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- NCSA Mosaic for Microsoft Windows
- Installation and Configuration Guide
-
- Introduction
- ------------
- This is a step-by-step guide to installing and configuring NCSA Mosaic for
- Microsoft Windows. This guide assumes that the system on which you
- are installing NCSA Mosaic meets the following criteria:
- Microsoft Windows is properly installed and configured.
- Utilities such as ftp, pkunzip, and an ASCII editor are available.
- The system is connected to the Internet.
-
- Acquiring the Software
- ----------------------
- Since you are reading this file, you probably already have the NCSA
- Mosaic for Microsoft Windows software. If that is the case, you can skip
- this section.
-
- If you do not have the software, start by moving to a location where
- applications are normally installed on your system and create a
- subdirectory for NCSA Mosaic. The subdirectory name is arbitrary; the
- name mosaic is used here to clarify the following discussion. Move into
- the new subdirectory:
- mkdir mosaic
- cd mosaic
-
- Now you are ready to log on to NCSA's FTP server and download the
- NCSA Mosaic files:
- ftp ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu
- At the login prompt, enter anonymous
- At the password prompt, enter your email address (e.g.,
- jdoe@business.com)
- get README.FIRST
- cd PC/Mosaic
- ls (To list the available files and directories)
- bin (To change to binary mode for the file transfer)
- get wmos20a1.zip
-
- The filename wmos20a1.zip will change with each release and update. It
- will always be in the format wmosversion.zip where version is the current
- version number. For example, wmos20a1.zip is the filename for NCSA
- Mosaic version 2.0, alpha release 1. The next alpha release will be
- wmos20a2.zip, and the first beta release of 2.0 will be wmos20b1.zip.
-
- If you have never downloaded PC files from NCSA's server, read the file
- README.FIRST now. It provides useful information that may facilitate
- later steps in the installation process.
-
- The file wmos20a1.zip is a compressed archive containing the NCSA
- Mosaic executable and several documents, including this guide and a
- tutorial when it is available. Execute the following command to retrieve
- the files from the compressed archive:
- pkunzip wmos20a1.zip
-
- Confirming the Files
- --------------------
- Once you have downloaded and uncompressed the NCSA Mosaic files,
- the installation process is straightforward. Check to make sure all of the
- following files exist in the mosaic\ directory:
- update.txt Current list of this version's enhancements and
- bug fixes in ASCII format.
- install.txt This guide as an ASCII file
- install.wri This guide in Microsoft Write format
- mosaic.exe The NCSA Mosaic executable
- mosaic.ini The initialization and configuration file for Mosaic
- readme.now Last minute or emphasized information
-
- Read the file readme.now. It may contain last minute information that
- was not available when this document was prepared.
-
- If you want to review the list of Mosaic enhancements and bug fixes since
- the last version, you should read the file update.txt. Or you can wait
- until you have NCSA Mosaic running and read this list online (follow the
- links from the Windows Mosaic home page.)
-
- Checking the WinSock DLL
- ------------------------
- NCSA Mosaic is a WinSock 1.1-compliant program and requires that you
- have a WinSock 1.1-compliant sockets DLL (winsock.dll) installed to
- provide the TCP/IP networking under windows. Check your WinSock
- implementation's installation guide to see whether it is WinSock 1.1-
- compliant.
-
- If you are using a commercial TCP/IP stack such as PC-NFS, or running
- a local area network such as Novell in addition to the TCP/IP, you must
- obtain the WinSock DLL directly from your network vendor.
-
- If your WinSock DLL is not WinSock 1.1-compliant or you do not have a
- WinSock DLL installed, and if you are using a stand-alone system on the
- Internet, then you can use the shareware Trumpet WinSock. A
- compressed copy of this WinSock implementation can be found on
- NCSA's FTP server in the directory PC/Mosaic/sockets/. Download the
- files disclaim.txt and winsock.zip. (If you want to make sure you have
- the latest version of the Trumpet WinSock, it can be acquired via
- anonymous FTP from the server biochemistry.bioc.cwru.edu in the
- directory /pub/trumpwsk.)
-
- Configuring NCSA Mosaic
- -----------------------
- To configure NCSA Mosaic, first copy the file mosaic.ini to the directory
- \windows. This is important because NCSA Mosaic will not otherwise
- recognize and save configuration changes. Be sure to leave a copy of
- mosaic.ini in the mosaic\ directory in case you need to restore any
- original entries.
-
- If you are administrating a network site, and want to have one copy of
- Windows, and therefore can't put mosaic.ini in the Windows directory,
- use the environment variable MOSAIC.INI to specify the pathname of the
- INI file.
-
- Edit the file \windows\mosaic.ini as follows using Notepad, edit, or any
- other ASCII editor. General users will not usually need to modify fields
- that are not mentioned in the following discussion.
-
- Main section:
- -------------
- If you can be reached via Internet email, put your full email address in
- quotes in the E-mail field. This is used for annotations and for a return
- address when you select Mail to Developers. If your login ID is jdoe and
- you work at Business, Inc., your email entry might read as follows:
- E-mail="jdoe@business.com"
-
- If you do not want NCSA Mosaic to automatically load a document every
- time you run it, set Autoload Home Page to no:
- Autoload Home Page=no
-
- If you want to change the first document that is automatically loaded
- when NCSA Mosaic is run, change the Home Page entry to point to the
- document you want to load. As distributed, NCSA Mosaic points to a
- customized Home Page on NCSA's Web server:
- Home Page =
- http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/NCSAMosaicHome.html
-
- If you will be using Mosaic over a slow network connection and do not
- want inline images to be automatically transferred, set Display Inline
- Images to no. Inline images will be replaced with an NCSA logo:
- Display Inline Images=no
-
- The Grey Background entry allows you to specify whether the NCSA
- Mosaic window has a white (no) or grey (yes) background. Many
- documents posted to the Web are tuned to a grey background:
- Grey Background=yes
-
- Fancy Rules toggles a different style of drawing horizontal rules in HTML
- documents (the <hr> tag.)
- Fancy Rules=yes
-
- List bullets slow down drawing documents. If you are a speed maven,
- you may wish to turn on simplified buillet drawing (line bullets instead of
- round bullets.)
- Round List Bullets=yes
-
- Settings section:
- -----------------
- The anchor color is the color of the hyperlink anchors that appear in an
- NCSA Mosaic document. You may set the anchor color to any valid RGB
- (red, green, blue) combination. The RGB values must be separated by
- commas and can range from 0 to 255. As posted on the FTP server, the
- default color is blue (0,0,255):
- Anchor Color=0,0,255
-
- In some instances, it is desirable to have NCSA Mosaic underline
- hyperlink anchors (e.g, when using a gray scale or monochrome
- monitor). As distributed, NCSA Mosaic is set to underline hyperlink
- anchors. Since underlining slows performance somewhat, you may wish
- to set Anchor Underline to no if your system has a color monitor:
- Anchor Underline=no
-
- Mail section:
- -------------
- Edit the Default Title to contain the message you want to have appear in
- the subject line when you send email to the NCSA developers via the
- Mail to Developers selection on the Help menu. As distributed, NCSA
- Mosaic enters the phrase "WinMosaic auto-mail feedback":
- Default Title="WinMosaic auto-mail feedback"
-
- Services section:
- -----------------
- If you want to use NCSA Mosaic's news support, set your network news
- (NNTP) server here. As distributed, NCSA Mosaic specifies the
- University of Illinois' NNTP server:
- NNTP Server="news.cso.uiuc.edu"
-
- NCSA Mosaic uses the SMTP server specified here to send mail back to
- the NCSA developers when you select Mail developers from the Help
- menu. As distributed, NCSA Mosaic specifies NCSA's FTP server
- because it is known and almost always available. If you have a local
- SMTP server that you would rather use, edit the entry accordingly:
- SMTP Server="ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu"
-
- Viewers section:
- ----------------
- This section contains two subsections. The first subsection contains a
- list of file types in MIME (Multimedia mail) form. The second subsection
- specifies the viewer for each of the listed file types. This information is
- used to determine whether an external viewer must be launched to view
- a file and, if so, which viewer to launch.
-
- If necessary, edit the */* entries in the second Viewers subsection to point
- to your viewers. If you do not have a viewer for a file type, leave the line
- alone. You may add arbitrary spawning of external viewers by defining a
- new TYPE#, specifying a viewer, and optionally providing a suffix list.
-
- NCSA Mosaic must use telnet to connect to some information servers.
- To do so, NCSA Mosaic needs to know where to find the telnet
- application on your system. Specify the full pathname for your telnet
- application in the telnet entry at the end of the Viewers section:
- telnet="c:\trumpet\telw.exe"
-
- Suffixes section:
- -----------------
- This section lists the filename suffixes used to identify the file types of
- files retrieved via FTP or from HTTP version 0.9 servers. In such
- situations, NCSA Mosaic uses the information in this section and in the
- Viewers to determine whether an external viewer must be launched to
- view a file and, if so, which viewer to launch. Files that reside on HTTP
- version 1.0 servers are typed by the server and only the information in the
- Viewers section is used.
-
- NOTE: If you are retrieving information from an HTTP/1.0 server (most
- World Wide Web servers are), the server automatically types data for
- you. The extensions you set up in the Suffixes section will not have any
- effect on what MIME type the document is assumed to be, because the
- data is already being typed by the server.
-
- You may list any number of filename extensions for a given file type;
- simply separate them by commas.
-
- The last suffix listed will be used when writing a file of that type to the
- local hard drive. If your external viewer requires a particular extension,
- make sure that it is listed last.
-
- Consider the example of the JPEG file type. The line
- image/jpeg=.jpeg,.jpe,.jpg
- indicates that any file with the suffix .jpeg, .jpe, or .jpg is a JPEG image.
- Now look at the preceding section of the file. The lines
- TYPE3="image/jpeg"
- and
- image/jpeg="c:\windows\apps\lview\lview30 %ls"
- define a JPEG image as TYPE3 and identify the required external viewer.
- Using the information in the Suffixes and Viewers sections of this file,
- NCSA Mosaic will recognize files with the extensions .jpeg, .jpe, and .jpg
- as JPEG images and know that it must launch the external viewer
- lview31 when it encounters them.
-
- Viewers specified in this section must be able to take a specified filename
- as a command line argument.
-
- Annotations section:
- --------------------
- Change the Directory entry to point to the directory on your local hard disk
- where you want to store personal annotations.
-
- Change the Default Title to the title you want to use for your personal
- annotations.
-
- User Menu sections:
- -------------------
- This specifies the user-configured menus. NCSA Mosaic will
- accommodate up to ten user-configured menus in any combination of top
- level and pop-out menus. Top level menus (Menu_Type=TOPLEVEL)
- will show up in the main menu bar; otherwise, the menu must be listed as
- a pop-out from one of the top level menus.
-
- YOU SHOULD REALLY USE THE MENU EDITOR IN MOSAIC TO EDIT THIS SECTION.
- Hand-editing can result in screwing up the menus.
-
- User-configured menus are specified as follows. The first line indicates
- the number of the menu while the next one or two lines name the menu
- and specify whether it is a top level menu. If the second user-configured
- menu is to be a top level menu named Demos, the first three lines of the
- menu specification would be
- [User Menu2]
- Menu Type=TOPLEVEL
- Menu Name="Demos"
- If the menu is to be a pop-out menu, omit the second line above.
-
- These initial lines are followed by several lines specifying the items
- (Item#) in the menu. Each Item# line must begin with Item#= and the
- rest of the line must be in one of the following formats. A line specifying
- a hotlink must list a document and the URL with which it can be located
- separated by a comma:
- Item1=Vatican Exhibit,http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/
- Experimental/vatican.exhibit/Vatican.exhibit.html
-
- A line specifying a menu separator must contain the word SEPARATOR:
- Item2=SEPARATOR
-
- A line specifying a pop-out menu must contain the word MENU and the
- number of the pop-out menu, taken from the first line of another user-
- configured menu, separated by a comma:
- Item3=MENU,User Menu4
-
- HotList section:
- ----------------
- You can maintain a hotlist of files you wish to have conveniently available.
- The hotlist is maintained here and displayed when you select Open URL
- on the File menu and press the arrow button on the right side of the
- window.
-
- YOU SHOULD REALLY USE THE MENU EDITOR IN MOSAIC TO EDIT THIS SECTION.
- This "Hotlist" is also now know as the "QUICKLIST".
-
- You can edit the hotlist directly in this section. If you want to delete a file
- from the hotlist, delete the corresponding line from this section. If you
- want to reorder the files, simply rearrange and renumber the URL# lines.
- Note that the entries must be numbered sequentially, starting with URL0.
- The easiest way to add a file to your hotlist is to bring the file up in NCSA
- Mosaic then select Add Current to Hotlist from the Hotlist menu; if you
- prefer, you can add files by editing this section directly.
-
- The Hotlist menu will be merged with the user-configurable menus in a
- future release.
-
- Document Caching section:
- -------------------------
- This sections tells NCSA Mosaic how many documents to cache so that
- you do not have to return to the network to retrieve a recently viewed
- document. As distributed, NCSA Mosaic caches five documents:
- Number=5
-
- If you have lots of memory on your system, you can increase the cache
- number. If you have little memory, you may wish to decrease the
- number. If you want to turn caching off, set it to 0 (zero).
-
- Do not modify the Type entry.
-
- Font sections:
- --------------
- Do not edit this section directly; all font changes must be made from the
- Options menu.
-
- Main Window section:
- --------------------
- Do not edit this section directly; adjust the NCSA Mosaic window size
- with the mouse and select Save Window Size on the File menu to save
- the new dimensions.
-
- Finding Viewers
- ---------------
- NCSA Mosaic for Microsoft Windows uses external viewers and players
- to display certain types of files, such as JPEG images or MPEG movies.
- These viewers and players are separate applications and they are neither
- maintained nor formally distributed by NCSA.
-
- However, NCSA is always watching for particularly suitable viewers and
- players. When one is located that NCSA can legally distribute, a copy is
- placed on NCSA's FTP server in the directory PC/Mosaic/viewers. If
- you do not have a good viewer or player for a particular file type, check
- this directory. If you find a viewer or player for a common data type that
- is not in this directory, or is significantly more useful than the one on our
- server, please let us know about it. (One way to communicate that
- information is to select Mail to Developers on the Help menu.)
-
- Installing into Microsoft Windows
- ---------------------------------
- You are now ready to install NCSA Mosaic into the Microsoft Windows
- system. Select New... on the Program Manager's File menu. Select
- Program Item and click on OK to add NCSA Mosaic to a Program
- Group.
-
- Executing and Testing NCSA Mosaic
- ---------------------------------
- Execute NCSA Mosaic now. If everything is properly configured and
- domain name serving is set up, NCSA Mosaic should be able to load
- documents successfully. Test this by selecting Windows Mosaic Home
- Page from the Demos menu.
-
- If NCSA Mosaic hangs on execution or misbehaves in any other
- unexplained fashion, the most likely source of the problem is the
- WinSock DLL. See "Checking the WinSock DLL" near the beginning of
- this guide.
-
- If you are able to execute NCSA Mosaic but selecting Windows Mosaic
- Home Page did not work, try the following exercises and include the
- results in your query to NCSA. The results will help NCSA technical
- support determine the nature of your problem:
- Select Open Local File on the File menu and try to open a file on
- your system.
- Select Open URL on the File menu and try to open an HTTP file on a
- remote Web server. The URL
- http://cs.indiana.edu/home-page.html will provide a good test.
- Select Open URL on the File menu and try to open an FTP file on a
- remote Web server. The URL
- file://cs.uwp.edu/pub/music/kurzweil will provide a good test.
-
- Feedback to NCSA
- ----------------
- Your comments on NCSA Mosaic are important; user feedback is an
- integral part of the Software Development Group's (SDG's) planning
- activities. Bug reports are particularly valuable because SDG's tests
- cannot duplicate all user environments and equipment configurations.
- Bug reports should include enough information to enable SDG
- developers to reproduce the problem. Please specify any information
- given by Mosaic, or give us a URL is your problem is reproducible.
-
- To send bug reports, comments, and suggestions, select Mail to
- Developers on the Help menu, fill out the form that appears, and click on
- Send when it is ready to go. If Mail to Developers does not work, send
- an email message to the following address:
- mosaic-win@ncsa.uiuc.edu
-