Introduction.

There are easier ways to learn about and utilize new tools and there are, of course, innumerable other ways by which you can introduce frustration, irritation, anxiety, anger, confusion, delays, and additional expense into your life. This brief has been prepared by the PROJECT EARTH staff to inform you of some basic information about accessing the Internet which is too often being misrepresented by so-called professionals who work for the computer and Internet distributors, sellers and services in North America.

Public expectation of accurate and relevant advice and feedback from these individuals and institutions can frequently be exaggerated relative to reality. In a few cases, the individuals and companies involved are only interested in the immediate sale, or, in dumping what you can afford onto you with the full knowledge that you will have to upgrade beyond your budget later - another sale. Most often, the dis-information provided is simply a result of ignorance.

The facts and suggestions which follow were learned from an effort to use Windows 95, Corel WordPerfect 7.0, Norton Anti-Virus for W95, Netscape 2.1 (and later Netscape 3.0), Eudora Light, and several smaller programs and utilities - to prepare PROJECT EARTH for publication on the Internet.

It took 5 months for major technical difficulties to be resolved which need never have happened. Before any steps were taken, the service department of the manufacturer-distributor of the equipment already in hand (which advertises itself as "Canada's Computer Company") was contacted and asked specifically if the hardware was capable of affording Internet access AND running Windows 95.

The service manager provided confident assurance that other purchasers of this same make and model had experienced no problems in doing such tasks, a statement we later found to be untrue. After this assurance, all of the software mentioned above was purchased and loaded on a 486-DX computer which was equipped with a 2X CD-player, 600 megabyte hard drive storage, 3-1/2" diskette reader (drive), an internal 28,800 fax-modem, a sound-blaster board and speakers, and, connected to an HP LaserJet printer. Constant disasters followed.

Just how BAD can hooking up to the Internet get?

There are many many access providers serving almost every metropolitan area of North America at this time (February, 1997). A major provider located in a major city running full page advertising copy with competitive pricing - was our first choice. After 2 weeks of inability to easily make a connection with our modem, service staff which were only available 8 hours a day and not on the weekends, service personnel who took 2 or 3 days to return our calls, service personnel who either could not understand our questions or gave us the wrong information, miss-information about their web page support and about how to upload one onto their system, upgrading our phone service to a dedicated line, and, having our computer crash (terminate without notice the programs being used) 6 to 8 times per day for the duration -- we said "Enough!"

The computer manufacturer's service personnel -- eventually everyone in the department -- ALL confidently informed us that our problems were due to bugs (errors) in the programs we were using. A constructive alternative presented itself when the prices of a national internet service provider available locally substantially lowering their monthly rates and provided 24-hour service. We dumped the "we can do anything - just don't ask" company to take our chances with "we will do our best for you."

Technicalis Magnum Advancis Ignoramus !

One member of our staff had used computers for over 30 years, including installing and repairing them. Use of the more recent hardware and software innovations had not presented a benefit for him until now, so he expected some confusion in adapting to the newer versions. (Suppose you did not have any or only had a little computer experience.) The hope was that those who were selling and servicing the hardware and software would have some expertise on the systems they represented. This proved to be grossly overestimated. The hardware specialists contacted maintained uniformly, until it was PROVEN wrong to them, that our computer crashes were NOT the result of hardware problems.

The representatives of EVERY software company involved suggested upgrading of file versions in programs other than theirs - each of which was accomplished with minimal benefit. This is the reality too often present in the technical field today: everyone sees the trees and no one sees the forest. That is, each of the service and support staff contacted (and most did respond) and given a description of the problem (we soon acquired 25 pages of error descriptions) offered one or more specific technical remedies. There was just one fundamental problem: they ALL assumed the obvious, which was not fact, never questioned by them, and was the simple basic problem!

Getting down to the BASICS.

We were encountering computer errors from 1 to 8 or more times each day (with the stress on 8) which forced the machine to shut down or leave a program while it was in the middle of completing something. This meant that the current work being done would be lost, there was no way to save the last of what had been done, files could be destroyed, and programs could be disturbed such that they would not run properly afterward. Error messages categorized these events on the computer display as being either "General Protection Faults", "Illegal Page Faults", "Fatal Exception Errors", "Registry Problems", and, simply, a loss of system functions.

The latter occurs when your display goes blank and none of your keyboard keys or mouse pointer buttons activate anything. These are all apparent software problems; that is, the software cannot complete one of its automated tasks because ....

On the advice of numerous technical "experts" the individual programs were cleared out of the storage, re-installed and re-configured - frequently, at a great cost of time and effort. Some programs would hardly be started before they would fail. Others seemed to run better if nothing else was loaded, such as an anti-virus program (which defeats the purpose of having it), or, Netscape, which defeats its purpose.

From the hardware specialist's point of view, if a forest of icons appeared on the Windows 95 startup display - the hardware was working fine. All the failures seemed to occur with erratic frequency. Every possible superstition and rationalization had its opportunity to be exercised - and ALL were wrong. The problem was more basic.

The QUESTION no one asked and which no one ANSWERED.

16-bit or 32-bit? is one of the most fundamental parameters to the operation of computers today. The earliest electronic computers were programmed with binary 2-bit off/on "machine language" switch settings. These were grouped together so that the selection of an elementary setting could trigger a cascade of other switches and functions.

Eventually, humans discovered that grouping these binary switches together and assigning them an alphanumeric code - more complex functions could be programmed with greater ease. Using bigger strings of bits in each instruction require larger transmission channels to relay all the signals together that were part of an instruction.

If I sent you an 8-bit message in 2-bit pieces, it would take just as long for you to get all of the message as if I simply sent you 2-bit messages. So, as the length of the instruction grew, so also physical capability of the machine to send and receive such instructions had to also. In other words, an 8-bit instruction requires a doorway which is 4 times wider than that required by a 2-bit instruction.

In the earlier decades of computer development, such changes as going from 8-bit instructions and languages to 16-bit ones were major events which seldom happened. Following this development, computer users either had 8-bit machines and software or 16-bit machines and software: there were no (or very few) in-between or "dual" systems.

Soon after 16-bit machines and software were introduced most computer users - including a rapidly growing new group of users buying new machines for the first time - had 16-bit machines. These included all the 80286 (286's), many of 80386 (386's), and all of the 80486 (486's) machines. Although the introduction of the Pentium (586's) has been more recent, the masses are confused by what the real differences are. With so much drama about speed, greed and pride seem to have hidden the practical basics.

During most of 1995 and 1996, many of the new software packages introduced to the market were written with 32-bit instructions. Now consider, if the doorway on your computer is only half that size - the more complex and powerful instructions used by these programs to make every operation easier and more "friendly" cannot get through that door. It would be like trying to read this document after all of the words which are longer than 5 letters have been removed -- not truncated, removed. The result would be nonsense.

Computers have been programmed to determine if these errors of transmission, omission, confusion or conflict occur. In addition, each program has its own checks to determine if the instructions it is receiving are in the correct language, syntax and spelling. Trying to run 32-bit programs on a 16-bit computer is like an English-only speaking person trying to understand Sanskrit: much confusion. During almost 5 months of constant turmoil, during which time the computer was into the service shop (remember this is a major company) at least 5 times for a total absence of longer than 5 weeks, and, during which the service personnel staff were pointedly asked about the 32-bit capability of the machine - either a flippant answer was given, or, usually no answer.

After all, what did we know -- we were only the customer!
When an opportunity was found such that all of the programs could be loaded on a Pentium system and used together, we, the customer, found everything worked fine. This fact shamed the manufacturer into eventually changing the motherboard in their 486 model computer (so that it could run as a 32-bit machine). Almost ALL (99 percent) of the original problems permanently disappeared and no serious new ones developed. The few new errors encountered were of an obvious nature and were easy to understand.

So. How does this affect my Internet capability?

To do almost anything in a fast and productive manner on the Internet, you need 32-bit programs. While Windows 95 was a disgrace for its bugs and difficulties when it was first released, any version produced after August, 1996 runs very well. Fundamentally, Microsoft with its hundreds of millions of research dollars, was shamed into improving their product by do-it-yourself individuals who found solutions to numerous bugs and awkward features and published their results on the Internet, for free.

After a year of being "flamed" on the Internet, Microsoft fixed the problems. It is interesting to note that during that time, practically NONE of the public mass media (radio, television, newspapers, magazines) were openly critical of Microsoft -- perhaps because they were collectively receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue from Microsoft. Now, if you are new to computers or if you have not used an earlier Windows product, you will likely not benefit from using a more complicated and/or less popular system.

Like it or not, the public have consistently bought the media hype and have made Microsoft the crowd favourite as a shell from which to run other programs. The faster Internet browsers, Internet E-mail readers, and backup software is now in 32-bit version, AND Windows-95 compatible. An increasing number of Internet sites are using Java language programming pieces in their HTML code. Enter one of these sites without a 32-bit machine and you can expect your browser to crash (close unexpectedly). Some sites use sound, and, increasingly, sound components are 32-bit versions.

Faster machines are typically 32-bit models and without either a fast machine and/or a 32-bit capability - loading the graphics often included in Internet pages can take a long time ($$ in connect time). In accessing Internet sites quickly and safely you will also need to simultaneously run your browser, an anti-virus program, a shell operating system, and helper programs called "plugins." This is much more difficult with a 16-bit system. If you are not serious about using the Internet to accomplish something, you will likely be simply wasting your time on the Internet - playing "amusement or crash."

A list of SUGGESTED MINIMUMS for Internet Hardware.

• Pentium 100 MHz or higher,
• Uninterruptable power backup & surge protection,
• Hard disk storage of 1 gigabyte minimum,
• 32 megabytes of RAM,
• External 28800 baud modem,
• CD-ROM player/drive, 4-speed or higher,
• Diskette drive, 3-1/2" high density,
• Trackball pointer, or at least a good mouse pointer,
• Color display, 12" minimum, 256 color VGA minimum,
• Video display driver board of 2 megs minimum,
• Internet Service Provider (ISP): must provide good service,
• Backup storage medium that is fast & dependable,
• Laser-printer or better,
• xxxxx* ALL of the above must be OS Operating System-compatible
  (i.e. Windows 95, 32-bit device drivers).

Do I REALLY have to have the above as minimums?

The simple answer is NO.

If you will be content and patient to spend more time waiting for your web-sourced pages to download to your display, and, be content with programs which run at a snail's pace (very slow) because they are almost out of memory space, and, will anticipate the excitement of having your computer programs crash erratically (and lose your data and possibly have to reload your programs) - then you can cut many of the above specifications by 1/3rd to 1/2.

If you have only a 16-bit color display capability, some of the graphics displayed will appear to be more black-and-white than color. Unless you have a fantastic photographic memory, you will find information which you will want to study off-line. You may initially save time by storing these pages (downloading) them onto diskette storage or into temporary folders on the hard drive. Eventually, for the really important information, you will want a printed copy of it.

Dot-matrix printer outputs of such displays are often difficult to read and incapable of picture reproduction.

CD-ROM reader-players slower than 4X frequently do not have 32-bit drivers (the files which allow the device to work effectively with your "shell" program). Everything is negotiable, according to your coping skills and motivation. Sometimes, it may be more efficient for two persons to purchase one high-performance no-problemo computer after deciding how they will regulate each person's access, rather than for two individuals to each begin with machines that continually test their stone age reflexes. You can get by, but expect difficulties. In the end, you will probably pay more for the upgrades.

RESOURCES:

If you choose to do any modifications to your system always remember this:

1. BACKUP FIRST;
2. MAKE 1 CHANGE AT a TIME;
3. TEST;
4. RETEST;
5. BACKUP.