Notes on Arachne
----------------

Arachne is a graphical WWW browser.  It requires DOS 3.3 or later, EGA or
better video, and a mouse.  At least some EMS is strongly recommended.  If
those requirements are met, Arachne will run on an XT-class system, though
it is pretty slow.  You do not need to be connected to set it up.

There is "experimental" support for CGA, but it doesn't really work.  EGA
doesn't work all that well either, but it's usable.  Arachne will run best
if you have an SVGA card capable of 256 colors at at least 640x480
resolution, and higher resolution is preferable (the program does not
support more than 256 colors - you get more icons onscreen with higher
resolution).  Arachne internally supports several SVGA cards, or you can use
a VESA driver with it.  It is best to use one of Arachne's internal SVGA
drivers if they work for you.

Arachne will work without EMS or XMS, but it's pretty hopeless without it. 
I'm assuming you have an XT-class system, so you don't have XMS, but be
aware that Arachne will flog the hard drive nearly to death without a disk
cache.  Hopefully, you have some EMS for that.  Of course, if you have
SMARTDRV or some other program (and it works on your system), you can use
it.  You want to enable write-behind caching.  I suppose you should leave
about 512k EMS free for Arachne to use.  Arachne will put its overlays in
EMS if available, and it will keep some data in EMS.  (If you only have a
small amount of EMS available, it is better to use it for a disk cache than
for Arachne's overlays.)  I use Adcache for EMS hard drive caching with
Arachne; you can find it on my site:

  ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/tvdog/internet/adcsh122.zip

The command I use to enable caching before running Arachne is:

  adcache -a512 -w

That uses all but 512k of the available EMS for a disk cache and enables
write-behind caching.  After exiting Arachne, to unload the cache driver,
use this:

  adcache -u

Note:  Adcache is incompatible with Bobcat, so if you want to run Bobcat as
well as Arachne you need to unload Adcache after running Arachne.  Indeed,
the best way to use Arachne on an XT-class system is probably as an external
browser for Bobcat.  In that case, you would load and unload Adcache from
inside the HTTP.BAT file in the BOBCAT/EXTERNAL directory (see my notes on
Bobcat).

Fraser Farrell <fraserf@dove.net.au> notes that defragmenting your hard
drive will speed up Arachne significantly, especially if you don't have EMS
or XMS RAM.

Note that the official minimum configuration for Arachne is a 386 or better
with a 512k SVGA card, running DOS 6 or above.  Arachne also wants to have
some extended RAM available, preferably 2 megabytes or more.  I'm assuming
that you have an XT-class system, so you don't have a 386 or extended RAM. 
If you have DOS 5.0 or later and your EMS card can furnish upper memory
blocks, you should by all means load as much stuff high as you can - Arachne
will need all the conventional RAM it can lay its hands on.

Arachne comes as a self-extracting archive.  Create a directory for it, then
change to that directory and run ARCN14B2.EXE, like this:

  C:\> mkdir arachne
  C:\> cd arachne
  C:\ARACHNE> ..\arcn14b2

You will need a few megabytes of space on your hard drive!  After the
extraction is finished, copy your registration key (if you have one) into
the Arachne directory.

I recommend that you set up your packet driver first rather than setting it
up from inside Arachne.  This will allow you to iron out packet driver
problems before you face problems with the application, and you have to set
up Arachne this way if you want to use it as an external browser with
Bobcat.

After you've verified that the packet driver is working (by testing it with
a simpler application), you can start to configure Arachne.  You don't need
to be online for this first part.  There are several ways to configure
Arachne, but this is the way I do it.

In the Arachne directory, there is a file LANTCP.CFG.  This is actually
WATTCP.CFG by another name, and if you already have a working WATTCP.CFG
file from another application, you can just copy that file over this one. 
Alternately, you could uncomment the "include=" line in LANTCP.CFG and set
it to point to the working WATTCP.CFG you already have.  Otherwise, load
LANTCP.CFG into your favorite text editor.

If you have static IP, add the following line at the beginning of the file:

   my_ip=127.0.0.1         # use your static IP address here

Disregard the warning at the top of the file.  Uncomment the netmask line
and put in:

   netmask=0.0.0.0         # do *not* use your real netmask!

Uncomment the gateway line and put in your gateway:

   gateway=127.0.0.2       # use your gateway IP address here

If you get different gateways, just put in the one you get most often. 
Uncomment the nameserver line and put in your nameserver:

   nameserver=127.0.0.3    # use your nameserver IP address here

Uncomment the domainslist line and set it to the empty string:

   domainslist=""

Set hostname to your fully-qualified hostname:

   hostname=mypc.foo.bar.net

Set sockdelay to 60:

   sockdelay=60

Set mss to 512:

   mss=512

At the bottom of the file, add a line to set a timeout for the name server:

   domainto=20

Save the file.

If you have dynamic IP, see my instructions in the README file in this
directory.  You need to create files IPADDR.CFG with your IP address, and if
your gateway is also dynamic, GATEWAY.CFG with its IP address.  The easiest
thing to do is just use a global WATTCP.CFG for all your WATTCP applications
and make LANTCP.CFG a single include line pointing to it.  Otherwise, edit
LANTCP.CFG as follows.  Add a line at the top of the file:

   include=e:\internet\ipaddr.cfg

Use a full pathname as shown.  Uncomment the netmask line and put in:

   netmask=0.0.0.0         # do *not* use your real netmask!

Uncomment the gateway line and put in your gateway:

   gateway=127.0.0.2       # use your gateway IP address here

If your gateway is dynamic, leave the gateway line commented out and do this
instead:

   include=e:\internet\gateway.cfg

Again, use a full pathname.  Uncomment the nameserver line and put in your
nameserver:

   nameserver=127.0.0.3    # use your nameserver IP address here

Uncomment the domainslist line and set it to the empty string:

   domainslist=""

Comment out the hostname line:

   #hostname=arachne

Set sockdelay to 60:

   sockdelay=60

Set mss to 512:

   mss=512

At the bottom of the file, add a line to set a timeout for the name server:

   domainto=20

Save the file.

Now type SETUP in the directory where you installed Arachne.  You will be
asked whether you want to optimize Arachne settings for a fast
(Pentium-class) machine.  Obviously you don't (say "N").  Next, you'll be
asked if you want Arachne optimized for an AT or XT.  Say "Y".  That will
change several settings on the configuration file to improve Arachne's
performance on slow machines.

Next it ask you whether to use XMS, EMS, or disk, then to select a video
driver.  Don't select something you don't have!  The "Arachne TCP/IP Setup"
screen will appear.

If you accidentally specified Pentium optimizations, or forgot to specify
AT/XT optimizations, you can correct it now by clicking on "ACF Profiles". 
When the "Profile manager" screen comes up, click on "Browse profiles", then
select pc_at.acf.  (Change profiles now if you need to - doing it later will
overwrite all your custom settings, and you will have to do them over.)
Arachne will restart.  When you see "Load error", click on "Setup Arachne"
to get back to the "Arachne TCP/IP Setup" screen.

From the TCP/IP setup screen, select "Resident packet driver".

The next screen is "Packet driver TCP/IP setup".  You have three choices (if
you can't see them all, use the <page down> key or the scrollbar to scroll
the screen):  "Manual TCP/IP setup", "Configure via BOOTP", or "Use only
WATTCP configuration".  Select "Use only WATTCP configuration", then click
on "OK, save".

The next screen that appears is "Arachne Options".  There are 4 buttons:
"Network settings", "Local settings", "Personal settings", and
"Preferences".  Go through them one by one, starting with "Network
settings".

The "Arachne Network Settings" screen appears.  Fill in your POP and SMTP
servers as given to you by your provider.  Email probably will not work if
you "Disable HELO protocol", so don't check that.  If you are in the U.S.,
your provider probably doesn't use proxy servers, so just check the boxes
marked, "Do not use HTTP proxy server" and "Do not use FTP proxy server". 
(If you are outside the U.S., especially in some third-world countries, your
ISP may provide proxies to compensate for a slow Internet connection.  Ask
them.)  Click on "OK, save".

Back on the "Arachne Options" page, click on "Local settings".

The "Arachne local settings" screen appears.  Fill in your time zone.  The
printer width should be fine as is.  Do *not* change anything else (some
people like to put the cache on a RAM disk, but you can try that later -
assuming you have enough EMS for one).  Scroll to the bottom if you need to
and click on "OK, save".

When "Arachne Options" comes back, click on "Personal settings".

The "Arachne personal settings" screen appears.  The "Mail transfer,
security, and privacy" settings should all be fine as is - you can uncheck
the bottom three boxes if you're a paranoid sort of person, but do *not*
check the first box.  If you do, you will keep getting the same emails over
and over again from your POP server.  Fill in "Your e-Mail adress" (sic) and
"Your personal name" (your real name, unless you don't want it to appear in
your outgoing mail).  You can make "Your organization" blank.  Fill in your
POP username and password as given to you (they are almost always the same
as your login ID and password).  If you are a registered user, you can
change your Signature.  Do not change the "Hotlist filename".

Change the "Home Page" to "file:home.htm" (minus the quotes, of course). 
That will give you the Arachne desktop when you start up, which is
particularly good if you have EGA, VGA, or low-res SVGA (in which case you
don't have as many icons on the top of the screen).  Unless your native
language is Czech, you probably want to change the "Search Page" to a search
engine you like.  http://www.dogpile.com/ is a good one.  When you're done,
click on "OK, save".

The "Arachne Options" screen comes back again.  Click on "Preferences".

The "Arachne preferences" screen appears.  This was the stuff that was
mainly set when you selected AT/XT optimizations.  Under "Look & feel &
performance", notice that "Auto download inline images" is unchecked.  You
might want to leave it that way, because apart from having a good-sized hard
drive cache that is the most important speedup for Arachne - but what it
means is that Arachne will only display the text on WWW pages, not the
pictures (you can display the pictures on a particular page by clicking on
the smiley-face icon on the top right - it may also be necessary to reload
the page afterwards).  On a slow 286, it can take up to 1/2 an hour to
render a graphics-heavy page.  Arachne makes a fairly decent text-only
browser, and unlike Bobcat or Doslynx, it can handle Web pages of arbitrary
size.

The "Fast JPEGs" setting really doesn't matter much.  JPEG's will never be
fast enough on a slow PC.

You don't need icons or tables, so leave those settings alone.  Whether
<esc> exits Arachne or not is a personal preference; <alt>-X can always be
used.  It is probably not a good idea to click the "serious icons" box; in
earlier versions of Arachne, that could mess things up so you'd have to
reinstall Arachne if you were using an old version of DOS.  Frames didn't
generally work right in previous versions, but they seem to be working
better now, so you probably want to enable them.  If your browser doesn't
support frames, some sites won't let you in.

Set the colors the way you like them.  On my grayscale VGA monitor, I have
text white, background black, link green on the desktop, and text black,
background white, and link green for HTML.  I left System colors alone.

Virtual screens were disabled when you selected AT/XT setup, and this
setting won't make any difference anyway on an old machine, since you don't
have the XMS required to do them.  One exception is an AT-class 286 with
substantial memory (6M or more) and a reasonably fast processor (16MHz or
so).  In that case, you might want to enable virtual screens (at the most
conservative settings) to make frames work better.  Note that Arachne
requires at least 4M XMS *free* to do virtual screens (EMS doesn't count),
so don't give *everything* to your disk cache if you want to use them.

"Image refresh period" should be left at the maximum setting.  The Scrollbar
size seems fine to me, but I like Windows-style scrollbars (with the arrows
at the top and bottom).  The Screen saver can stay disabled unless you have
a need for it, and the "Definition of the <F3> key" is handy as is.

You should change "Logo animation" from "disabled" to "slow".  The thing is,
it is a bad idea to try to interact with Arachne while it's busy downloading
and rendering a page.  Various problems can occur, from losing data in a
form to an outright lockup.  The logo animation enables you to determine
when Arachne is finished rendering, so if you disable it entirely, you're
flying blind.

You can come back and adjust the "Font scaling" (or anything else), if you
need to, after you've been online.  Click on "OK, save".

The "Arachne Options" screen comes back again.  README.TXT is just the same
sort of copyright notices and so forth that you saw when you decompressed
the archive.  You should check out the online help sometime, but you can
wait if you want (the ? icon shows it).  Particularly see the icon and
hotkey descriptions and the speedup recommendations.  Hit <alt>-X to exit
Arachne (the X icon doesn't seem to work).

There are some things in MIME.CFG that you need to change, so bring that up
in your favorite text editor.  There are two lines near the beginning that
say to comment them out if you have an XT or AT.  Do so; JPNG2BMP requires
at least a 386 and will crash your machine.  PNG's are rare anyway.  If you
don't have a SoundBlaster-compatible card, here is where you select a
different .wav player.

Now you can connect to the Internet and start Arachne.  As you can see, the
program is highly configurable, so feel free to tweak the settings when you
get familiar with it.

Note:  email is problem-prone with Arachne.  My problem, which you will have
too if you have DOS 3.3, is that you can't mark a message as read or delete
it.  This problem has been known for a while and is apparently still not
fixed.  If in spite of that you decide to use Arachne for email, you will
either want to upgrade your DOS version (at the cost of 30k valuable RAM) or
have to exit Arachne to manually delete messages in the MAIL directory. 
Since Arachne is by far the slowest mail client for DOS, you are best
advised to use something else for general emailing, and only use Arachne's
email capability (if it works at all for you) for mailto: links in HTML
documents.  It is possible to configure Pegasus Mail for external MIME
viewers, if you have a need to see an attached image without saving it first
(you could probably even configure Arachne as a MIME viewer for HTML).

From time to time you need to hit F8 to expire the disk cache.  Unlike other
browsers, Arachne does not automatically expire old documents in the cache,
so it will gradually fill up your hard drive if you don't flush the cache
occasionally.  A large cache also slows the program down significantly.

Michael Polak, the author of Arachne, is running OpenDOS 7 on his machine
and is a big booster of it.  Some of the commands in MIME.CFG (which Arachne
uses to run external helper programs) assume you have OpenDOS too.  If you
are conversant with DOS batch programming, check out that file and make sure
it's compatible with your version.

Arachne now supports plug-ins (its own, not Netscape's or IE's).  You can
find them at the main Arachne site.