Rich's Ramblings by Rich Schinnell

Published in the June 1997 issue of the Monitor, the monthly

magazine of the Capital PC User Group, Inc.

Rich's Ramblings

By Rich Schinnell

WARNING FOR NOVICES: There could be a lot of techno-babble in this month's column, and
if you cringe at the sight of too many acronyms, please turn the page to something simpler, or wait until next month. <G>

Here is a mini-review of Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 along with some other
goodies. Microsoft was kind enough to send me a copy of the software, and here is their payback for being so generous. Street price around $100 or so, give or take $95. NT 4.0 Server version's street price is between $199 and $995, depending on where you get it.

Installation of Windows NT 4.0 is quite easy <G>, if you have the hardware to run it properly. I
installed it on a Pentium 133, with 32MB of RAM and a 1.6 Gigabyte hard disk, SoundBlaster 16, and standard IDE CD-ROM. Then on a Pentium Pro 200 with 64MB of RAM and a 1.6 Gigabyte hard disk, CD-ROM, and SB16. Both had a Matrox Millennium Graphic adapter board. Of course, the Pentium PRO was much faster.

NT is very similar to Windows 95 in its look-and-feel. One major difference between Win95 and
NT 4.0 is that NT is less versatile in regards to strange hardware. If you have a non-standard video adapter board, CD-ROM, or sound board, you could be in for a frustrating time. NT is not as forgiving in its install routines. Windows 95 has more generic choices and will operate on most any weird system, as long as you remember to pick the correct choices during installation. NT has much more powerful security features than Win95.

Windows NT gives you some options on installation, like picking whether to install the NTFS
(NT File System), which is a true 32-bit file system, versus the DOS 16-bit FAT system. If you're going to be using any of your old DOS programs, you may want to think about making it FAT instead of NTFS.

I found no big difference in performance with the exception of smaller files taking up less cluster
space. Some anti-virus programs won't work with the NTFS file system. There are some that will swear by the NTFS, but I chose FAT instead.

Using the NTFS, you'll be able to support larger single drive sizes, but getting backup software
for 3 or 4 Gig drives will cost you a few bucks. Oh, yes, remember that you should consider backup software/hardware when you buy these new huge hard disks. Additionally, if you use NTFS and you munge up your system, you could be out of luck as booting with a regular DOS disk in the A: drive will not do you any good. DOS cannot see NTFS-formatted disks as DOS only recognizes FAT file systems.

Installation went quite smoothly due to my more generic hardware configuration. I started out
with a 1.6 Gig hard disk partitioned into three drives and formatted with DOS 6.22. The three floppies that have the operating system on them are booted to get things started, and they then found my IDE CD-ROM with no problems. I don't know what I would have done if it had not found the CD-ROM, except I could have copied the subdirectory \I386 from the CD -ROM to my hard disk, and then run the install from there. This is what I have done several times when installing Windows 95. But back to the NT install. It takes a while, and there are several boot cycles to go through.

Logging in (which now entails the old familiar Control+Alt+Delete to do) as the Administrator
with no password is what I recommend. Especially if you're doing all this on your personal machine at home. Less aggravation all the way down the line. I then went to the System Manager program and created two USERIDs for my two Internet PPP accounts, giving each administrator privileges, one at CPCUG.ORG and the other at BELLATLANTIC.NET.

The CPCUG.ORG account is a static IP, PPP account, and the BA account is a dynamic IP
(Internet Protocol address). What this means is that when I sign on, I have a fixed address (IP) on CPCUG.ORG of 204.91.199.128, whereas on BA, I get a new one from the pool of available IPs each time I log in. The only difference that I see is that I can give my static IP to others who I talk to on the Internet Phone and other voice and video communications products. Theoretically, I could set up FTP (File Transfer Protocol) on my machine while I'm connected, and others can log into my computer over the Internet.

I had a real rough time at first, and I had to start over several times due to my being attached to a
local Novell NetWare 3.12 server. NT kept wanting to use my Local Area Network for my Internet connection via TCP/IP instead of the dial-up networking option. I finally figured that by removing the Ethernet card from my machine during install, I could get it to set up the dial-up networking (DUN), and all would be well. After it was all working, I then re -installed the Ethernet card and set up my local LAN access to my network server.

It works great over the Internet and via my LAN. Except, I can't seem to get my external 3COM
Impact IQ ISDN modem recognized by NT. Windows 95 and DOS love the 128K link to the Internet, but NT just seems to have some problem. I have searched high and low for the correct setup and drivers, but I haven't been lucky so far. But I don't give up that easily. I even visit www.3com.com on a regular basis.

I installed the latest Netscape Professional Communicator (4.0) and Microsoft Internet Explorer,
and they both seemingly work much faster than under Windows 95. My old familiar DOS communications program, QModem for DOS, works great. I thought I would lose some features when I went to NT, but I am sure glad that I can use these programs. I would not attempt to put Windows NT 4.0 on any machine with less than 16MB of RAM, and I think that 32Megs is better.

Most of you who are familiar with Windows 95 and its interface will immediately see the
resemblance. My first impressions are: Stick with Windows 95. Windows 95 supports a lot more varied hardware, and it's easier to find help for problems. Windows NT 4.0 is a good stable product but does require a bit more fine tuning and generic hardware. It might just not be the product for many faint of heart non-techies.

For those of you with children and spouses who use the same machine: Windows NT is probably
a good choice as you can give them their own USERID logins which lets them configure the screen to match what they like. Access to files and programs is strictly controlled by the administrator, and as long as you don't give your kids or spouse administrator security levels, you can keep them in their own areas of the disk.

One caution: DOS programs require much more fine tuning with regards to memory and such
under NT than under Windows 95. Some games may be very difficult to run.

Security and stability are two of the strongest points of NT; without you giving them permission,
other users may not even know what programs or files you have on the disk. Great for private letters and financial information. As long as the kids don't guess your administrator password. <G>

Bottom line: I will keep Windows NT Workstation 4.0 on my new machine. I like the way it
works, and it seems to be quite stable. I hope to overcome the problem with my external ISDN modem not working well, but I have the removable hard disk caddies, and if I want to use ISDN, I just shut down and plug in my Windows 95 caddie, and all is well.

I have been testing a neat video conferencing package that includes a good resolution color
camera, with built-in microphone, that sits on top of my monitor and displays what it sees. Now I have an even better reason to get dressed and cleaned up before sitting down in front of my computer. <G> Seeing yourself on-screen at 4:30AM each morning can get a bit much.

I installed the Videum Video Camera on top of my monitor, and its sound/video board alongside
my SoundBlaster 16 sound board. Windows 95 and Windows NT were very happy with the two boards being installed in the same machine. I was able to install the CU-SeeMe video conferencing/chat software and the Videum video software without even cracking the books. Now that's a plus.

I logged into my Internet account, and started it all up. I was surprised that it was pretty easy to
connect to an Internet site that acted as a reflector or host, and I could actually see other people via their video cameras. I was able to talk to them and see them quite clearly. The refresh rate on the screen is a bit slow, and some people looked as if they were in slow motion, but I will be testing it under a high speed ISDN line in the next few weeks. Should improve the resolution and frame rates quite noticeably.

I sent in my money and received with anticipation the Television Tuner adapter for the board.
What a disappointment; it's just a bit too fuzzy to look at for long. Save your money if you're interested in watching TV on your computer screen, at least with this device. With a 486 or a 100Mhz Pentium, it might be even slower, and I am on a 200 Megahertz Pentium Pro with a 2MB Matrox Millennium graphics card. Maybe another 2 Megs on the graphics board might help, but I doubt it.

Well, enough of this and my new toys. As always, your mileage may vary.

I found that the Video Chat sessions were about as worthless as the regular Chat sessions (IRC)
that go on by typing to one another. To explain to those among you who are not Internauts, Chat is a method by which you can interactively type messages to one or many other Internet users. Often you'll find the same type of people who have nothing to say but talk a lot. It's a good case for twit filters.

For those who don't know what a TWIT filter is, it's a method by which you can tell your
software to ignore all communications from specific individuals. There are options for this in many communications software packages. I have a couple of those marked in my mail program. Any mail from certain named individuals immediately go in the trash unread. Sure saves me from elevating my blood pressure and responding.

Added later: Using this all on a Pentium Pro 200 still leaves a lot to be desired. I find the video
to be a bit slow and jerky. My impression is that this particular video combination is not quite ready for primetime. I hope to try some others that will satisfy my craving for good quality. After a frustrating time with this, I now find out that White Pine Software, the producers of CU-SeeMe, have decided that a Pentium Pro 200 is too fast for their software. <G> They are supposed to be sending me a new version. I will let you know. Don't hold your breath.

Please remember to backup your data; in fact do it twice.

Rich Schinnell is retired from the USN, Vitro Corporation, and now on his own doing a bit of
small business consulting. He has been very active in CPCUG since day one and continues to enjoy helping members with their problems via the Helpline. Although sometimes it's very similar to conducting brain surgery over the phone lines with the strange problems that Windows 95 can generate. Don't call him for problems with Windows NT until he has had a couple of months of use under his belt. He learns something new most every day and is available to help CPCUG members evenings from 6-9PM at (301) 949-9292, or most any time via e-mail at schinnel@cpcug.org. Or through his ego home page at

 http://www.cpcug.org/user/schinnel.

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