
  The Breaking CIS Story:


  A Quick Look at the New Compuserve    (c) 1995 by John M. Campbell


  Since the media discovered The Internet, and gave it superstar status,
  software developers have been busy engineering new access packages, and
  Internet providers have scrambled to connect the masses to the Information
  Superhighway.  Until recently, Internet access has not been easy.  Users
  have been frustrated by IP Addresses, Winsocks, usernames and cryptic
  connection scripts.

  But all of this is changing and none too soon!  Compuserve is the latest
  service to provide a package that is intended to be plug in and play, and
  provide access at a reasonable price.  CIS's WinCIM, the Compuserve
  Information Manager, has for some time, provided access to  Usenet
  newsgroups, Telnet and FTP via a graphical icon-based interface.  CIS has
  now made available PPP access by means of  their Net Launcher, which
  consists of Spry's Mosaic, a dialer,  and a graphics viewer.  The dialer
  provides the PPP winsock connection to compuserve.com.  However, it is
  necessary to have a recent version of either DOSCIM or WinCIM installed
  before the program will work.

  To install the new utilities, it is only necessary to Go: Netlauncher,
  then download a single 1.2 meg file, CNL.EXE.  Using Windows File Run
  command, the file installs everything and creates icons in the CIS Program
  Group for Mosaic, ImageViewer, and Dialer.  All of the required
  initialization settings are picked up from the existing CIS.INI file used
  to control WinCIM.

  Clicking on the Mosaic icon will then launch the browser and activate the
  dialer to connect to CIS, using one's regular access number.  However,
  now, a PPP connection is made and the browser immediately goes to work
  downloading the Compuserve home page.  That's all there is to it, or so it
  was intended.

  Unfortunately, many users have come to grief attempting to install the
  program, which looks for a TEMP working directory.  Lacking such a
  directory, install uses the DOS or Windows directory, where it may find
  another SETUP.EXE, and stops.  I  ound it amazing that so many people had no
  SET TEMP= statement in their AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  But then, a lot of CIS
  users are not especially computer-literate.  Still, this indicates a flawed
  install routine for the software.  Many others have reported that their
  passwords were not recognized the first time they loaded Mosaic.  It seems
  that reentering the password in the dialer's Sessions Settings Dialog Box is
  the cure, but, again, this represents a bug.  I had a different problem.
  When I ran Setup, a message appeared telling me I had insufficient disk
  space to continue the installation.  Switching to a stripped Autoexec/Config
  set cured the problem.

  Since Mosaic is such a well known Web browser, I won't dwell on its
  features.  This CIS-specific version has a preconfigured Hotlist of many
  useful sites.  Various sound and movie viewers can be specified to work
  with the browser.  But, it is difficult to save HTMLs for later review of
  their structure, and graphic images that appear on Web pages, and that may
  have taken several minutes to download, disappear as soon as one exits the
  program.  They are stored in the TEMP directory.  A more serious problem
  is the destruction of other winsock utilities during the install process.
  CIS is advising users to move these out of the Windows/System directory.

  These are problems that Compuserve needs to address, if the new services
  are to be successful.  The typical CIS user is not as knowledgeable as, say,
  Channel 1 regulars.  Some of these people become upset and flame CIS when
  they run into even minor installation difficulty, or at the slightest
  perceived or real slowdown in access speed.  And at the moment, CIS is
  struggling to keep their news and mail servers up and running at decent
  speed.  But, I predict that within a few weeks, things will settle down, and
  the Internet utilities will be working decently enough for a more fair
  evaluation.

  The nice thing about the dialer supplied by Compuserve is that it is, in
  effect, a Trumpet Winsock.  This opens all sorts of interesting
  possibilities.  For one thing, users can pick and choose from among a
  variety of Internet tools.  They are not limited to what Compuserve
  provides.  I wasted no time in downloading and installing the Free Agent
  news reader.  All I had to do was specify the CIS news and mail server
  addresses, and provide my own email address.  It worked flawlessly with the
  CIS dialer without any further configuring.  Then, I added the EWAN Telnet
  utility.  Again, no configuration, no setup hassles.  I tested it by loading
  our editor's home page in Mosaic, then clicking on the telnet to Channel 1
  button she so thoughtfully provided.  Bingo.  EWAN popped up, and within a
  few seconds, there was Channel 1's logon screen.

  CIS's Mosaic doesn't include FTP capability.  When I tried to choose an
  FTP site from the FedWorld Web page, nothing happened.  But I suppose a
  utility could be added that would permit FTP, Archie searches, etc.
  Perhaps Compuserve will make these available as time passes.  Some users
  have already substituted Netscape for the Spry Mosaic offering, claiming
  that Web browser is faster.  I plan to try it soon. The OS/2 users are
  having some success running the CIS browser using the IBM-supplied PPP
  connection included in the Warp BonusPak.  Win95 testers, using both beta
  and Preview versions, have had mixed success.  I just received my Win95
  preview yesterday, so I haven't tried it yet.

  All in all, Compuserve's Web software is reasonably well though out, and
  works pretty much as advertised.  They do need to clean up the installation
  problems, and provide more instructions for configuring other utilities to
  work with it.  Once that is done, and the strain on their servers decreases,
  Compuserve will have a strong presence among Internet providers.  They have
  already shocked some by their pricing.  Three hours per month of Web access
  is already being included in the basic membership fee of $9.95 per month.
  Beginning May 1, Telnet, FTP and Newsgroup access also will carry three
  hours free usage for CIS members.  PSI has reacted by decreasing their
  Pipeline access to the same price, but giving five hours usage.

  These prices may not seem cheap in comparison with Internet providers such
  as Channel 1 BBS, but Compuserve is throwing in about 150 basic services
  for that fee.  So CIS members are getting a bargain.



 In his understated style, John Campbell has provided us an almost cookbook
 approach to getting up and running using the new CIS Net Launcher. For those
 who have struggled with scripts, addresses, and the various *.ini files,
 this software, and others like it, will be very good news.  John bops around
 the Internet when he's not engaged in all things pinball.



                                    ww
