I am running Win95 and using Netmeeting 2.0 which runs fine on our machine using Telstra BigPond as ISP. My friend in Chicago has a Packard Bell Pentium. She is using the same software, but on her machine, Netmeeting shows TCP/IP as "disabled" and "Server unavailable".
After contacting respective ISPs and Microsoft, I am led to believe the problem is an incompatible Winsock.
My friend's ISP is AOL (America Online) and they advised her they use Winsock16. From what I understand, Netmeeting requires Winsock32. AOL also advised they were "working on implementing" a 32-bit Winsock.
My questions are:
1. Would you please explain Winsock.
2. Are the above assumptions correct?
3. If so, is there any other Internet voice/chat program we could use?
- Dean Meehan
Winsock is short for Windows Sockets. This is the network interface between the Windows application and the TCP/IP stack, TCP/IP being the protocol -- or language -- of the Internet. Winsock.dll is the Winsock file used by Windows 3.1 while wsock32.dll is the version for Windows 95 and NT. However, Winsock itself is a standard, not a piece of software, so there are a number of Winsocks available from different vendors. Under Windows 3.1, most of us used Trumpet Winsock, which many pundits claim to be faster and more reliable than the Winsock built into Windows 95 or NT.
Windows 95 and NT also support the 16-bit Winsock. This means 16-bit applications will work under 32-bit operating systems, and of course you can always install your favourite 16-bit version of Winsock. However, 32-bit Windows 95 applications are unlikely to work with the 16-bit Winsock.
Any Windows 3.1 Winsock applications should work with AOL's Winsock. However, there are a large number of chat and conferencing applications available on the Internet, so it is likely you will find one that meets your needs. You could try Netscape's CoolTalk, which ships with the Navigator browser.
- Roy Chambers
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Category: Internet, Win95, Windows 3.x, Windows NT
Issue: Aug 1997
Pages: 160
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What's in a Winsock?