DOS ain't dead

Hi, I'm new to this forum. Glad to hear that its not closing!!!

I have IBM PC-DOS 2000 installed bare metal. My browser is Arachne, used with comcast cable and an NDIS driver package I assembled based on instructions at FreeDos (uses the files protman.dos, protman.exe, netbind.com, dis_pkt.dos and my Marvell Yukon NDIS driver file). I want to install the DR-Webspyder browser using an ODI driver package, also based on FreeDos instructions (uses lsl.com, pkt2odi.exe, net.cfg and my Yukon ODI driver file). The ODI driver package works fine with Arachne. When I double click on the DR-Webspyder install file (web21b2.exe), the file expands and goes into an install routine. I follow the on-screen prompts and everything seems to install fine. However, when I try to start the browser, the screen goes blank and the computer crashes. At this point, the computer needs to be reset via hard reboot. I don't think the issue relates to the network driver configuation, as the browser should at least open up without crashing the entire computer. I have another version of the DR-Webspyder installer (a zip file comprised of many files) and the behavior was indentical to the web21b2.exe file. Anyone have an idea what is causing the problem? Perhaps the web21b2.exe is a bad file, and the the zip file was extracted from that file, so both are bad. In that event, does anyone have a installer file that is known be to be good? Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks all.

> My browser is Arachne, used
> with comcast cable and an NDIS driver package I assembled based on
> instructions at FreeDos (uses the files protman.dos, protman.exe,
> netbind.com, dis_pkt.dos and my Marvell Yukon NDIS driver file).

> I want to
> install the DR-Webspyder browser using an ODI driver package, also based on
> FreeDos instructions (uses lsl.com, pkt2odi.exe, net.cfg and my Yukon ODI
> driver file).

This may seem a silly question, but why would you install DR-Webspyder when you have Arachne ?

Just to sample the brew. And, I here that in some ways it is faster than Arachne. Just go to google news....Arachne takes about one minute to render the page.

> Just to sample the brew.

Understood.

> And, I here that in some ways it is faster than
> Arachne. Just go to google news....Arachne takes about one minute to
> render the page.

Do you have the latest Arachne ? v.1.95 ?

http://www.glennmcc.org/arachne/

> Just go to google news....Arachne takes about one minute to render the page.

Just did that. 4 seconds.

> > Just go to google news....Arachne takes about one minute to render the
> page.
>
> Just did that. 4 seconds.

Not me. Slow as molasses. Using version a195gpl under PC DOS 2000. Are there any particular settings you have that enable that kind of speed? When I do a google search, Arachne is fast enough in returning a result. However, going to the website is significantly slower, especially on highlyformatted pages and pages with lots of images, like google news. It literally takes about a minute for the page to fully download (i.e. the messages about verifying images, etc. in the lower left hand corner stops). I suppose I could turn off the inline images in setup, but I might as well get a text browser. According to mem, it says have 550k in available memory to run programs, so I don't think that's the problem. In config.sys, himem.sys is installed and EMM386.exe is set to noems. Have 4GB's of physical memory. Any ideas as to what could be the problem?

> > > Just go to google news....Arachne takes about one minute to render the
> > page.
> >
> > Just did that. 4 seconds.
>
> Not me. Slow as molasses. Using version a195gpl under PC DOS 2000. Are
> there any particular settings you have that enable that kind of speed?
> When I do a google search, Arachne is fast enough in returning a result.
> However, going to the website is significantly slower, especially on
> highlyformatted pages and pages with lots of images, like google news. It
> literally takes about a minute for the page to fully download (i.e. the
> messages about verifying images, etc. in the lower left hand corner stops).
> I suppose I could turn off the inline images in setup, but I might as well
> get a text browser. According to mem, it says have 550k in available
> memory to run programs, so I don't think that's the problem. In
> config.sys, himem.sys is installed and EMM386.exe is set to noems. Have
> 4GB's of physical memory. Any ideas as to what could be the problem?

So, I unchecked "auto download inline images" in preferences. Much
faster, certainly acceptable. Some images of course don't show, but it is a compromise worth
making.

> So, I unchecked "auto download inline images" in preferences. Much
> faster, certainly acceptable. Some images of course don't show, but it is
> a compromise worth
> making.

Did you tried to redirect your image cache/arachne temp on ramdisk? It may help too.

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> > So, I unchecked "auto download inline images" in preferences. Much
> > faster, certainly acceptable. Some images of course don't show, but it
> is
> > a compromise worth
> > making.
>
> Did you tried to redirect your image cache/arachne temp on ramdisk? It may
> help too.

Yes, I've got a ramdisk, and my temp file in config.sys points to the ramdisk.

The program just seems so glitchy. I would say about half the time when I go to a web page from a goodle search, I have to enter "R" to re-load because I get the skull and cross bones. Is that normal behavior?

Wise people whom a beta version exists of webspyder? Perhaps I had a copy of Webspyder 2.5a but have no longer it, even has Florian Xaver (drdos.org)

http://www.freelists.org/post/arachne/Have-copy-of-Embrowser-25a

> > > So, I unchecked "auto download inline images" in preferences. Much
> > > faster, certainly acceptable. Some images of course don't show, but
> it
> > is
> > > a compromise worth
> > > making.
> >
> > Did you tried to redirect your image cache/arachne temp on ramdisk? It
> may
> > help too.
>
> Yes, I've got a ramdisk, and my temp file in config.sys points to the
> ramdisk.
>
> The program just seems so glitchy. I would say about half the time when I
> go to a web page from a goodle search, I have to enter "R" to re-load
> because I get the skull and cross bones. Is that normal behavior?

jwells222,

It sounds to me like you have done everything you can to speed-up Arachne.

As to needing to hit 'R' on most pages.

Sorry to say that yes, this has now become too prevalent.

Too many servers on the web are incompatible with full-smooth operation of Arachne.

Even this server here at Dos Ain't Dead will sometimes require 'R' :(

> > > > So, I unchecked "auto download inline images" in preferences. Much
> > > > faster, certainly acceptable. Some images of course don't show, but
> > it
> > > is
> > > > a compromise worth
> > > > making.
> > >
> > > Did you tried to redirect your image cache/arachne temp on ramdisk? It
> > may
> > > help too.
> >
> > Yes, I've got a ramdisk, and my temp file in config.sys points to the
> > ramdisk.
> >
> > The program just seems so glitchy. I would say about half the time when
> I
> > go to a web page from a goodle search, I have to enter "R" to re-load
> > because I get the skull and cross bones. Is that normal behavior?
>
> jwells222,
>
> It sounds to me like you have done everything you can to speed-up Arachne.
>
> As to needing to hit 'R' on most pages.
>
> Sorry to say that yes, this has now become too prevalent.
>
> Too many servers on the web are incompatible with full-smooth operation of
> Arachne.
>
> Even this server here at Dos Ain't Dead will sometimes require 'R' :(


Well, just the same, many thanks to the years of effort you put into Arachne. Seems to be the only viable graphical option. And I think most people are quite grateful, Glenn. Perhaps my expectations, after years of using IE on XP, were unfairly high. Given the limitations of DOS, changes in web architecture and the lack of deep pockets development of Arachne, it's functionality remains impressive.

> Well, just the same, many thanks to the years of effort you put into
> Arachne. Seems to be the only viable graphical option.

Not quite. :)

Arachne is my browser of choice. But there is also Mik's version of Links for DOS, which can be used graphically:
links -g

It is not as versatile, nor as configurable, as Arachne, but it does do graphical surfing as well as text-only.
And it also does SSL.

> Given the limitations of DOS, changes in web architecture and the lack of
> deep pockets development of Arachne, it's functionality remains impressive.

It's not deep pockets that are needed to make Arachne even better, it is a lack of skilled C coders willing to put some time into her.

> Wise people whom a beta version exists of webspyder? Perhaps I had a copy
> of Webspyder 2.5a but have no longer it, even has Florian Xaver
> (drdos.org)
>
> http://www.freelists.org/post/arachne/Have-copy-of-Embrowser-25a

Hm, password needed to
ftp://ftp.lineo.com/.private/emb25a.zip

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> > Wise people whom a beta version exists of webspyder? Perhaps I had a
> copy
> > of Webspyder 2.5a but have no longer it, even has Florian Xaver
> > (drdos.org)
> >
> > http://www.freelists.org/post/arachne/Have-copy-of-Embrowser-25a
>
> Hm, password needed to
> ftp://ftp.lineo.com/.private/emb25a.zip

Since it is no longer available from Lineo ....

It is now re-uploaded to my site.

http://glennmcc.org/download/emb25a.zip

Archive: EMB25A.ZIP
Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Name
-------- ------ ------- ----- ---- ---- ------ ----
387189 Stored 387189 0% 10-05-99 16:24 70bbb6ef install.zip
1457784 Stored 1457784 0% 10-05-99 16:29 e391d1ff disk1.zip
145897 Stored 145897 0% 10-05-99 16:30 1106bbeb disk2.zip
-------- ------- --- -------
1990870 1990870 0% 3 files
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