My 'intranet' : Setting up Windows TCP/IP

Windows for Workgroups does not include TCP/IP. This is a bit of a shame, but when WFW was devised, the networking was planned to be care of NetBEUI which is a workable, though lesser supported protocol.

If you ONLY plan...

To connect one or more Windows for Workgroups machines to your network
To share from Windows to RISC OS, and not vice versa

then you can ignore this document. NetBEUI will suffice, use less memory, load less crap at startup, and generally do it's job.

However, if you'd like to network Windows95/98/ME machines as well, or if you'd like to make RISC OS resources available to the PCs, then you'll be wanting TCP/IP.

You can get it from ftp.microsoft.com, in the directory /nussys/clients/wfw/. You want the file wfwtcp.exe.
It is an archive. Stick it on the PC and run it to decompress it. I used the directory C:\MYNET\TCPIP\ to put all the files in.

In program manager, find the Network group and double-click on the Set up network option. In the window that appears, click the third option to set up adaptors and protocols.
In the window that appears, click the option Add protocol, choose Updated or unlisted protocol, and when Windows asks for the path, enter in where you unpacked your TCP/IP files; in my case C:\MYNET\TCPIP.

Keep OKing this until the installer gets going. You will see more messages about files being updated, and you will get the 'Restart Windows' dialogue. Park that, as before, we have some stuff to do first...

Now, I want you to restart the Set up network tool, and click the third icon again.

Choose Microsoft TCP/IP and click on Set as Default Protocol, and then click on Setup...

Set the machine's IP address as you have already defined (note this is the old screenshot with the 10.0.0.x IP address - it is now 192.168.0.3) then set the mask to 255.255.255.0.
You can pretty much ignore the things in Connectivity... and Advanced>>, but you may wish to enable the Windows sockets. Remember, it takes more memory if you do...
OK, OK, and OK again to close that lot. Windows may try installing stuff if you changed the Windows sockets option.

Load up trusty Notepad (!) and open the file \WINDOWS\HOSTS (no extension). Scroll down to the bottom, you will see:

127.0.0.1       localhost

You should add your machines here, exactly as you did for the RISC OS hosts file.
For my network, I'd add:

192.168.0.1        Alyson
192.168.0.2        Angela
192.168.0.3        MomsPC
192.168.0.4        RicksPC

Save the HOSTS file, and then load the LMHOSTS file, same path. This converts IP addresses to NetBIOS machine names. Pretty much you'll want to copy the stuff from the HOSTS file, except for the localhost entry.
Save it. Then find the 'Restart Windows' option, and Restart Windows.

Don't be scared by the sheer number of things loaded at boot time, nor by the incessant thrashing of the disc as Windows for Workgroups loads. Once it is all sorted, calm settles. But getting a Microsoft product to work with a 'standard' standard is a stressful matter for the poor thing. It was bad enough when NetBIOS's innards got an RFC (1001 and 1002, if you are interested!) but to understand this Unixified thing? Sheesh!
:-)

Next, we'll want to set up our shares...