Close to exit the window.

Dial-up Setup

Almost there! What we need to do next is tell Windows that there is a phone number you want to dial, and the modem you want to use is Raspberry Pi Virtual Modem. Go ahead and open up Dial-Up Networking from the Start menu:


  • Double click on Make New Connection


  • Give your new connection an appropriate name. Select your newly installed Modem - Standard 28800 bps Modem, then click Next >


  • Inside the Telephone number box, type in the number 1. Leave everything else to their defaults. Country code must match the country your computer locale has been set up to. Then click Next >


  • Hit Finish.


  • Congratulations! Now you only need to connect!
  • Double click on the newly created dial-up connection. In our case it was RasPiNet


  • Leave everything to their defaults, as they shouldn't matter here. Hit Connect.


  • You will see Windows attempting a connection.


  • If you have the virtual modem script visible, you will see the Hayes commands being sent at this time:


  • If everything goes well, after a while you will see the Connection Established window. Congratulations!
  • Windows 9x now genuinely thinks that you have connected to your Internet Service Provider. You can close the window.


  • You can check on the status of the connection by double-clicking the dialup connection indicator.


  • On your first connection, you should see some bytes received and sent. The initial data that was received from Raspberry is the pppd handshake, with the usual network configuration information.

Internet Access

You should now be able to access the Internet. However, many modern websites will require modern security and will refuse to communicate with older web browsers.

Troubleshooting

Unable to connect on dial-up

  • Make sure vmodem script is running on Raspberry Pi

Dial-up connects, but no websites open

  • Most current websites do not support unencrypted HTTP connections. As far as I understand, old operating systems do no longer have valid certificates, and this prevents connections to most websites. You can still explore archived websites using a Wayback Proxy server. See the section Internet Access for more information.
  • If your dial-up connection works, but you're absolutely not able to open any website, even after setting up the proxy server, try checking your IP configuration. In Windows 95, 98 and Me you can view your settings by running WINIPCFG from the Run dialog box.

Questions? Comments? Contact Me!

guides/connecting_windows_9x_to_the_internet.1581704840.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020-02-14 18:27 by omolini