Copyright: Copyright Locutus Codeware, 1995
Citation: Authored by Argun Tekant, Locutus Codeware


WetSock: A Winsock weather client for Windows 95


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

Disclaimers:

WetSock is an information client that gathers weather information from public sources and presents them in a user friendly form. The information presented by this program is only as accurate as the information provided by the weather data servers. Please keep in mind that weather forecasting is not an exact science, and mother nature may surprise us any time.

Please do not complain to me if WetSock reports clear skies and it is raining outside. Spare the messenger.

Always contact your local authorities for latest conditions and forecasts before undertaking any activity that is weather critical. There could be many reasons; from an inaccurate forecast to a glitch in the communication chain somewhere between where the reports are typed to your screen where the weather icon appears; that may cause an inaccurate result. Keep in mind weather conditions may change suddenly, whatever the weather forecast says.

The National Weather Service data is made available courtesy of the National Science Foundation-funded UNIDATA Project and the University of Michigan.

The weather data used by WetSock is retrieved from public services which do a great job by freely providing this information to the public. Even though the UNIDATA project and the University of Michigan, Weather Underground has been providing this excellent service for 5 years, there is no guarantee that this service will continue, or it will continue to be free indefinitely.

The users of this software agree to these conditions if the software is installed on their computers:

Locutus Codeware does not accept any liability for damages to persons or goods caused by direct or implied consequences of any weather condition presented by the WetSock software, nor damages caused by actions or inactions taken by the user or users of this software upon interpretation or misinterpretation of the weather conditions presented.

Locutus Codeware does not make any express or implied warranty of any kind. There is no warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose of WetSock. Use of information obtained via the services provided is at the individual's or organization's own risk. The individual or organization is solely responsible for actions taken based on the information reported by this software.

Locutus Codeware shall not be liable for any damage arising from any event that is out of its control. Locutus Codeware shall not be liable for indirect, special, incidental, exemplary, consequential, or any other form of money damages, including, but not limited to lost profits, or for the loss of data or information of any kind, however caused, and arising out of or in connection with the performance or the provision of service by Locutus Codeware, whether based in contract, tort, or any other legal theory, and whether or not Locutus Codeware have been made aware of the possibility of such damages.

In no event shall any liability exceed a refund of amounts actually paid to Locutus Codeware.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

WetSock is a Winsock client to gather weather information over Internet. If you are connected to Internet and wonder about the weather (who doesn’t), WetSock is for you.

In todays high paced office life, it is quite possible to be cut off from the outside, especially if you are spending your time in a cubicle, and a window office is something that your grandfather used to talk about. While browsing the Web at home, who has the time to turn on the TV to check the weather. You can now have the weather report right under your fingertips, and you don’t have to do anything for it, just look down on your taskbar to see how the weather is. Now, even small talk is easier.

Are you going out for lunch - Do you need that umbrella? Do you want to plan that fishing trip with your office buddies? What are you wearing tomorrow morning to work? Just look down at your taskbar and click your mouse, you have access to current weather conditions in your area along with 2 day and extended forecasts, and severe weather warnings if any.

Why WetSock:

WetSock is fully integrated with Windows 95. It is not a weather program that just happens to run on Windows 95, but is specially designed for PC’s running Windows 95 and using Dial-up Networking.

•	WetSock works by monitoring your dial-up connections and getting the weather information once you are connected for any other purpose.

•	32-bit application. Does not conflict with other 32-bit applications using your modem.

•	Does not call long distance weather report numbers. Gets the weather over Internet.

•	Does not make unnecessary connections to your Internet Service Provider.

•	Ideal if you already periodically connect to check/read your mail. Will piggyback to any network client operation. Works great with MS Exchange.

•	Integrated with built-in Dial-up Networking. Will use your existing Dial-up Networking and TCP/IP settings. Requires no further settings.

•	Silent background operation. Easy access to features via a system tray icon.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

Setting up WetSock is very easy.

Just unzip the contents to a folder, and start up the setup information file. This will create a proper folder for itself to run from, copy the files to their proper places and create a shortcut to it in the startup folder.

To do this, first unzip the contents to a folder. Then, using the explorer:

•	right click on wetsock.inf  (Setup information file)

•	From the pop-up menu, choose install

•	When the setup screen comes up, fill in your information

You can later uninstall WetSock via the Control Panel, Add/Remove programs applet.

The first time WetSock is run, it will present a setup dialog. It is very important that you fill in all the requested information. You can access this dialog later by right clicking the WetSock icon on the system tray.

Before you can run WetSock, you have to have an Internet connection with an ISP set up and going. It is also required that you use a Dial-up Networking connection setup for this connection. WetSock will only work if you are accessing Internet using the Windows 95 Dial-up Networking feature or if you have a direct network connection (via your office LAN for instance). WetSock will not work with third party PPP or SLIP software for remote Internet access.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

Support for WetSock is provided online. Either send mail to:

atekant@wimsey.com

or visit the Locutus Codeware web page:

http://www.wimsey.com/locutus

You will find the latest version of WetSock and other Locutus Codeware products.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

WetSock is shareware. If you like the program and decide to use it you must register it.

WetSock registration is based on the honor system. There are no nag screens, no disabled features. What you see is what you get.

Registration:

If you decide to use the product after a reasonable trial period, you must register and pay a licensing fee. Not doing so is in violation of international copyright laws.

Whether you decide to keep WetSock or not, it will be appreciated if you visit the Locutus Codeware web site at http://www.wimsey.com/locutus and fill out the information form. This will not cost you anything, but will let us know who is using the product and your input will help plan for product updates and future products.

Licensing fee for private and non-profit use is $12 per copy:

If you are keeping WetSock for fun, as a conversation piece or to decide on when to wash your car, the suggested amount for the fee is $12. This includes home or work place use. You may or may not decide that this product is worth that much to you. You are welcome to send a payment for the perceived value of this product, but please, no pennies in the mail.

Licensing fee for corporate or commercial use is $25 per copy:

If you think WetSock is a great addition to your arsenal of software to help you run your business better, you might consider paying $25.

Payments can be in the form of a check or money order to:

Locutus Codeware

1886 W.Broadway, #303,

Vancouver,

BC V6J 1Y9

Canada

NOTE: Please make sure you include your e-mail address along with your payment.

E-mail is the only method you will be contacted for support and product updates.

Registration via Compuserve:

You can pay either amount via CompuServe software registration forum: GO SWREG

The registration ID for private/non-profit use is: 9733

The registration ID for corporate/commercial use is: 9734


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

A Winsock weather client for Windows 95

The National Weather Service data is made available courtesy of the National Science Foundation-funded UNIDATA Project and the University of Michigan.

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

Using WetSock is as painless as it gets with any software. Once you setup the program, you can almost forget about it and enjoy the icon views of the current weather conditions that appear on your taskbar. WetSock does not require you to do anything to update the weather information unless you want to. The weather information will be automatically updated when you connect to Internet for your regular use of e-mail, Web browsing or other on-line activities. As soon as it senses an Internet connection, WetSock will silently go and get the weather information within a few seconds of your connection, and keep updating it as long as you are connected. It will even dial in itself if you choose to do so and you have not connected to Internet for a specified period.

Once WetSock retrieves the weather data, it will notify you by displaying an icon that is a representation of the current weather conditions (as of last data retrieval), therefore giving you an instant view of what is going on outside.

If you move your mouse over the icon and hover for a moment, the tooltip will further explain the icon and will also give you the current temperature.

If you want more information at this time, left-click on the icon to display the weather information dialog. This dialog will give you detailed information about the weather conditions including winds, humidity etc..

Once this dialog is up, you will notice a number of buttons that will give you even further information including short term and extended forecasts.

Forecasts: The forecast buttons will display forecast information. If they are grayed, there is no information right now.

2-day: This button will display a 2 day forecast for your area.

Extended: This button will display a 5 day forecast for your area.

Warnings: This button will display the severe weather warnings, weather watches, damage reports and other important messages relevant to your area.

Update weather information now!: This button can be used to manually start a connection anytime you want. When you press this button, WetSock will dial-up in accordance with your selected Dial-Up Networking connection. If you are already connected using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will just connect to the weather server to get the current weather. If you are using a direct network connection, this button will cause WetSock to connect to the weather server and get the weather conditions.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

The current weater conditions are represented by tray icons. Each icon is an approximation of the weather condition and should not be taken as what the sky actually looks like.

Weather icons:

  This icon means clear skies. Go enjoy yourself, and don’t forget UV protection.

  Partly cloudy skies.

  Mostly cloudy skies. But some blue and hope exists.

  Overcast.

  Visibility impaired conditions. Haze, fog, smoke, dust.

  Wet conditions.

  Snow. Hope you don’t have a long commute.

  Thunderstorms.

Program icons:

  There was a problem while while receiving weather information. Tooltip has reason.

  I cannot display an icon. Either the conditions are unknown, there is no current data for your location, or the program has encountered a condition it does not recognize.

  WetSock is working on retrieving weather information. Please wait.


Program Control dialog fields:

Connect Now: This button can be used to manually start a connection anytime you want. You can use this button to test whether you have all your settings correct. When you press this button, WetSock will dial-up in accordance with your selected Dial-Up Networking connection. If you are already connected using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will just connect to the weather server to get the current weather. If you are using a direct network connection, this button will cause WetSock to connect to the weather server and get the weather conditions.

Result: This area will contain an explanation for the error that occurred while WetSock was trying to get the weather information. When an error occurs, the WetSock icon will display a red ! (exclamation mark) instead of the current weather icon. The tooltip, as well as this field will show an description of the error occurred.

Exit Program: This button will exit WetSock.


Location Settings dialog fields:

Where are you?: For WetSock to get the relevant weather information, you need to set your geographic location. Your world location is defined in three fields. If you cannot find your exact location, choose one that is nearest to you.

Choose your location by selecting from the pull-down list.

Region: The world region you are in. i.e. USA, Canada, Europe, etc. NOTE: Version 1.0 will only work for USA.

State: The state you are in.

City: The city you are in.


Network Settings dialog fields:

Use direct network connection: If you have a direct network connection to Internet, you may check this box. When checked, WetSock will not attempt to use a dial-up connection. If this box is checked, some of the scheduling parameters will be unavailable. If you are using a direct connection, only the “When connected, check weather every n minutes” parameter will be available and meaningful. WetSock will not check if your network connection is activated, nor will it attempt to initiate a dial-up connection, but it will directly attempt to access the weather server.

Dial-up Network Connection: The connection you want WetSock to monitor and use when connecting to Internet. Choose one of the connection names from the list. You must have created a Dial-up Network connection before you can use WetSock with a dial-up Internet connection.


Schedule Settings dialog fields:

Scheduling parameters:

You can schedule WetSock to either connect to Internet by itself, or let it ride the wave when you are surfing, or let it work piggybacked to any other periodic access to Internet; for example, checking your mail periodically with the MS Exchange.

Poll for network connection: This setting tells WetSock how often it should check whether you are connected to Internet via the selected Dial-up Networking connection. WetSock will check to see if you are connected to Internet, and will do a weather update immediately.

If you want to piggyback WetSock to a quick periodic operation like checking your mail, you should set this value to less than the time it takes your mailer to check your mail once the connection is established. Typically this would be less than 10 seconds.

If you want WetSock to correct the time while you are connected to Internet for surfing, reading news etc., you may set the poll interval to a larger value

When connected, check weather: As soon as you have an Internet connection established using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will update the weather information. After that, as long as you are connected, it will receive weather information periodically at the specified interval in this field. Setting this value to 0 will cause WetSock to do a weather update only once each time you start a dial-up session.

Out of courtesy to our weather information suppliers, please do not set to update the weather information more frequently than 1 hour. The weather observations on the servers themselves only get updated every hour.

If not connected, access the network: You may use this setting to have WetSock dial-up your Internet provider for you and gather the weather information without depending on other programs to be using Internet. WetSock will connect to Internet using the Dial-up Networking connection you specified periodically, update the weather and immediately hang-up. You may disable this feature by setting this value to 0.


Server Settings dialog fields:

In this dialog, you may change the settings of where you are getting the weather information. As you normally should not need to do this, the information therein is protected from accidental edits by a control check-box that says: I know what I am doing. To access the fields on this page, you need to check this box first. If you accidentally change these fields and want to get back the originals, they are: um-weather.sprl.umich.edu, port: 3001

All the weather information servers given on the list are operated by the University of Michigan, Weather Underground. We are thankful to them for operating such a great service.

The National Weather Service data is made available courtesy of the National Science Foundation-funded UNIDATA Project and the University of Michigan.

Weather Server: If the server you are using is down and you need the weather right now, you may choose one of the others from the list. But the default server: “um-weather.sprl.umich.edu” is the recommended one to be used. You can also type in a server name that is not on the list.

Weather Port: As you select a server from the list, the appropriate TCP port it uses will be displayed here. If you need to change the port number for a server that is not on the list, you change it here.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

Setup dialog fields:

Dial-up Network Connection: The connection you want WetSock to monitor and use when connecting to Internet. Choose one of the connection items from the list. You must have created a Dial-up Network connection before you can use WetSock.

Use direct network connection: If you have a direct network connection to Internet, or you want to use a local time server on your LAN, you may check this box. When checked, WetSock will not attempt to use a dial-up connection. If this box is checked, some of the scheduling parameters will be unavailable. If you are using a direct connection, only the “When connected, correct time” parameter will be available and meaningful. WetSock will not check if your network connection is activated, nor will it attempt to initiate a dial-up connection.

Time Server: The name of the Internet time server you wish to use. Refer to the list of  time servers further in the help pages to choose one that you would like to use. It is recommended that you choose a server that is geographically close to you.

Connect Now: This button can be used to manually start a connection anytime you want. You can use this button to test whether the time server you selected works for you or to make sure you have chosen the right Dial-up Networking connection for WetSock. When you press this button, WetSock will dial-up in accordance with your selected Dial-Up Networking connection. If you are already connected using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will just connect to the time server to get the time. If you want to choose a time server by testing them first, you may manually start a Dial-up Connection, and then try out your selected time servers by pressing the Connect Now button.

Scheduling parameters:

You can schedule WetSock to either connect to Internet by itself, or let it ride the wave when you are surfing, or let it work piggybacked to any other periodic access to Internet; for example, checking your mail periodically with the MS Exchange.

Poll for network connection: This setting tells WetSock how often it should check whether you are connected to Internet via the selected Dial-up Networking connection. WetSock will check to see if you are connected Internet, and will do a time correction immediately.

If you want to piggyback WetSock to a quick periodic operation like checking your mail, you should set this value to less than the time it takes your mailer to check your mail once the connection is established. Typically this would be less than 10 seconds.

If you want WetSock to correct the time while you are connected to Internet for surfing, reading news etc., you may set the poll interval to a larger value

When connected, correct time: As soon as you have an Internet connection established using the selected Dial-up Networking connection, WetSock will correct the time. After that, as long as you are connected, it will correct the time periodically at the specified interval in this field. Setting this value to 0 will cause WetSock to do a time correction only once each time you start a dial-up session.

If not connected, access the network: You may use this setting to have WetSock dial-up your Internet provider for you and correct the time without depending on other programs to be using Internet. WetSock will connect to Internet using the Dial-up Networking connection you specified periodically, correct the time and immediately hang-up. You may disable this feature by setting this value to 0.

Last Error Message: This area will contain an explanation for the error that occurred while WetSock trying to correct the time. When an error occurs, the WetSock icon will display a red X instead of the watch symbol over the socket icon. You can right-click the WetSock icon to bring up the dialog to see what error has occurred.

Last Time Correction: This area will show the last time a time correction was successfully made and the amount of time correction made. A negative value means your PC clock was fast.


WetSock by Locutus Codeware

© 1995, Locutus Codeware

Frequently Asked Questions:

I am behind a firewall, how do I make it work?

WetSock does not support firewall protocols. If you are behind a firewall, you need to let your network administrator know that you need access through the selected port (see Server Settings page in the Setup Properties dialog). If you happen to change the port setting for any reason, you have to let your network administrator know about the new port number

WetSock complains that it cannot find the file SVRAPI.DLL. Where do I find it?

SVRAPI.DLL is part of the Windows 95 networking subsystem. If that file is missing, it means you have not installed Windows 95 networking and are accessing Internet using a third party tool (i.e. Trumpet Winsock). WetSock requires you to use the Windows 95 Dial-up Networking, and it will not work without it.

WetSock was working fine, now I am getting server errors and it does not update my weather. What do I do now?

Open the setup dialog, and find the Server Settings page. In there, you can choose different servers from the pulldown list. The particular server you are using could be down at this moment.

I registered and paid. Why am I not getting anything?

Support and information transfer, including copies of the program to be sent if necessary, is all done online. If you have not included your e-mail address with your payment or if you have not communicated electronically with Locutus Codeware, either via the web page or by e-mail, chances are I don’t have an electronic address for you. Please drop me a note at atekant@wimsey.com if you are feeling left out.


Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation