How to use a DOS Web Browser

DOS is a very powerful operating system, so it has comprehensive functions. With the development of networks in recent years, network software has become very important. Therefore, DOS has also seen a lot of corresponding software in recent years, the most important of which is the Web browser. These DOS Web browsers can be divided into graphic browsers and text browsers. Among them, Arachne is the most powerful and famous among the former. The latter includes Lynx and Minuet. The following describes their usage.

The latest version of Arachne is 1.70, which can be downloaded from "DOS software. It provides many network functions. In addition to the FTP and HTTP functions, it also supports POP3/SMTP mail sending and receiving, and various plug-ins are installed. It can also be used as an Offline Browser, just like a graphical file manager, which can be used to run programs (including viewing pictures, listening to music, etc.) and file operations. It supports multiple Internet access methods, such as dial-up Internet access and nic Internet access (including CABLE and ADSL. However, to access the Internet, you do not only need to have these hardware. In addition to the hardware modem, you must install the driver to use other devices to access the Internet. Otherwise, you cannot use the driver. For more information, see "DOS offline networking" in "DOS usage ".

The following describes how to set and use Arachne. After downloading the installation program ARCHN170.EXE of less than 1 MB, you can run it directly in DOS. After entering the path you want to install, it will automatically decompress the package without manual operations. After decompression, it will prompt you to select the video card you are using. Generally, you can select VGA or VESA. Once it starts running, it will see the setting wizard, such as the Computer type, it will automatically select, just press NEXT (NEXT. Soon after, I arrived at the "file: // setup.htm" page, which had three options, and the "PPP Wizard" option on the left used a modem to dial up the Internet, in the middle, Packet Wizard uses the network card to implement CABLE, ADSL, and other Internet access, while Manual Setup on the right uses Manual settings. Generally, you can select the item on the left or in the middle based on your Internet access. Arachne is easy to set. You can follow the setting wizard and go back at any time. For example, after the modem is detected, it prompts you to enter the phone number, user name, and password you want to Dial. Then, on the dialing screen, select "Dial" to automatically Dial. After detecting the network card, you can select "BOOTP/DHCP" or set the TCP/IP protocol. If you think you have set the protocol, you can directly select the former, it will automatically initialize BOOTP/DHCP, generally as long as the hardware is connected, there will be no problem. Of course, you can also manually set the TCP/IP protocol and sometimes achieve better results.

Arachne has many functions. Of course, it is not only set by the network. You can also set the screen display effect and install the plug-in to complete more functions. Isn't there many icons on the top of the screen? For example, "Desktop" means Desktop, which has many functions, such as browsing your computer, using applications, and setting personal options. You can set the display color, effects, and homepage of Arachne in the options. There are many other options. There are many icons on the top of the screen, such as Viewing History and email. Arachne also provides full-screen help. You can press F1 at any time for detailed help. In addition to the F1 key, there are many other function keys, such as the F3 key entering the URL in the address bar and the F4 key editing document. The F5 key can be selected between multiple Display Interfaces, the F6 key is used to view the source code of the webpage. The F7 key is the search function. The F9 key is used to redraw the screen. The F10 key returns to the desktop. The ESC key interrupts the incoming or outgoing Arachne of the webpage, ctrl + left-click the header is back to the previous page, Ctrl + Right-click the header is forward to the next page, * the key switches to the full screen (like the F11 key in IE ), for other information, see "function key list" in F1 help ". In addition to the function keys, there are also many shortcut keys, such as Alt + D dial now, Alt + E Shell to DOS, press EXIT to return, Alt + Q enter the quick notepad, alt + X then exit Arachne, Alt + F1 to go to the home page, Ctrl + L find the next, Ctrl + P print screen, etc. If you use it frequently, you will find everything is very simple as you are proficient in operations.

Although Arachne is very powerful, it has a major weakness for Chinese people, that is, it does not support Chinese characters (that is, Chinese characters can only be displayed as garbled characters ). Although it supports many languages, it is mainly used in other European languages and does not support CJK. To view Chinese characters, it is obviously not suitable for a graphical browser (unless it has a Chinese version). It can only be used in a text browser, such as Lynx in a Chinese dossystem. In terms of the interface, Lynx is certainly far inferior to Arachne, but it is fast because it is in the text mode, and can view Chinese webpages or enter Chinese characters. The method of viewing or inputting a Chinese webpage is simple. You can start the Chinese character system (such as CCDOS97 and UCDOS) and then run Lynx. However, if this is the case, some Chinese characters are garbled during Chinese webpage reading. This is because the default Lynx character set is set to the western character set, you need to change its default settings to completely eliminate these garbled characters by using the method in LYNX. set "CHARACTER_SET: euc-cn" in the CFG file, and then start Lynx to display Chinese characters completely normally. For your convenience, I have provided the modified LYNX. CFG file here, you can download it here (replace the original LYNX. CFG file with it directly): http://firststep.ahwww.com/dosware/lynx.cfg

Although Lynx does not have a powerful Setup Wizard for Arachne, it is also relatively simple, for example, loading network devices (such as NICs and modem) packet Driver (For details, refer to the "DOS usage" section of this site) and then run Lynx, it will automatically initialize BOOTP/DHCP (you can also manually specify an IP address), and then you can access the Internet. There are many buttons, such as pressing the left and right arrows forward/backward, the up and down arrows switch the link, G key enter the URL, Q key exit, O key setting options, H key view help, etc. You can press Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Break to exit Lynx at any time to return DOS. In fact, it also has many functions, such as supporting HTTPS protocol and Frame structure (however, it does not display all frames at the same time, but displays the names of all frames, you can select a name to enter the content in the respective Frame. In addition, Lynx can also be used as an Offline Browser to view various Chinese and English HTML webpage files on the computer. The effect is very good. If you only want to use it as an Offline Browser, You can edit LYNX. the CFG file sets the start page of Lynx as a local address, and then loads any Packet Driver (including its NULLPKT, that is, an empty Packet driver, such as executing the NULLPKT 0x60 command) start Lynx again.

The above describes how to use two well-known web browsers in DOS. You can try it on your own to experience the Internet access capabilities and functions in DOS. In fact, there are some more powerful DOS browsers. For example, a Chinese company mentioned that they have developed a Chinese DOS browser that can be compared with Internet Explorer in Windows ". In addition, you can also participate in "DOS development" to develop a more powerful Chinese browser under DOS to expand DOS!